Ed Ruscha’s

I think I’ll ... has moved into the Obama family’s living quarters at the White House, courtesy of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The longer you look at the painting, the more words emerge from a streaky red sunset. Like many of Ruscha’s trademark works, it is an amusing take on human behaviour that leaves lots of room for interpretation. It might seem a surprising choice for the Obamas, but it’s one of 20 modern and contemporary works selected for their temporary home.

Akiva Goldsman’s

screenwriting credits include blockbusters such as The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, I Am Legend, A Beautiful Mind and I, Robot. Now, he is undertaking a new career path behind the camera. He recently directed the season premiere of the Fox series Fringe and is now lining up his feature-film directorial debut. Goldsman may end up directing a screen version of his favourite novel, Winter’s Tale, Mark Helprin’s 1983 fantasy about an alternate-history New York, a thief and a flying white horse.

Paul & Chris Weitz

didn’t plan it this way. The directors are both releasing new films within weeks of each other and each of the new movies—Paul’s Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, and Chris’ The Twilight Saga: New Moon—is an adaptation of a popular young-adult vampire novel. Both use fantastic casts of characters to deal with serious real-world themes—the nature of friendship, the inevitability of heartbreak, the unintended consequences of thoughtless actions.

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