Free Republic

He's the Bulldog of Bergen, the Pride of New Jersey, the Hope of the Irish: James J. Braddock, has-been, might-have-been, and struggling breadwinner. As Russell Crowe portrays this real-life figure from the Depression era in Cinderella Man, he lopes down the sidewalk with his eyebrows tented in mild surprise and his mouth hanging slightly ajar. This Cinderella still has dust behind his ears. Braddock is no ball of fire. He's not motivated by a passion for boxing, like Maggie in last fall's hit, Million Dollar Baby. He doesn't even have the horsy competitiveness of Seabiscuit, subject of Hollywood's last inspirational-underdog-of-the-Depression...

Fairy tales such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty give children the harmful impression that "it pays to be pretty", say American social scientists. The stories contain so many damaging stereotypes that they are as harmful as the lurid sexual images contained in many popular music videos, they claim. Parents should not "throw the books away" but discuss the plots and characters with their children and consider whether they are telling their daughters to seek beauty at the expense of their education and careers. The researchers congratulate the makers of the film Shrek, in which a beautiful maiden lives happily ever...