Salman Rushdie turns up in a somewhat jarring cameo as an obstetrician in Helen Hunt’s directorial debut “Then She Found Me” — he’s not bad, but his presence does throw you, as would, I suppose, Tom Stoppard playing a firefighter, or Joan Didion delivering a few lines of advice as a sage aunt. New York investigates the curious casting.

At indieWIRE, publicist Jeremy Walker, on the eve of a move to California, reflects on the indie publicity game:

Publicity is an optimist’s game, but only to a point. You can’t really be a publicist for “risky” movies without liberally trafficking in benefit of doubt. It makes sense that a person who promotes movies will probably also be a person who loves movies, but what journalist should trust a publicist who loves every movie? I’ve found over the years that to love a movie is not enough reason to take it on; instead I have learned to only take on movies that I love and that I can actually do something with.

Paul Verhoeven has a book about Jesus, says the Hollywood Reporter. And, hey! It’s controversial!

Army Archerd calls Shirley Temple today, on her 80th birthday, finds out she has a broken arm.

E! Online streams six tracks from Scarlett Johansson’s upcoming album of Tom Waits covers.

Takashi Murakami tells io9 that he sees himself at the George Lucas of, you know, art stuff: “I felt sympathetic to the revolution that George Lucas started, and my work has become a re-enactment of that sort of revolution in the art scene.”

[Photo: “Then She Found Me,” ThinkFilm, 2007]

+ How Helen Hunt Got Salman Rushdie to Give Her a Sonogram (New York)
+ Jeremy Walker on Independent Film PR: “What I think publicity really is and also what it should not be” (indieWIRE)
+ Paul Verhoeven takes on Jesus (Hollywood Reporter)
+ Not Such A Happy Birthday (ArmyArcherd.com)
+ The Sounds of Scarlett (E! Online)
+ Murakami Tells io9 About His Secret Love For J.J. Abrams (io9)