We were warned about Miranda July’s The Future – that it’s darker than her debut feature, Me and You and Everyone We Know, and that we’d leave the theater questioning our own life and choices. All this is true, but it didn’t prepare us for just how devastated we would be by the film’s central couple, Sophie and Jason. We don’t want to spoil the ending for you, so we’ll only say that what becomes of the relationship isn’t simple but absolutely destroyed us. Ten more on-screen romances that left us shaken (and sometimes teary-eyed) are after the jump.

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Pitchfork reported recently that Drew Barrymore is apparently going to direct the next Best Coast video. When you think about it, the collaboration actually makes perfect sense. Barrymore has spent time on the other side of the camera in the past — she directed 2009 roller derby feature Whip It, along with a TV documentary back in 2004.  And she’s also by all accounts well into her indie music (you can read Jens Lekman’s hilarious account of meeting with her about the Whip It soundtrack about a third of the way down this page). Anyway, the news got us thinking about other videos that have been made by people known for other things apart from making music videos. Here’s a selection of the most notable.

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1. Thanks to state and federal officials, there’s a new safety plan in effect on the set of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark that sounds an awful lot like common sense: “… one offstage crew member will attach the harness and related cables, wires or tethers to the actors, and a second stagehand will verify that the attachments are made. That second stagehand will then verbally notify a stage manager that they are safely connected. The actor will also verify that the attachment is made. Previously, there was no second stagehand to verify or communicate with the stage manager, and the actor was not required to check his harness.” [via NYT]

2. Late-night comedy scandal: Did Conan O’Brien swipe Jimmy Kimmel’s parody of Sarah Palin shooting and killing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Both shows aired very similar looking mashups two weeks apart. [via THR]

3. In her first network TV interview since Heath Ledger’s January 2008 death, Michelle Williams talked to Nightline about her grieving process. “It was a year of very magical thinking, and … in some ways I’m sad to be moving further and further away from it.” [via Radar Online]

4. Their plans are better than ours are: Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin, Jay-Z, and Beyoncé will all be in Las Vegas for New Year’s Eve at the “record-breaking” $25 million party thrown at the new Cosmopolitan Hotel. [via Jezebel]

5. Watch Ed Helms and John C. Reilly in the newly-dropped trailer for Cedar Rapids, a comedy which Vulture very aptly describes as “The Hangover, with nerds, in Iowa.”

Bonus link: BuzzFeed’s Top 50 Most Viral Posts of 2010

Widely known for his black-and-white portraits of celebrities, which have graced the pages of Interview, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair, Greg Gorman has worked on both sides of the camera for more than 40 years. He was the photographer for Michael Jackson’s “Bad” video, directed by Martin Scorsese; an actor in Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie; and a cameo player in John Waters’ film about an amateur photographer-turned-art-world-sensation, Pecker.

Now Gorman is being touted for his new photography book, In Their Youth, which captures male actors and models in their early days. Featuring intimate images of Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ashton Kutcher, Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, and Mark Wahlberg, amongst others, Gorman’s stylish selection spans an era — from the late ‘70s to the late-‘00s — and flaunts some of Hollywood’s leading men, long before they acquired a single wrinkle or ounce of fat.

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While English supermodel Lily Cole could have already retired on modeling designs by the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, and Chanel, the 21-year-old redhead recently kicked off her acting career, playing the youthful, reluctantly bohemian Valentina in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. (Note: The film is currently in limited release and opens nationwide beginning January 8.) To flesh out her character, Cole drew on experiences she shares with her fictional counterpart; her own lavish, jet-set lifestyle is offset by yet another, much more tame, pursuit: school.

Flavorpill tracked down the model/actress/academic at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills and asked her about working with Terry Gilliam, losing Heath Ledger, and her everyday role as a Cambridge scholar.

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Today at Flavorpill, we loved this list of of the 14 most awesome fake products from The Simpsons. We hallucinated. We checked out some beautiful portraits on gravestones. We traced the history of TV’s cougar moment — which includes a shout out to Flo “Kiss My Grits” Castleberry . We took a peek at 12 of the world’s coolest packaging designs. We looked at Chris Brown’s cover art for Graffiti, complete with electric guitar. We watched Heath Ledger’s DirecTV commercial. We booked a room with a view in the Spanish Space Hotel. And finally, we enjoyed some new Leonard Cohen. Listen after the jump, and let us know what you think.

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Heath Ledger shot this video for Australian rap duo N’Fa’s “Cause An Effect” on a single camera in his Sydney garage shortly before his death. Ledger also worked on videos for Ben Harper and Modest Mouse.  [via Reuters]

You’ve probably already read about Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus because it is the film Heath Ledger was working on when he died in January in 2008. A present day, fantastical morality tale Imaginarium that has nothing to do with Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, it tells the story of Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), a traveling showman who thousands of years of ago made a deal with the devil (Tom Waits) to win eternal life. Then he falls in love, and makes another deal, swapping immortality for youth. The condition? When his daughter reaches the age of 16, she becomes the property of the devil. Jude Law, Collin Farrell, and Johnny Depp all play versions of Tony, Ledger’s character, and the man who we think hopes to save her. Verne Troyer, who is also in the cast, has a rather prominent role in trailer. Read More »

1. Modest Mouse’s Heath Ledger-directed video for “King Rat” premieres on MySpace today. [via Pitchfork]
2. Are Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson romantically involved in Guy Ritchie’s upcoming adaptation, or are Jude Law and Robert Downey, Jr. having a laugh? [via NYP]
3. Hugh Jackman will play P.T. Barnum in a contemporary musical written by Sex and the City scribe Jenny Bicks; British artist Mika may write the music/lyrics. [via Variety]
4. Stephanie Meyer is be being accused of ripping off parts of Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in her Twilight series. [via TMZ]
5. The creators of 2001′s The Laramie Project are finishing work on a follow-up that explores the effects of Matthew Shepard’s death on Laramie residents. [via NYT]

Today at Flavorpill, we lost ourselves in The Daily Beast’s wonderful ode to Dash Snow — including never-before-seen images. We read about animal masturbation. We wondered if a lawsuit will derail The Hobbit. We did not want a slice of this pizza. We decided that we need to read the Heath Ledger cover story in Vanity Fair. We checked out what our friends at Cool Hunting are reading this summer. We looked at cool photos of the moon. We learned about the history of sex and advertising and tore down some walls. And finally, we freaked out over the impending tomato crisis. No, seriously.