Photos: Mark Mainz/AP (left); Jim Watson/Getty Images.

Who would YOU tap to play Barack Obama? The "real" roles of various Obama administration officials have barely been filled, and already we're determining who'd play their fictional counterparts. Check out our gallery of some of the Casting Society of America's choices for who'd play the new 1600 Penn resident -- plus eight other administration officials -- in a potential Obama movie. Also included are our own pooled Newsweek critics' picks. Generous, cruel or totally dead-on? Decide -- or make your own picks -- in the comments!

At least five female friends have sent me today either this story from yesterday's New York Times, this direct blog link, or this spitting Gawker post about Dating A Banker Anonymous, a support group of distressed girlfriends-of-bankers who are finding their social calendars more Netflix-and-takeout-based than, say, tasting-menu-inclusive.  Here's how the recession affected one member:

“[A]ll of a sudden, [my boyfriend] couldn’t focus. If he stayed over he’d be up at some random hour checking his BlackBerry, Bloomberg and CNBC.”

Quotes like this are so vapid that they actually make the women sound supremely satirical and arch -- so why is everyone taking them seriously?  Perhaps because Fashionista just reported that the creators have landed a book deal.  Exactly what we need: more aspirational, Manhattan-based chick lit, cover-art-ed with lipstick, leopard print and a Veuve bottle.  Eeesh.

Read the below-reproduced statement from the AMPAS, announcing that the full four producers of "The Reader" -- rather than the customary three -- will be listed as the nominees in the Best Picture category.  Two of those producers -- Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack -- died during the post-production.  This is the second time in a week that "The Reader" is associated with upending Academy precedent; when Kate Winslet nabbed a surprise Best Actress nomination for her role in the film, beating out herself in "Revolutionary Road," it marked the first time that a Golden Globe winner's performance in the Drama category wasn't even nominated for the Oscar.  And here's the Academy:

Because four producers were listed on the credits form submitted for Oscar® consideration and Academy rules allow for only three producers – except in “a rare and extraordinary circumstance” – to be nominated and potentially receive Oscar statuettes, a meeting of the executive committee was necessary. In the end, the committee determined that the circumstances of “The Reader” – in which the two original producers (Minghella and Pollack) both died partway through the process – met its definition of “rare and extraordinary” and that all four submitted individuals should be named as nominees.

For a bit about each departed director-turned-producer, read (1.) Frank Gehry's essay from our Periscope section, about Gehry's old friend Sydney and the Renoir-like quality of "The Interpreter;" or (2.) David Ansen's remembrance of Minghella's "rare sensitivity," conveyed in films like "The English Patient," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain."  Pollack was 73; Minghella was 54.