I strolled onto the stage at U.C. Berkeley’s Wheeler Auditorium after the screening of The Rum Diary, faced about 700 people and said, “Hello, I’m Johnny Depp.”

It was like being a Beatle. They knew full well who I am not, but unleashed a blend of screams and squeals, along with laughter. They could afford to be good-natured, because they knew that the real Johnny Depp was in the house.

The Rum Diary is his latest film, and it’s based on an early novel (circa 1960) by his late buddy Hunter S. Thompson. Depp, who portrayed Dr. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas had planned to produce

With strong reviews going into this Nov. 4, 2011 weekend, it looks like the sequel A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is going to have a good opening weekend at the box office. 

Directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson, the film reunites John Cho (Harold Yee), Kal Penn (Kumar Patel), and Neil Patrick Harris.  

From Warner Bros. the new comedy picks up six years after the duo's last adventure. After years of growing apart, Harold Lee and Kumar Patel have replaced each other with new friends and are preparing for their respective Yuletide celebrations.

But when a mysterious package mistakenly arrives at Kumar 's door on Christmas Eve, his attempt to redirect it to Harold's house ends with the "high grade" contents-and Harold's father-in-law's prize Christmas tree- going up in smoke.

With his in-laws out of the house for the day, Harold decides to cover his tracks, rather than come clean. Reluctantly embarking on another ill-advised journey with Kumar through New York City, their search for the perfect replacement tree almost blows Christmas Eve sky high. 

Updated March 28, 2012

Congratulations to documentary filmmaker Arthur Dong. Arthur has also been awarded in March, 2012 a grant from the California Council for the Humanities for his documentary project on the late Cambodian actor Haing Ngor. On December 1, 2011 The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) also awarded him a research and development grant for the same documentary project. Congratulations!

Arthur shared insights into his art of documentary filmmaking with AsianConnections, and details on his latest projects. 

 (L-R) Douglas Carter Beane, Lewis Flinn, Liz Mikel, Dan Knechtges, Leslie Blake, David Ives, Kenny Leon, Samuel L. Jackson, Randy Gener, David Henry Hwang, Leigh Silverman and Jennifer Lim attend the 2011 Drama Desk and Fordham University Theatre Program Panel Discussion: Anatomy of a Breakout at Fordham Law School on November 13, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Lia Chang)

The Drama Desk & Fordham University Theatre Program co-sponsored a lively panel discussion on November 13, 2011, in the Pope Auditorium at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus in New York. The discussion, titled “Anatomy of a Breakout,” addressed the remarkable trend of breakthrough productions and breakout performances on the New York stage in 2011, was moderated by theater critic Randy Gener and Leslie (Hoban) Blake, the Drama Desk’s Vice President.

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