If you haven’t already, go and read this interview with Bill Murray from GQ.  This is a guy who does not like to give long revealing interviews, and this one is a gem.  He talks about Ghostbusters 3, Garfield, Quick Change, his love of Kung Fu Hustle, and his hatred of Seinfeld(!).  I really love the way he describes things in pop culture – “the show that has the girl from Saturday Night Live” is how he describes Parks and Recreation.  He sounds like my step-dad!  (Chuck, that’s a compliment of the highest magnitude, by the way.)

It’s hard to summarize what he says, so I suggest you just click on over and read the interview for yourself, and enjoy.

Whatever.

According to Staten Island Chuck, spring will be here soon.

I honestly didn’t even know that New York had our own prognosticating groundhog, but such are the wonderful pieces of information you can get from NY1 early in the morning.

Oh, and local newsperson Phil Connors was quoted as saying: “What if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today.” He then punched “Needlenose” Ned Ryerson in the face.

If you hadn’t heard, there were rumors going around of a third Ghostbusters movie being made that would star the original quartet of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson, but also with the more “current” group of Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Steve Carell, and Romany Malco coming in as the next generation who would take over the franchise.  (Apparently even in a new generation, the main four guys need to be one-quarter black.)

I have my reservations about restarting long-dormant franchises, especially with the recent Indy IV debacle.  (Although Rocky Balboa and Live Free or Die Hard proved it could be done well…)  But I like that this would be a sequel instead of another ridiculous remake/reboot, and if it has Bill Murray’s blessing, I’m naturally on board.

Alas, it came out yesterday that Paul Rudd hadn’t heard anything about these rumors, although he did add, “I would do it in a second with those guys. But do you think it’s a good idea to redo ‘Ghostbusters’? It’s a classic.”  I like the fact that he acknowledged that it would be wrong to do an out and out remake, because he’s right – it is a comedy institution.

(Of course, this kind of a remake is still acceptable.)

Meanwhile, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, which looks all kinds of awesome, vanished from the line-up of games to come this fall due to the merger between Activision and Vivendi.  But now there is word that Sony Pictures wants the game released, and they are looking at timing it for next year to coincide with the original movie’s 25th anniversary.  While it sucks to have to wait until 2009, it does give the developers more time to fine tune the game, and hopefully that’ll work out better for everyone.   And if there is in fact no Ghostbusters 3 coming to a theatre near me, I definitely want this game, which was written by Aykroyd and Ramis as a third movie, set in 1991, and starring the voices of all the original cast members, except for Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis.  They’ll be missed, but the ability to use the Wiimote to fire proton streams is just too cool for me to stand.

Bill Murray, the funniest man alive, is reportedly not a very good husband.

When I first read the headline that Bill Murray was getting a divorce, my first reaction was pity, as in, “Aw, the poor guy! If he needs someone to have a beer with during these trying times, I would gladly offer him that guy time.”

Then I read the allegations made by his wife, and my sadness quickly turned to anger. Jennifer Butler Murray claimed that she was seeking the divorce because of Bill’s “adultery, addiction to marijuana and alcohol, abusive behavior, physical abuse, sexual addictions and frequent abandonment.” (Read the whole thing here, if that’s the kind of person you are.)  It was only natural that I be full of rage at reading this. How dare this woman make such outrageous claims about my hero Bill Murray? Those things she said! They couldn’t possibly be true – they don’t sound at all like the man I know. And I’ve seen, like, every movie he’s ever been in, so I think I know him better than some lady that I never heard of, even if she’s been married to him for over a decade.

Then I thought about how ridiculous that statement is, and I began to feel uneasy. Could these things be true? Is it possible that Peter Venkman is a whoring drunk in real life? I can picture ole Bill enjoying the occasional drink or marijuana cigarette, but really? An addict? And a philanderer? I mean, sure he could have any woman on the planet, but except for that one time in Lost in Translation, he’s been mostly faithful! And abusive? Does she mean abusive with his wit? No, it turns out that she means it as in he is physically and emotionally abusive.

Yikes.

Then I started thinking, “Wow, here’s a guy I idolize, yet I really know very little about his personal life.”  I mean, I guess I don’t know all about Weird Al or George Lucas’ home lives either, but still.  Should I have gotten to know Bill a little better?  Could I have helped him turn things around, you know, before they got so bad?  Maybe, just maybe, if I was a bigger fan, Bill wouldn’t have turned into an alcoholic abusive jerk.

Then it occurred to me that maybe Bill’s not really such a bad guy.  Maybe it’s all a big misunderstanding .  Or a vast conspiracy to smear his name.  Or perhaps this is all just research for an upcoming movie role, and he’s taking his research really far.

That or, maybe he’s just a hysterically funny guy who has some serious problems and treated his wife like crap.

Finally, it occurred to me that I shouldn’t let the divorce of two people I’ve never met get me down so much.  It’s a shame, above all else, because they have four children together.  I truly hope that for their sake, Bill and Jennifer are able to keep the rest of their drama out of the limelight.

And I’ll keep seeing Bill Murray’s movies, but now I’m not so sure I want to have a beer with the guy…