This new sanctimoniousness, said officials, was a precaution to ward off a hue-and-cry from Jordan's Islamists, already restive over King Abdullah's hands-off approach to the looming war on Iraq.

ECONOMIST: A paper that dipped into Muhammad's sex-life is banned

Given how hard it is to get movies off the ground, why are so many adapted from works that cry out to be made into movies in the first place?

NEWYORKER: Nine