November
19 Snoop Dogg finds Dale Carnegie in "Scarface"

The subtitle sounds like pure hyperbole -- "The Ultimate Gangster Movie and How it Changed America" -- but Ken Tucker makes a good case for it in his book "Scarface Nation," S. James Snyder reports. In 1983, Brian DePalma's film earned just $44 million and critical disdain. However, no less an authority than Snoop Dogg tells Tucker that "you can also use it the way businessmen use self-help books... 'Scarface' laid out everything a gangsta needed to know... but having a kind of morality." So why did Hollywood initially dismiss it? Writes Tucker,

"("Scarface" star) Steven Bauer repeated to me the famous anecdote about one major director's reaction: 'Marty Scorsese turned to me — he was sitting in front of me at the premiere — and he turned around and said, Steven, this is a magnificent film, but be prepared because Hollywood is going to hate this film, because it's about them.' [Producer Martin Bregman] concurred about the dim view his colleagues took of the film: 'Scorsese was right. Hollywood did hate it, hated it. We were looked at as though we were dragging filth into their living rooms.' "

Also: more than two million have downloaded "Say hello to my little friend!" as a ringtone. [Time]