Mike Fleming

We at Deadline toil all day to inform, entertain and occasionally turn a good phrase, but the stabs at creativity don’t stop with us. Our commenters can be a hard bunch, but some of them come up with some good lines that amuse us to no end. On the tail of today’s story about a new Ben-Hur at MGM, the commenter JJ didn’t seem as enthusiastic as the studio, and offered what he considered a better idea: “I’d rather see Adam Sandler in ‘Ben-Him/Ben-Hur.’

That’s the best one I’ve seen since I broke a story that Open Road would release the Ashton Kutcher-starrer jOBS, about Apple visionary Steve Jobs. Seconds later, thetruth opined: “An idiot playing a genius. Perfect.” That was pretty good, but the comment that made me laugh hardest since I’ve been at Deadline was one that came not only at my expense, but the legendary lady who brought me over here. I wrote a catty piece about a lawsuit between the director of The Human Centipede and the film’s original star. It was a development I said I hoped would doom their proposed re-team on a third installment of that vile horror franchise. One commenter took exception, ending his critique of me with the line: “What I wouldn’t give to see Mike and Nikki sewn ass to mouth.” A little harsh, but it made us both laugh.