TROPHY TIME In a year of such trippy movies as ''Memento,'' ''Mulholland Drive,'' ''Vanilla Sky,'' and ''Waking Life,'' it's a scandal that none of them made the list of best picture nominees for High Times magazine's third annual film awards. Instead, the publication went for more conventional, explicitly drug-themed movies: ''The Anniversary Party,'' ''Blow,'' ''Brooklyn Babylon,'' ''How High,'' ''Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,'' and ''The Wash.'' The magazine did add some new categories this year: best foreign film, best original song, and best psychedelic scene, joining such preexisting categories as best stoner movie, best pot scene, and best actor, actress, documentary, and soundtrack. (What, no best concession stand munchies?). The magazine will name the winners at a ceremony at B.B. King's Blues Club and Grill in New York on March 3. Winners will probably show up a week or two later to collect their trophies.
SOUND BITE From the If You Can't Beat 'Em department: Sheryl Crow says she laments the use of sex to market music, telling Stuff magazine, ''I'm not going to put out a high-production, X-rated commercial video just to sell records.'' She feels for ''those poor girls'' Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, who she says are ''being marketed like porn stars.... The images are pretty sleazy.... Where do you go after you've been 19 and you've stuck your crotch on a camera lens in front of 20,000 people?'' Don't know, but the interview is accompanied by a photo of Crow (who turns 40 on Monday) in a pink bra and hot pants. Hey, Sheryl, if it makes you happy....
REEL DEALS Look for Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts to star in ''Le Divorce,'' a comedy-drama from the usually buttoned-down Merchant Ivory team (''Howards End''). Based on Diane Johnson's bestseller, it's a story set in contemporary Paris about the complicated romantic lives of two American sisters. Shooting is expected to begin in France in September, but Watts fans are probably already hungry for the making-of clips on the DVD. As anyone who's seen ''Mulholland Drive'' knows, Watts gives great audition....
If only U.S. forces had listened to Johnny Depp, they'd have found it much easier to blot out Al-Qaeda. ''I think they should have saturated Afghanistan with liquid LSD and gotten everybody goofed out of their minds and then sent the military in dressed as the Teletubbies,'' says the ''Blow'' star. ''At that point they would have just cleared in right out. And bin Laden would have been in 8-inch high heels with a blond wig, singing 'These Boots Are Made for Walking.'' No doubt the Pentagon would dismiss such a strategy as half-acid.
