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"A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors." So said John F. Kennedy. Has there been, in recent times, an American public figure more universally honored and admired than Tiger Woods?

I think like Michael Jordan before him, he is revered because he's seemingly perfect. And Americans want to be perfect. "If I have the perfect job, the perfect spouse, fame and acclaim, six-pack abs or an incredible bust – then I'll be happy." So along come Tiger and Michael as examples that yes, by God, perfection is possible. If we can't have it for ourselves, then at least we can have it vicariously through them. We so badly want it to be true.

Well, if the tabloid rumors are to be believed, Tiger has been knocked off that God-like pedestal we put him on. There are whispers of infidelity, and of course the celebrated car accident.

There will be those who are let down and disappointed, but I suspect more than a few will say, "Oh what a relief. He's human like the rest of us. He's having marital troubles like a lot of us. His foibles make him more interesting, more relatable."

Others will wonder why he might have cheated on his hot Scandinavian wife and the mother of his children. Is the male libido that relentless and unquenchable? Does being a famous man amp up that "perpetuate the species" sex drive woven into our male DNA to the nth degree? Perhaps the answer is yes.
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The last time pop star Mariah Carey had a key role on the big screen was in the notoriously awful “Glitter” in 2001. But her performance in the upcoming drama, “Precious” has drawn a much different reaction from the critics: praise. Director Lee Daniels removed every bit of “glitter” from her physical appearance for the film and transformed her into a dowdy, unglamorous, non-make-up-wearing welfare caseworker - the very antithesis of a diva.

Why would she agree to all this? I put that very question to her at the film’s red carpet premiere Sunday night at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles.

“I just loved the book 'Push' that 'Precious' is based on and read it a few years back,” she says, “And I was just like, if this gets made into a movie - and I know Lee Daniels can do it right - if I can just be a part of it, they can put bags under my eyes and as many mustaches on me as they want, and hideous hairdos, and it is what it is, but it comes from inside and they stripped all the layers and [helped me] become the character.”

One of my colleagues in the press asks, "Was this performance a career milestone?"

“I had one film [Glitter] that had me under the stone! (laughs) I didn't realize that you really have to be selective with the people that you work with and you have to have that support system and you have to work with people who you think are geniuses and Lee Daniels is a genius in my book.”

“Precious” opens in limited release this Friday, November 6th.

"I think that most people who know me know that I'm pretty reasonable, chill... and a not so angry a guy." That sounds funny coming from a guy who calls his blog angryasianman.com. "I adopted the name Angry Asian Man for the website because it's very provocative, and it's very in your face," he says.

And although he writes with anger when Hollywood stereotypes Asian-Americans, he also writes with joy about the up-and-coming entertainers from that community who could breakthrough to big time success someday. We asked him to pick five who may do just that.

If they do, remember, you heard it here first!

1. Far East Movement "I can't stop listening to the single, "Girls On The Dance Floor" by FarEast Movement, otherwise known as FM. It's just the greatest, coolest dance track and everytime it's on, I just turn it up. So, FarEast Movement are definitely guys to watch in hip hop."

2. David Choi "A guy I really like is a guy named David Choi on YouTube who is just creating really fun, creative, quirky songs. It's funny because he started off as a songwriter and he hasn't really done much live performing and now that his music is sort of taking off and he's gotten fans through YouTube, he's become much more of like a legit musician, playing, and actual shows and stuff like that."

3. Brenda Song "For the Disney generation, there's certainly Brenda Song, who started on the show "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody." I think in a place like Disney, which has such a huge impact on popular culture, especially among the younger generation that's just coming up, someone like Brenda Song, who is just being a really cute, funny, and engaging actress in TV shows and movies is going to really show that Asian Americans have a a place in mainstream media and kids are going to be able to see "Oh, look, there's a really appealing, normal Asian-American person on TV."

4. Aaron Yoo "I really like an actor named Aaron Yoo. He was in 'Friday the 13th,' 'Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist' and a bunch of other stuff. He's just like a regular dude, who's in these, smaller roles up 'til now, but I think audiences really like him. He was in the movie 'Disturbia', which opened a couple years ago at number one at the box office. But I remember the week after that movie came out, I got all these hits on my website from people searching for Aaron Yoo, and people wanting to know who this guy was and what he was all about and searching for photos of him. I think he's definitely a guy to watch in Hollywood."

5. Wong Fu Productions [The trio of 20-something film-makers creates short movies that have developed a sizable cult following on YouTube.] "The really cool thing about their story is they are just friends who started making videos for fun, and then it caught on. I think a lot of people see themselves reflected in the Wong Fu guys. You know, it's like, 'Hey! these guys are just having fun and doing their thing" and so, I think it really relates to that young, energetic, hip sensibility where they're having fun and they're showing everybody what they're doing."

Liam Neeson, fresh from his gritty, tough guy performance in "Taken," is tackling a very different kind of role in the upcoming big-screen version of "The A-Team." Neeson's usual screen persona is as serious as a triple coronary bypass, and I'm not quite sure I see him as the light, devil-may-care leader of the group, "Hannibal Smith," the role made famous by the late George Peppard.

But Bradley Cooper, who plays "Face" in the film, vouches for his new on-screen boss.

"We're filming it right now, and he's fantastic. I think that people are going to love his Hannibal. He certainly raises everybody's game when you do a scene with him. He's an incredible actor."

But what exactly is the tone of this thing? Serious? Funny?

"It's everything, you know, it's like, at its best, if we succeed in this movie, it'll toe the line of being both, which I think is the goal."

So Neeson's hitting the comedy notes?

"He's hitting notes I've never even heard of. Yeah, he's that good."

I love it when a plan comes together...

The release of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" is less than a month away, but getting plot details from its director, Chris Weitz, took a little prodding when I caught up with him Monday night at the Hollywood Film Festival Awards Gala.

Sooo... what can you tell us about "New Moon?"

"Uhh... it's about a girl who likes this vampire," he quips.

Oh, c'mon...

"Every time I give away a secret I get in terrible trouble. So I can't really tell you anything. I'm only allowed to say boring things about it. It will not disappoint - something like that."

So it will be similar in tone to the first film?

"No. I think it will be a lot darker and also in some ways more epic because we traveled to Italy, there's a lot more action, and there are werewolves - we didn't have those in the first one. So there's a lot of grandeur to it.  There's also the satisfaction of watching a young woman's heart get broken into a million pieces."

That's always fun.

"Yeah, I enjoyed that very much," he says with a grin.

If Jeffrey Jacob Abrams isn't the hardest working man in showbiz, he certainly comes close. With numerous TV shows and films on his plate, it's a miracle he can think straight, much less squeeze in some quality face time with the press. I caught up with him recently at a "Star Trek" DVD press event, and he talked about how the sequel was slowly coming together.

"We're just now starting talking about the second film. I will say that what we're discussing is all over the place because we don't want to rule anything out. The fun of taking something that is known and playing with it is undoubtedly appealing. The truth is, still, most people don't know the history of 'Star Trek', don't know the series. I didn't. I wasn't really a fan when I began working on the movie and I did my homework and I think the best version of a sequel will be a movie that won't require any knowledge whatsoever of what's come before. So it needs to work completely on its own terms.  It also needs to have nods for those fans so when they see it they go 'Oh my God, how cool is that, that they referenced that, or that that's there or he's there or she's there.'"

So we might see some other characters pop up from the series that we didn't before?

"A happy byproduct of our story is that they are now in sort of a parallel existence that allows for these people to cross paths with any of the stories and characters, places, that the first series introduced. It doesn't mean that we will necessarily be doing that again, but it feels like one of the benefits that would be silly not to  take advantage of to some degree. I don't want to say the sequel will be a reboot of an existing episode or series of episodes, but I think it is one of the tools in the tool box and it's something to really consider."

In addition to the slowly incubating "Star Trek" sequel, Abrams also has a new TV show to add to his frantic workload. NBC just bought the pilot for his new spy show.

"It was interesting because we didn't know if it was going to work when we were writing it, because this couple is in love and usually I have written characters that, you know, 'when will they,' 'how will they get together.' Or couples that it's like, you know, they're ripped apart by something.  To write a couple that's simply in love where they adore each other, they fight, they have issues but it never rocks the foundation of who they are, we've never done that before.  So it was hugely, weirdly, refreshing to write something where the main characters had a really good relationship. Like, it's so funny that, at least in my experience hasn't happened very often. So it was nice to able to write that. We're very excited about the show."

So how does he find the time to work on all these projects?

"It's certainly not just me out there. It's these people, these filmmakers, storytellers, executives who I work with. All of us together are sort of this weird little geeky army trying to entertain people."

Last night I caught up with Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx, the two big leading men of the upcoming thriller, "Law Abiding Citizen" at the red carpet premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. I've been following both of their careers fairly closely and I don't think I've ever seen either in roles quite like the ones they have in this film.

Butler plays a vulnerable everyman whose life changes dramatically after his wife and child are brutally murdered. Foxx is the slick prosecutor who lets one of the suspects off on a light sentence in exchange for testifying against his partner in crime. I won't ruin it for you, but Butler's character is none too pleased about this...

I found out that there's a reason their characters are a little out of the norm for them: they pulled the old switcheroo. "We swapped roles," Butler reveals, "I was always [going to be] playing the other role and I said to Jamie, 'Do you want to play the prosecutor and I'll play the other one and he went, 'Yeah.' So the second we agreed on that, I actually went sh**, I don't know how to do this. I don't think I can pull this off. So there was that element that we were both out there a little lost."

Foxx was happy to make the switch and thinks it worked out especially well for Butler: "It gives him an opportunity to be vulnerable and also kick butt... I felt it was so right and we knew we made the right decision. When the trailer comes on, it looks like it's a romantic comedy because he's been doing those a lot, but then when that home invasion comes on, people sit up in their seats and they really get excited about it."

"Law Abiding Citizen" opens in theaters October 16th.

Trivia question of the day: What do ex-presidential candidate Ron Paul, Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner, Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren, a grown-up "Ralphie" from "A Christmas Story" and "Karate Kid" Ralph Macchio all have in common?

Answer: They all attended the "Couples Retreat" premiere in L.A. Monday night. Talk about your eclectic bunch of celebs. Sometimes it happens. A strange constellation of stars forms at a Hollywood event and you shake your head and say, WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

Sometimes it's cool, other times it's just sad. Like the time I covered a red carpet gala that saw both a tipsy Erin Moran from "Happy Days" and Elvis' hairdresser (don't ask me what he was doing there, but he had his own publicist) working the press line. And those were the "A-listers" of the evening! We still have a good laugh about that one here in the office.

At any rate, the "Couples Retreat" cast were a good-natured bunch, and in star Vince Vaughn's case, relentlessly on message. I think before he hit the red carpet his publicist must have told him, "Okay, Vince make sure you hit hard on the fact that audiences will really relate to this film." But don't take my word for it. Count how many times below he uses the word "relatable."

"It was fun to take a bunch of relatable people who would never get a chance to go to a place like Bora Bora and have relatable issues, that go on in all relationships. And audiences have responded really well to the film which is always nice because they can see themselves within the dynamic of what's going on. So I just thought it would be fun to take relatable things in a relationship and have a really funny way of investigating those things...  I think 'Swingers' is very relatable. It's about a friend helping another friend through a bad break up, and he's trying to meet girls and he's really not used to doing that sort of thing and I think in this movie what's relatable is catching a group of people at different stages of their marriages and I think it's very real and in a funny way how they deal with those issues. So I think what people are connecting to are issues that are very relatable."

Dude, I can totally relate.

As Dave would say, "My oh my!" Who saw this coming? Forget the extortion business for just one moment, and the person behind it.  I think what's truly surprising to those of us who've been watching Letterman since his "Late Night" days at NBC is the following thought: "Dave had affairs with his female employees? Dave?" For years, he's awkwardly flirted with the many "fetching" leading ladies he's had on the show. Julia Roberts comes to mind.  And who can forget when Drew Barrymore stood on his desk and flashed her breasts at him?? A shy-around-the-gals fella from the Midwest - at least, that's what I thought.  And after his marriage and the birth of young Harry, I thought he was really out of "the game."

Has this changed your opinion of Dave? Do you think less of him - or more - due to his liaisons? Did he score any points with you for coming clean about all this? Or do you care more about the quality of his show than his extracurricular activities?

I get the feeling that Bruce Willis has hit a mental wall. After so many years in the business, the man has simply run out of patience when it comes to promoting his movies. And I totally get it. Being asked the same questions over and over again must make you a little loopy. But to paraphrase the famous line in “The Godfather II,” “This is the life you have chosen.”

Before heading out to cover the Hollywood premiere of his latest effort, the sci-fi flick, “Surrogates,” I had heard that a few producers and reporters had left in tears after talking to him at the press junket for the film. He was apparently super cranky and squeezing a stress ball repeatedly through the interviews.

Here's an interview Willis did with CNN's JD Cargill:

So I was expecting Russell Crowe-ian levels of testiness. When the moment came though, it was clear his approach this time was: keep grinning, keep walking briskly through the line of reporters, and throw out a few odd thoughts. Here’s our exchange, in its entirety.

Willis: (walking away from the Associated Press reporter on the line before us) “Is this the real AP?” (referring to his microphone insignia) “This looks like it just got glued on someone else’s. Doesn't it? Can we get a shot of this?? You peel it off it says WJ-whatever. ‘I'm from KLOS.’ Last question? (walks away before poor guy can answer) (to CNN)  “That's the brightest light I've seen. Like staring into the sun. Let's go over here, it wasn't that bright over here.”

CNN: “When I think of great sci-fi films with big ideas I think of  Blade Runner and  12 Monkeys.”

Willis: “Yeah, me too.”

CNN: “What’s the big thought provoking idea swirling around this one?”

Willis: “Well, that we should blow the whole world up and start over again, really. And don't you think that's a good idea right now? And while we're talking about it, (to AP guy again) you might want to hold up the mic for this one, while we're talking about it…

CNN: (thinking to myself, “Why do I get the feeling he’s about to go off on a political rant like some feisty, opinionated uncle at Thanksgiving dinner?”)

Willis: “…can someone, any politician, working in Washington today tell any of us American citizens, the taxpayers, over 200 million people, what happened to the 780 billion dollars, because we don't think we're going to get any of it. We now return you to 'Surrogates' already in progress.”

CNN: “This film was based on a graphic novel, what was it about this story that made you want to be involved?”

Willis: “Sex, sex, sex, ‘course they don't have any of that in this film, it’s rated PG-13.”

CNN: “ I know like most of us, you’re a big movie buff, a movie lover. We’re doing a piece on the 70th Anniversary of the Wizard of Oz. Do you have a favorite scene?

Willis: “Yes, many of them”

CNN: “Any one in particular?”

Willis: “I like it when they find the Tin Man, give him a little bit of oil. That's how I feel right now.” (walks away)

Then Willis posed for pics with the producers of the film and after a short while returns to the line to talk to Fox News and Canal Plus from France.

Reporter: What was it about the script that made you want to be involved with this film?

Willis: “This was a very weird script, very strange. It actually holds the premise that we should all get together and blow the place up and start over. And it’s never been a more popular idea. Just clear out all the politicians and bankers and start over. Right now I think it's like the fall of Rome. Like three years from now after all the bees are dead, you've heard that story, there's a movie coming out about it. You know what it's called? (pregnant pause) ‘The Bees.’ (walks off to laughter of reporters)