The adaptation that could have been...

There are a lot of surprises in this article about Vikas Swarup, the author of Q&A, the novel which became Best Picture Winner "Slumdog Millionaire" -- Swarup is an Indian foreign diplomat who wrote the book in two months, eschewing research on purpose, a stance so stubborn it actually kind of delights me. But to throw this into a discussion of the changes in the adaptation is just cruel:

[Times writer Mark McDonald] They cut out the gay, tattooed, cocaine-snorting priest with a leather fetish who dies in a murder-suicide with another priest. They changed a lot.

I liked "Slumdog Millionaire," but now I will always be waiting for the "Satan's Alley" section.