I don’t usually care for stuff that makes the gossip headlines, but I do enjoy reading about celebrity hook ups — but not enough to write about it here. But this latest celebrity wedding had me giggling so much, I just had to share the news.

You guys know the ShowTime series Dexter, right? Yeah, sure you do, it’s awesome. Well, the actor who plays the title role, Michael C. Hall , secretly eloped in California on New Year’s Eve with his co-star Jennifer Carpenter — who plays his sister, Debra, on the show.

What makes this news even cooler is that the couple was able to keep their year and a half long relationship under wraps while portraying the Morgan siblings on the SHO series for three seasons. Ok, maybe not totally under wraps, as the tabloids did try to out them back in September, saying that they’d moved in together and that their TV bosses were pissed. But the news really didn’t spread or even make a splash, so you gotta admit, for a Hollywood couple on a hit show, pulling off this relationship AND a secret wedding — that’s pretty crafty.

Look out for the newlyweds this Sunday when they walk the red carpet together at the Golden Globe Awards, which will be their first public outing as a couple.

Quarantine
Directed by John Erick Dowdle
Starring Jennifer Carpenter, Stave Harris, Jay Hernandez
Rated R
Release date: October 10, 2008

The first-person tale only really became famous this year, but I remember back in 1999 when it was first introduced. The Blair Witch Project introduced the whole first-person camera shoot, and the film changed my life forever. For the first time in my life, I found something that displayed the meaning of life — the answer was film.

And throughout the years (actually, throughout THIS year), we have seen our share of first-person films. The year was kicked off with Cloverfield, which I still think is one of the best films of the year, and I got TWO ticket stubs to prove that. On the other hand, there was George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead, which very well may just be one of the most disappointing films of the year. I get more disappointed the more I think about it.

I’m usually the one who is baffled whenever a film is remade, specifically horror films that are based off of foreign horror flicks, but this time I became very interested when I heard that the new horror film Quarantine was a remake of a Spanish film released sometime last year called [Rec]. I only heard of the film a few times in the past, but I didn’t really know too much about its story to know that it was remade into one of the most anticipated horror films of the year, and I doubt that most audiences will go into Quarantine knowing that it is a remake.

Dexter
Season 2
Starring Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release Date: August 19, 2008

Dexter is a show that works beyond all the expected ways it could be anticipated to work. The first season involved Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall, a serial killer who works forensics on the Miami Police Department. His targets are criminals and people who use the normal parameters of the law to their own ends instead of justice. In an unfair world, Dexter acts as an equalizer.

But, more than that, it’s about a man, admittedly dead to the world, fumbling and futzing his way towards humanity and a soul. For someone like Dexter, who freely admits that he has no emotions, he sure does develop a lot of attachments. To his girlfriend Rita (Julie Benz) and her two kids; To his sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter), who’s also a cop and has no luck with romance. Through his interactions with others he finds out, much to both his joy and dismay, that he was human all along. Kind of like The Wizard of Oz in Dante’s ring of murderers.

And this was all in the first season. Here we are with the second season, now on DVD, and I think it’s better than the first. Instead of trying to capture lightning in a bottle yet again, it’s a continuation of the central themes and a continuing evolution of Dexter as a character.

Yeah, so he has a soul. NOW what?