“Nobody needs to put these crummy times into perspective by starring into the CGI-enhanced face of Brad Pitt [in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button]. I’ve got six friends that have either been laid off or are fearing the year-end axe. They don’t need to cry — they do that on the commute home.

“Pitt has zero serious worries in [his] world. He’s earning $20 million a flick, he gets to bang Angelina whenever the nannies watch the kids, he doesn’t have to worry about making the rent on his French mansion, and he won’t have to break it to the twins that this is going to be a small Christmas.

“Nobody needs a good cry at this moment. We need to feel like we’re not doomed. That someday we won’t have to wonder if playing $10 for a movie ticket is a necessary expense.” — HR reader Joe Corey, posted today.