Prequelitis (proliferation of the story before the story)
See: Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace; Dumb and Dumber 2: The Prequel; From Dusk Till Dawn: The Hangman's Daughter; and Along Came a Spider (the predecessor to Kiss the Girls).

Self-Hating Honkies (satirizing white boys who are infatuated with hip-hop culture)
See: White Boys, directed by Slam auteur Marc Levin; James Toback's Black and White, starring Robert Downey Jr. and members of the Wu-Tang Clan; and the Offspring's Latin-flavored hit ''Pretty Fly (For a White Guy),'' currently No. 53 on the charts.

The Road Not Taken (exploration of alternate realities; depicted most recently in Gwyneth Paltrow's Sliding Doors)
See: Chris Carter's new TV series Harsh Realm, based on a comic book about a gumshoe who tries to find a kid lost in an alternate mystical universe; Family Man, where a banker gets the life he would have had if he'd married his college sweetheart; and Passion of Mind, in which Demi Moore toggles between lives in New York and France (but doesn't get to rack up any frequent-flier miles).

Sexy Thieves (hunky leading men play bad guys who steal stuff)
See: Mel Gibson in Payback, Sean Connery in Entrapment, and Pierce Brosnan in The Thomas Crown Affair.

WBiquitous (the big-screen omnipresence of stars from The WB)
See: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Simply Irresistible, Cruel Intentions), Joshua Jackson (Cruel Intentions), Katie Holmes (Killing Mrs. Tingle, Go!), Michelle Williams (Dick), James Van Der Beek (Varsity Blues), and Keri Russell (Perfect Timing, The Curve).

Originally posted Jan 22, 1999 Published in issue #468-469 Jan 22, 1999 Order article reprints
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