Well, this is certainly a pickle

Ok. As you may've heard, there's a new Sherlock Holmes movie coming, directed by the ex-Mr. Madonna, and starring Robert Downey in the title role. From the ads that I've seen, the "twist" for this seemingly 201st variant on the original stories is that this will be Holmes as action/adventure hero!

Pass, I thought.

But now, now I find that I may well have to hope that the film makes a lot of money...if only because it might cause humiliation for judgemenal right-wing scold; "famly values" hack Michael Medved and his ilk.

See, another "twist" apparently, is that in this version,

the crimebuster will sleep with and have sweaty grappling scenes with Watson, played by Jude Law, in "Sherlock Holmes," due out Christmas Day.

And Medved is shocked and appalled.

"There's not a seething, bubbling hunger to see straight stars impersonating homosexuals," Medved told us. "I think they're just trying to generate controversy . . . They know that making Holmes and Watson homosexual will take away two-thirds of their box office.

Personally, I like seeing how quickly Medved came up with the words "seething, bubbling hunger" in connection with homosexuality. I'd also like to thank him for helping "them" generate said controversy.

But most of all, I'd really like to know from whence he gets his "gay=the loss two-thirds of their box office" figure. That's pretty specific, isn't it? And call me a cockeyed optimist, but from where I'm sitting, scorn for homosexuals is becoming less acceptable, not more.

Put another way: Mike, I'm sure the '60s traumatized you. But the '50s are never, ever coming back. And most of us think that's a good thing.