Today's top story in the Movies channel concerns a lawsuit filed by the grandparents of a 12-year-old girl, which asserts that she was traumatized when a substitute teacher showed Brokeback Mountain in her elementary school classroom. The Oscar winner is rated R for nudity (mostly female) and sex (both heterosexual and male-on-male). The lawsuit alleges that before playing the film, the teacher shut the classroom door and said, "What happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class"--a comment that suggests at least a little ambivalence about the appropriateness of the film for preteens. The family is accusing the school of "negligence, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress."

Predictably, bloggers are lining up on both sides of the issue, although just about everyone seems to agree that R-rated movies--including the flick that launched a million gay cowboy jokes--shouldn't be shown in elementary school. Here's a sampling of the chatter:

"Once again, as a teacher I am mortified at the poor judgment and sheer stupidity of some of my fellow educators." -- Verum Serum

"Parents see chance to sue and get big bucks so they can have nicer things. Civilization as humans know it to collapse sometime around noon today, or at least by supper time." -- Editorials From Hell's Leading Newspaper

"Now, I loved the movie. But Heath mounting Jake just isn't peanut butter-and-jelly fare. Call me a neoconservative, I just don't agree with it." -- Ravnostic

"This story is a unfortunate byproduct of liberal activism. It is not one of tolerance and diversity because it is intolerant and disrespectful toward those of faith not to mention those who struggle with raising children in the world of the entertainment industry's pro sex, drugs and guns mentality." -- Webloggin

"You know, as I recall, William Faulkner had that effect on me. I wonder what the statute of limitations is on psychological-assault-by-bad-literature." -- Overlawyered

Of all the films for a substitute teacher to show to a class, why Brokeback Mountain? I personally don't think the film glamorizes the homosexual lifestyle--if anything, it shows the potential agony that awaits anyone who pursues it. But why show a film like that to a class if you're not trying to provoke a debate? Is there a grand liberal agenda at work here, or did this Ms. Buford just happen to have the DVD in her purse? Is the lawsuit justified, or is the moral debate just an excuse for the family to cash in? What's your take?

When the final episode of the Fox drama The O.C. airs tonight, it'll mark the end of an era. There will be distraught fans, such as 19-year-old Coleeeee, who informs the world via one the show's many MySpace groups that her "life is over when The O.C. is." Cast and crew will have to find new jobs, and moving on may be tough for some -- as star Benjamin McKenzie put it in a statement released by the show's publicist, "I'll probably miss working with everyone." But the loss will also be felt by indie rock bands and fans, by fashion designers and young style mavens, and by comic book producers and consumers. For though The O.C. 's ratings were at best average (and sometimes totally abysmal), the show served as a remarkably effective clearinghouse for totems of teenage cool.

The show was created in 2003 by television novice Josh Schwartz who, at age 27, was the youngest person to develop and produce his own one-hour drama in the history of network television. In a 2004 interview with the New York Times, Schwartz admitted to using a "Trojan Horse strategy" to get his foot in the door. Knowing that FOX was looking for a prime-time soap to replicate the success of Aaron Spelling's just-retired dinosaur Beverly Hills 90210, Schwartz crafted a pilot script that self-consciously hit all the high notes of the Spelling drama genre: pool parties, massive mansions, diva rivalries, cocaine. Then, as he later put it, Schwartz inserted "characters that were a little bit funnier and more soulful and different and specific than the kinds you usually see in that genre."

Much of the story of life in the luxurious (and fictional) Southern California suburb of Newport was seen through the eyes of Seth Cohen (played by Adam Brody), a friendless ninth grader obsessed with comic books and emo bands. In the series pilot, Seth's public defender father brings home Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), a juvenile offender from less-than-desirable Chino, who has returned from a night in jail to find that his mom has skipped town without leaving so much as a note.

Soon this miscreant was installed in the Cohen family pool house. Ryan and Seth quickly formed a bond as outsiders, simultaneously attracted to and repulsed by the glamour and excess of the Newport lifestyle. And the show's creator got to have it both ways. Schwartz gave Fox their shiny, highly-marketable soap sensation, all the while building a one-hour prime time drama about a friendship formed by two teenage boys, each of whom, though undeniably telegenic, fell somewhere outside the mold.