January 22, 2001

RinkChat, New Zealand - At a casual glance, the thrill of the RinkAwards appears to be limited to chat fans. But the concept has excited a few lateral thinkers. These people believe it could be adapted for use with other media -- perhaps even movies.

"Imagine if we could bring together the key figures of the movie industry, once a year, to vote for the greatest movies of that year! With the depth of knowledge, impartiality, wisdom, and pure artistic integrity of these people, we would finally be able to learn which were truly the best movies of all time," said social scientist Dr. Candi LaToosh, speaking via her spirit-channeller from deep inside a tofu-lined concrete bunker in West Hollywood. "With such an award as an incentive to filmmakers, bad movies would become a thing of the past."

Most are skeptical, though.

"The great thing about RinkChat is how the impersonal, indirect pseudo-contact between the audience and the speaker can somehow translate to an exciting or humorous personal experience," said one fan. "How can you equate that with movies?"

Another chatter said many aspects of the RinkAwards were unlikely to appeal to those in the movie industry. "People are already talking about what they will wear to the ceremony. It's different and exciting, because normally we don't know or care what people are wearing in RinkChat," explained our source, who preferred to remain anonymous. "But in a visual medium, like film, the actors already spend all day being seen in glamorous outfits. They won't want to do that outside working hours as well."

"I mean, they could probably wear an old green see-through shower curtain, or make a dress out of credit cards taped together, and nobody would notice," our source added.