Inside Jacket

Actor Sam Elliott who starred in The Golden Compass, the movie adaptation of Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights, says that the filming of books 2 and 3 of the His Dark Materials trilogy won’t happen. He  says that a campaign by conservative Catholics has halted all plans to complete the films.

Bill Donohoe, leader of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights says he’s “delighted” by the success of the boycott which is based on the belief that the books and the movies they inspire, introduce children to atheism.

Pullman’s response? “It’s disgusting, but only the sort of behaviour I expect of these people. It’s rubbish [that the Golden Compass introduces children to atheism],” he said.

Donohue credits hurting “box office receipts” in the United States for the effectiveness of his campaign.  I don’t know…the film raked in more than $371 million USD worldwide — that seems a lot to me.  But who am I to say? I’m just a humble office worker who would say taking in almost $400 million was successful.

An ivory and gold toothpick once owned by Charles Dickens has sold at auction for $9,150 (that’s £5,600) – no, really, his toothpick! It is engraved with the writer’s initials and has a retracting mechanism. One lucky collector will really be able to wow his or her visitors. “Hey, you will never guess what I’ve got over here,” they’ll say.

Wouldn’t you be tempted to use the toothpick just once? After all it’s been in a very famous mouth.

Photographer Larry Sultan died on Sunday at the age of 63. He’s famous for Evidence, a watershed modern art photography book of pictures of industrial and government archives co-authored with Mike Mandel. Yesterday, we sold a $2,500 first edition of Evidence. The book’s cover doesn’t really say much about the stark images found inside.

In a huge act of generosity, author Stephen King and his wife, Tabitha are donating $12,999 to help bring soldiers home for the holidays.

150 soldiers of the 172nd Infantry Unit will be bussed from Camp Atterbury in Indiana to Maine for Christmas. The soldiers who left Maine last week for training are being deployed to Afghanistan in January.

King thought the number 13 to be unlucky so donated a sum $1 short of an even 13,000. His personal assistant, Julie Eugley contributed a dollar from her own pocket to make the even $13,000.