Remember David Manning, the movie critic that Sony invented in order to put his rave-review quotes on advertisements? When Sony fessed up and promised not to make up critics and favorable quotes any more, did you breathe a sigh of relief and feel that the integrity of movie critic quotes in advertisements had been restored?

Probably not, I'm guessing, and if you so you'd be right to remain skeptical. Have you ever heard of Earl Dittman, whose favorable quotes can be seen here, here, here, and here? He's apparently a real person, who works for a magazine, allegedly based here in Houston, that as far as anyone can tell doesn't exist. (A monthly circulation of two million? Jiminy crickets, the freaking Chronicle only has a circulation of 500,000.) He's a quote whore who makes his living on the Hollywood press junket circuit, churning out favorable quotes for just about every movie out there. But hey, at least he exists.

There. Now we can all fulminate about something other than Sammy Sosa. Via The Yes/No Interlude.