Mortensen Goes Naked, Arty: A brief history of method acting is described in this piece by Gina Piccalo: “For Eastern Promises, Mortensen set out alone for Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Ural Mountain region of Siberia, spending weeks driving around without a translator. … Mortensen studied the gangs of the vory v zakone (thieves in law). He read books on Russian prison culture and the importance of prison tattoos as criminal resumes. He perfected his character’s Siberian accent and learned lines in Russian, Ukrainian and English. During filming, he used worry beads made in prison from melted-down plastic cigarette lighters and decorated his trailer with copies of Russian icons.” Remind us about this in 10 years, when he’s filming Wild Hogs 2

Monsters (Scam), Inc.: Online job sites fail to do enough to prevent Web predators from scamming job-seekers, says Joseph Menn.

How A Bill Reviews A Law: Former city editor Bill Boyarsky reviews John W. Dean’s new book, Broken Government. Spoiler alert: He likes it.