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Just wanted to give a shout out to the winner of our second Omnivoracious giveaway: Renee Hall of Cottage Grove, Oregon. A box of our editor's picks for April is headed down I-5 to lovely southwest Oregon as I write.

Thanks everyone for entering and subscribing. We'll be doing more of these throughout the year (expect the next one in early July when we announce our annual Best of the Year So Far list...). --Tom

We're back again with another sweepstakes to encourage readers to sign up for our daily e-mail digest. All you have to do to enter is fill out the form here to receive our posts straight to your inbox (if you are already a subscriber, our appreciation is its own reward. Just kidding, you can still enter.).

One winner will receive this set of six DVDs... and these aren't just any DVDs. They are:

Battlestar Galactica: Season 3

Dexter: The Second Season

There Will Be Blood (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

Spaced: The Complete Series

Lars and the Real Girl

Into the Wild (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

So enter today and win. Good luck! --Ellen

There's a feature here at Amazon called Movers and Shakers, which highlights the products that have suddenly jumped in sales rank compared to the previous day. One of today's DVD jumpers is Once (current rank: #43; yesterday: #389), due no doubt to Kris Allen's performance of "Falling Slowly" on last night's episode of American Idol.  If you haven't seen the film--a intimate and touching story about a pair of musicians in Ireland, played by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová--you can watch how they performed "Falling Slowly" below.  --David

I hope this doesn't sour the weekend of those of you counting on Dame Fortune to send you a big box of springtime reading, but we have selected the winner of our first Omnivoracious sweepstakes. Congratulations to Helena Manley of San Jose, CA, to whom a (heavy!) box of our top 10 editors' picks for 2008 is on its way.

And thanks to all the people who signed up for our email digests in March (and via that, for the sweepstakes as well). We had a great time doing our first contest and hope to do more like it here soon. Hope you enjoy the emails in the meantime (and Helena, hope you enjoy the books). --Tom

What it is: Doubt is a mesmerizing, suspense-filled drama with riveting performances that will have you pinned to the edge of your seat. Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Streep), the rigid and fear-inspiring principal of the Saint Nicholas Church School, suffers an extreme dislike for the progressive and popular parish priest Father Flynn (Hoffman). Looking for wrongdoing in every corner, Sister Aloysius believes she's uncovered the ultimate sin when she hears Father Flynn has taken a special interest in a troubled boy. But without proof, the only thing certain is doubt.

Why it's significant: Boasting an A-list cast of Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams, Doubt, had five Academy Award nominations and Meryl Streep won the SAG Best Actress award for her role. Doubt is based on the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play, that may take some back to their Catholic school days. The film holds you on the edge of  your seat, not knowing if Sister Aloysius' accusations are baseless and just plain vicious, or if Father Flynn is trying to get away with inappropriate behavior.  --Meredith

YA Wednesday fans: just a shout out that our own Heidi Broadhead has also debuted as the BookNerd at Publicola, a new news-and-culture site here in Seattle that's started up to fill the gap left by newsroom cutbacks. (Full disclosure: it's run by a very good friend of mine whose own booknerdism runs heavily toward the Federalist Papers (hence the site's name) and the late '60s NBA.) She'll be posting every Sunday on whatever bookish thing she pleases, beginning with this account of what it was like to go back and read The Second Sex way after it was cool:

--Tom

Just a reminder that our very first sweepstakes, which offers the prize of a complete set of our Editors' Top 10 books of 2008 to one fortunate reader who subscribes to the Omnivoracious email digest, closes for entries next Monday, March 23, 2009. You can find the entry form and all the rules here, and read more about the contest (and those favorite books) in my introductory post last month. We've had a great response so far (and we've been doing our best to make those daily emails a worthy consolation prize, even if you don't end up winning that lovely stack of books). Thanks. --Tom

A few months ago, Robert Arambel and I got the chance to sit down with Charlie Kaufman while he was in town promoting Synecdoche, New York, a complex and beautifully epic story that kind of makes you question everything you've ever concluded about your life and your place in the world.  It's a hoot.  If you've seen any of Kaufman's other films (as writer), including Being John Malkovich or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, you know that he rarely takes the most direct route to reach his conclusion and Synecdoche, New York, in all it's surrealistic jumbled glory, is no exception. 

Robert and I attended an advance screening the night before our interview.  Kaufman came in after the film and did Q & A with the audience.  This experience, it must be said, left us both a little nervous, as he came off as both incredibly brilliant and just a little grumpy. The next morning however, the director was still incredibly brilliant, but also very gracious and thoughtful and we left marveling at his strength of vision and astonishing comittment to show the world just a little piece of it.  Check out our interview below.  ---Kira

We told you this day was coming, and now it has arrived: Amazon Video On Demand is now available on Roku (also known as "the Netflix box"). This means that you can instantly stream new-release movies, TV shows and more on virtually any TV, with no subscription required. Tonight, for example, I'm planning to watch Australia, which just came out today. After seeing Hugh Jackman rock the Oscar show, I'm ready to check out his turn as a hunky Outback cowboy who has Nicole Kidman's uptight Englishwoman thinking unladylike thoughts. But I digress. Don't have a Roku? You can get one here. And don't miss the Amazon Video On Demand on Roku movie sale, featuring Journey to the Center of the Earth and Speed Racer for just 99 cents (all that action will look great on your big TV, I promise!) and Deception (starring dear Hugh), Meet Dave and Young at Heart for $1.99. -- Stephanie Reid-Simons, Amazon Video On Demand

The showbiz legend in search of a comeback. The young guy who eventually believes in the magic. The journey towards redemption, or at least another spotlight. I loved this kind of story in the 1982 movie, My Favorite Year, and I'm loving it again in a new film called The Great Buck Howard, starring Colin Hanks and John Malkovich (you can probably guess who's playing the legend and who's the young guy). Oh, and some promising actor named Tom Hanks plays the father of Colin's character -- not much of a stretch, as he's dad in real life. Anyway, Buck Howard is about a different kind of old school than My Favorite Year -- the Johnny/Dinah era of glitzy variety TV rather than pre-TV movies. Malkovich is a hoot, and Hanks is charming.

The movie -- a Sundance darling last year -- hits theaters later this month, but you can watch it now, exclusively, at Amazon Video On Demand. Enjoy! -- Stephanie Reid-Simons, Amazon Video On Demand