The Cricket's Daily 3: Gore Vidal's great and terrible movies

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Here's what's happening today in pop culture:

• Gore Vidal has died, and with that the world is a little less interesting. The author, playwright, historian and political commentator is well represented by the movies based on his work – with greatness (his rewriting of "Ben-Hur," the adaptation of his play "The Best Man," his performance in "Bob Roberts") and awfulness (the adaptation of his novel "Myra Breckinridge," his screenplay for what became Bob Guccione's infamous "Caligula"). [AP, via The Salt Lake Tribune]

• Some of the strangest, and funniest, Olympic commentary on Twitter is coming from Samuel L. Jackson. [The Hollywood Reporter]

• CBS's latest dating reality show, "3," didn't make it to three episodes. The network canceled it after just two episodes. [Vulture]