An unbilled Jim Carrey shows up in a New Hampshire cemetery for a cameo as Joe, the narrator of this tale of childhood bonds. The young Joe (Joseph Mazzello) sticks by his dwarfish pal Simon Birch (Ian Michael Smith), even when Simon accidentally kills Joe's mother (the luminous Ashley Judd) with a foul ball he hits at a Little League game.

Wait up. Fate, freaks, friends — this sounds like a film version of John Irving's 1989 novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany. It was, until Irving saw the script by writer and first-time director Mark Steven Johnson. As a result, names have been changed (Owen is now Simon) and the screen credit reads "suggested by" instead of "adapted from" Irving's novel.

Fair enough. Admirers of Irving's sprawling tome are sure to find Birch a botch. Others might enjoy this Hallmark-ish condensation for its earnest intentions and the affecting performances from Smith, Mazzello; Judd and David Strathairn as a priest with a guilty secret. Then again, Johnson could have left the book alone and started from scratch. That's from an idea "suggested by" me.

“1999”

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.