We're all abuzz about just one of the nine films, Death Defying Acts.

The film tells the story (fictional, we think) of Harry Houdini (not his real name) meeting up with a Scottish psychic played by Catherine Zeta-Jones. Guy Pearce stars as Houdini. But the point is Catherine Zeta-Jones is in the film.

The plot is simple enough: Catherine Zeta-Jones uses her Scottish-Psychic charms to seduce the young magician from the U.S.

As many readers of this web-based news source know, we produced an almost identical story in 1981 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Curious, eh? Need we point out that Edinburgh is in Scotland; the very place from which Catherine Zeta-Jones hails?

Our production was titled Daft Denying Axe and included the Houdini - Scottish Psychic story as one of three intertwined within the 90 minute historical homage to things.

The other two stories included in Daft Denying Axe: a torrid romance between a grocer and his "bag girl," and Lizzy Borden in rehab trying to seduce her counselor.

The Scotsman critic wrote of the Lizzy Borden tale:

Bereft of her axe, the exciteable, murderous lass uses her sharp wit and acerbic sarcasm to threaten, wound, and finally destroy the passionless psychiatrist.

The question to be answered -- if this Psychic could actually read the minds of the audience -- was "what would a fine young thing like her see in a short, squat, piece of cheese like Houdini?"

Our point was that the cheese was merely the image Houdini hoped to convey to those around him as he attempted to enter into the formerly off-limits milieau of the elite.

Like cheese, Houdini was a man from very humble origins. Like the curdled milk that becomes something so elegant that it has a French name, fromage, Houdini used his skills and drive to become accepted by rich and fancy people. He was more than spoiled milk. He was that which is sought out by mouse and man alike.

We closed at the end of the festival and never again exhibited.

One night, we were watching an infomercial chronicling the history of the truly American food, Beef Jerky. We watched with intense focus. Our eyes could not leave the television screen as we learned that Jerky can be made from turkey, duck, chicken, pork, and even tofu.

In fact, our van almost left the road to our most certain death off the side of the mountain pass because we were so enthralled by the show.

(We were fortunate to swerve back into the oncoming lane and thus avoid plummeting to our demise. We were even more blessed to have not killed anyone in school bus we broad-sided.

Fortunately, the bus passengers were all members of a particularly bad junior high school hockey team. They were so bad, their coach took them off the ice with a minute to go in the last period and insisted they get right on the bus without changing out of their gear.)

Once our van was back on four wheels and we left the scene of the accident, we returned our focus to the television taped to our dashboard.

The announcer said the phone number to order would be given just once more. We reached to the back of the van to grab paper and a pen.

As it turned out, the paper upon which we wrote the phone number was the first page of our Daft Denying Axe script.

We called to order the Jerky Junction at the next truck stop, and inadvertently left the script in the phone booth.

In a way we are fortunate that some aspiring Australian script writer happened upon our treasure. Our attorney said if the highway patrol found the script and our handwriting that night, our alibi would have been ruined.

As we say on eBay, one man's junk is another man's.

We can't wait to see if the Houdini film will be a success. We are delighted that Catherine Zeta-Jones is playing the character we called "Bonnie Lass." We never heard of the actor playing Houdini but that's okay. He looks better than a hunk of cheese. We'll see if he can convey the same message without the costume.

- Provided by InsideMagic