As you might have read, Halle Berry is set to sink her Oscar-winning chops into the role of Tierney Cahill, the real-life teacher from Reno who decided to run for political office in 2000 only if her pupils would campaign for her. Class Act sounds as dull as a box of eggs, except for the fact that Berry, a black woman, will be portraying Cahill, a white woman. Was Julia Roberts unavailable? What about Angelina Jolie?

Meanwhile, great minds drink alike, so in the heart of darkest Bollywood, Angelina Jolie is wrapping her Oscar-winning kisser around the part of Mariane Pearl, the widow of journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnaped and beheaded in Pakistan in 2002. Despite Pearl’s great praise over the selection of Jolie to star in A Mighty Heart, controversy has arisen over the fact that Pearl is not now nor has she ever been white. Was Beyoncé otherwise engaged? What about Halle Berry?