N.Y. Times guy Alan Riding asks, apparently with a straight face, if The DaVinci Code will become a hit movie. Expectations from the book and all that. The hard grim fact is that I’m going to have to finally read the damn book on the plane over to France…no, I won’t. Pink Monkey.com has all the details, all the coverage.

The U.K. Daily Mirror‘s John Hiscock, a Los Angeles-based HFPA correspondent, is claiming to have seen The DaVinci Code and has run what is apparently the first-anywhere review. (Is there another reaction somewhere that went up earlier?) In fact, Hiscock saw 35 minutes’ worth last Monday along with his fellow HFPA buffet-gobblers, and yet he has the chutzpah to file a “review” for his paper, claiming he’s the first guy to see Opie’s Dae. The Cannes website says The DaVinci Code runs two hours and 32 minutes. This means Hiscock has missed almost two hours of the film, and yet he’s saying, “I’ve seen it…here’s a review.” What he saw was basically a glorified trailer or EPK. No wonder Sony and other studios are so eager now to lob stuff over the heads of North American critics. The HFPA-ers are only too willing to trade scruples for access.