2. Nicholas Cage’s rare copy of “Action Comics” No. 1 — which was stolen from his house in 2000, and later recovered — has been sold at auction for a record-setting $2.1 million. Knowing Cage, he’s sure to spend the money wisely, perhaps on a second pyramid tomb or another castle. [via MTV]

3. Here is your first look at Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, snapped while the actor was having some lunch while on location in Richmond, Virginia. Looks like Steven Spielberg made a good choice. There’s a rather striking resemblance, wouldn’t you say?

4. A Colombian court has ruled against Miguel Reyes Palencia, a man who claimed that Gabriel García Márquez used his life story as the inspiration for the main character in Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and as a result, wanted 50% of the royalties and a co-author credit. [via Guardian]

5. Film critic Roger Ebert says that the recently-revived version of his show At the Movies will be going on an indefinite hiatus in the new year due to financial issues. Funding the project through Kickstarter is one option being considered, but in the meantime Ebert asks, “Please have faith in us as we sort through the possibilities.” [via ArtsBeat]

Bonus Buzz: Modern-Day Garbage Pail Kids

Ebert then goes on to explain why he now sits in the back row when taking in a movie at the Lake Street Screening Room. It all started when Gene Siskel decided to move from the center aisle to the back row in order to avoid “being spied on” by publicists; Ebert became acutely aware of his critical cohort sitting behind him, watching his reactions. “So I moved to the back row to outwit the son of a bitch,” he writes. “I picked the end of the row nearest the door, so I could sneak out to the men’s room without calling undue attention to myself. Most people have bladders the size of oil drums, but I usually have to pee at least once during a movie. A few of my colleagues share this need, and I am sympathetic while watching them bend over and make a Groucho Marx run in front of the screen in the futile hope that no one will notice them.”

The public television program — a nationally syndicated success, according to the writer (with the numbers to prove it) — is being funded in large part by Ebert and his wife Chaz, who used a $25,000 grant from the Kanbar Charitable Trust to get the show on the air. If someone doesn’t step up to the plate with a bag of dough, At The Movies has no hope of returning to the small screen after December — a sad fate for a culturally important program that provides honest and insightful film criticism. As Ebert explains, “Movie coverage on TV is otherwise so intensely driven by marketing that some programs actually cover the marketing itself.” Yuck. Do you think it’s time for the film critic to turn to Kickstarter for some help? Should At The Movies quit the TV circuit and move to the web?

Because his responses were literally written, the conversation was more quotable than most. After the jump, we’ve assembled our ten favorite Ebert-isms of the night.

1. On the limits of the form: “Movies can be about anything. So can our reviews.”

2. On his longevity: “I had no idea you could be a movie critic for this long. But I guess you can. My love for movies has only grown over the years.”

3. On his impressive number of Twitter followers: “Not up there with Justin Bieber.”

4. When Scott brought up 3-D and said that, for some films, it was “a disaster,” Ebert had a more concise descriptor: “An abomination.” And more: “Obviously (it’s) the waste of a perfectly good dimension… once you’ve seen one 3-D movie, you’ve seen them all.”

5. On his competition with Gene Siskel: “We would settle arguments by flipping a coin, and then we would argue over who won the toss.”

6. On being a televised film critic: “It has to be first person. It has to be subjective. You have to talk about how a movie makes you feel. Abstract ideas don’t travel well on television.”

7. On social media: “I no longer have the social life I used to… the social networks are no substitute for real life. But they’re helpful to me.” On why he pays such close attention to the comments on his blog: “I didn’t want any trolls on my blog telling me I sucked.”

8. On making lists: “I’ve given up making lists. Editors are always asking you to do ‘The best Halloween movies,’ ‘the best Thanksgiving movies,’ The moment you publish such a list, everyone’s unhappy because you left off this film or that film. You can’t win!”

9. On the future: “I think we’re in a new Golden Age of film criticism, because of the Internet… There are undoubtedly great online film critics in this room.”

10. On the here and now: “I’m not angry that I got cancer. I’m happy that I’m able to function in my work. I’m happy that I’m here today.” And after the thunderous applause that followed that statement tapered off, A.O. Scott agreed: “We are too.”

That blog was, in many ways, the beginning of this book. Of writing the memoir, Ebert explains, “I thought it was about time. The experience of serious illness recast my years up until then in a new light for me. My thoughts turned to the past, and as I started to write a blog I found myself falling into an autobiographical mode. I was never shy about speaking, and now, forced to be mute, I found the things I had to say were forcing themselves to the surface in my writing. I didn’t ‘need’ to write my memoirs, but I found that—I was.”

The “serious illness” he mentions — a bout with cancer that left him physically weakened and without a lower jaw — was detailed at length in a moving and rather extraordinary 2010 profile by Chris Jones for Esquire magazine. It quickly became an Internet must-read; that piece (and a follow-up appearance on his friend Oprah Winfrey’s show) led to an outpouring of emotion and support from his readers. Jones detailed Ebert’s many surgeries, the relationship between the critic and his wife Chaz, and the day-to-day logistics of an existence wherein Ebert can no longer eat, drink, or speak. Our interview was conducted via email, and though he frets in Life Itself that email “isn’t conversation,” it certainly feels like it when coming from someone who conducts all of his communication in writing. As the Esquire profile explains, Ebert has thrown himself into his reviews, his online journal, his Twitter feed, even hand-written Post-It notes, and uses those as the “voice” he no longer has. “There is no need to pity me,” he wrote on one Post-It to Jones. “Look how happy I am. This has led to an explosion of writing.”

His memoir is written in rough chronology, but is structured more according to themes than a literal year-by-year timeline: childhood, education, writing, the newspaper business, friendships, movie stars, filmmakers. He writes, with nostalgia and affection, of being a newspaperman at the end of “the Front Page era,” and of his transition into film critic—a career he had not initially intended for himself. He did not enter the field as a film student or frustrated filmmaker, as many of his critical brethren tend to be; I asked if this particular background was why he remains, in his own words, “beneath everything else a fan.”

2. Jon Stewart explained to his Daily Show viewers last night that producers at Fox edited his interview with Chris Wallace to make him come across as emotional and erratic. “I suggest you look at the unedited version online where my emotional states don’t seem to change so arbitrarily,” he says. “The arguments are a little clearer and a little less like a scene from woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown.” [via The Daily Beast]

3. Jackass’s Bam Margera has responded to Roger Ebert’s controversial tweets about his co-star Ryan Dunn’s death in a car accident yesterday, writing, “I just lost my best friend, I have been crying hysterical for a full day and piece of sh*t roger ebert has the gall to put in his 2 cents … About a jackass drunk driving and his is one, f*ck you! Millions of people are crying right now, shut your fat f*cking mouth!” [via Vulture]

4. We’re not sure how we feel about this: The final season of Weeds will jump three years into the future, with Nancy Botwin entering into the witness protection program in New York City. Watch a behind-the-scenes preview clip here.

5. NPR is streaming the Buddy Holly tribute album, which features contributions from Paul McCartney, Lou Reed, The Black Keys, Julian Casablancas, Cee Lo Green, and Florence and the Machine, among others. [via Pop Candy]

Bonus link: Check out some “top quality giant robot porn.”

2. Variety is reporting that Academy Award-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) is close to locking down the leading role of Katniss in the upcoming film adaptation of The Hunger Games. Discuss. [via ComingSoon]

3. A Million Little Pieces author James Frey is teaming up with art-gallery owner Larry Gagosian to release his new book, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible, a kind of racy story about the second coming of Christ which takes place in the Bronx projects. [via Vulture]

4. Someone is leaving hipster traps — baited with Pabst Blue Ribbon, American Spirits, a bike chain and neon-pink Wayfarers — in locations around New York City. [via The Daily What]

5. The Strokes premiered five of the 10 songs from their upcoming album Angles (which is due out on March 22nd) live in Las Vegas on Saturday night; the band’s next stop is SXSW. [via NME]

Bonus link: Watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Recut As an Indie Coming-of-Age Movie