Entertainment rules, and a beef scare, valid or not, could be even more riveting than the mauling of Jeff Bezos by the bears.
Perhaps it's natural that serious artists who believe in this on-off switch between art and entertainment might attempt to cleanse their work of references to the general culture, where entertainment rules.
Now that entertainment rules and news has to make money, are we surprised that a prime time, middle-of-the-week, over-the-air presidential debate would be conducted on an 8th grade level?
Entertainment rules sport, money and television rule entertainment.
Periodic exceptions — last year's "Enchanted," say, or even "Juno" — have a way of proving that, especially in the world of franchised, big-budget, big-screen entertainment, boys rule.
If entertainment values rule, a new stock offering floated by two kids in a garage has to be transformed into the David that will surely vanquish a corporate Goliath.
Some bizarre examples of light entertainment once ruled the festive schedules.
But light entertainment, which ruled the roost on Christmas Day TV in 1952 (25%) and 1972 (55%), has fallen to just 9% this year.
Critics tend to call work that lives by these rules entertainment and work that thwarts or rebels, art.
The schlock entertainment impresario Roger Corman ruled the women-in-prison genre in the early '70s, and now "The Women in Cages Collection" conveniently gathers three of these films in one place — the third is Mr. Hill's "Big Doll House," from 1971 — so you can program your own mini-festival without even leaving your cell.
