Forest Whitaker is on fire right now. The vegetarian actor, director, and producer has already bagged Golden Globe and SAG wins for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator and rumored cannibal (oh the irony!) Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, and he’s got my vote for the Oscar as well. And last night he absolutely rocked as a guest star on ER.

I’ve been a fan since The Crying Game, and it's great to see him getting some serious recognition for his work now, including his most recent masterpiece, this pro-vegetarian PSA he shot for us with his daughter, True. I posted this before, but, whatever, it's adorable. You should watch it again.

Anyway Forest, you deserve all the success you’re having right now. Your fans at PETA are especially proud.

Unless you live under a rock and watch Antique Road Show on PBS every night, I’m sure you’ve been hearing an awful lot about Simon Cowell lately. American Idol's ratings are higher than ever, and we couldn’t be happier for Simon. So what if he is honest with the out-of-tune wannabe trying to sing "Beat It"? Stick to singing in the shower and open mic nights at your local strip mall coffeehouse, dude . . . I guess you can see where I fall on the whole “Is Simon too mean?” debate.

Anyway, all the hype about Idol and Simon reminded me of the great work he’s done with PETA, so I dug out a couple of the ads he’s shot for us in the past.

Keep telling it like it is Simon!

In our tireless quest to remind the world that all animals have the same parts, and that getting killed and cooked is just as unpleasant for cows, pigs, and chickens as it sounds (actually, more so—for more info on that, click here), PETA held a colorful "human barbeque" demonstration in downtown Nashville yesterday, which seems to have gone over fairly well with Tennesseans.

The part of the barbequed babe—naked, spray-painted red and orange, and displayed on a mock grill in front of countless astonished Nashville citizens and members of the press—was played by PETA's lovely intern Joanne. Applications for our Internship program can be filled out here.

I just heard that Mickey Rourke is holding a protest in Miami this afternoon. Apparently, he bought a puppy from a pet store around Christmas and the puppy died a couple of weeks later. Once Mickey learned from PETA’s Dan Mathews how pet shops sell all sorts of sick and inbred animals all the time, he fired off a letter to the store immediately. And today he’ll be in front of the store letting the public know what he’s learned.

Did you see the guy in Domino or Sin City? Total badass. My suggestion to the store: Do what the man says. For real.

Like most people, one of my favorite things about the pre-game Super Bowl hype is hearing about the commercials that will run during the game. This is particularly true this time around, since (due to a calculating error by the NFL) the Redskins didn't make it into the playoffs this year. But is it me or is the hype around this year’s field of ads virtually non-existent? Granted, nothing will ever come close to that Mean Joe Green Coke spot—or even the GoDaddy ad, but come on ad folks, what’s the deal—are you waiting for PETA to submit its spot to be rejected to get the pre-game ad media frenzy started?

Sorry to disappoint, but, this year we decided to take a different approach. Rather than create yet another brilliant spot that is summarily rejected, we decided just to dig into the vault and re-release some of our past Super Bowl classics.

Take a look and let us know what your favorite is. My money is on the pillow fighting co-eds arguing over whether dolphins or unicorns are cuter. The one about the young ladies with udders is kind of amazing too, if a little disturbing. I seriously can't understand why they rejected these masterpieces. Anyway, with PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian 2006—Prince himself—performing at the halftime show, maybe we don't even need an ad this year ...