Why is there a former Lehman Brothers investment banker running through Dag Hammarskjold Plaza with a battering ram? No, he's not some unhinged casualty of the current economic collapse. Ami Horowitz left behind his work in finance well before this recent mess because he had a higher calling: He wanted to lay siege to the United Nations, which he says is the perpetrator of one of the greatest frauds of all time. Horowitz is hoping to be the the U.N. what Michael Moore was to General Motors. With no previous experience in the film business, but a fire in his belly and $2 million raised from hedge fund managers, Horowitz has made a documentary, U.N. Me, that is set to be released in theaters this winter. The seeds of Horowitz's mission were sown during the September 11 attacks, when he was outraged by the United Nations' inefficacy. It wasn't until five years later though, that he had an epiphany while watching Moore's Bowling for Columbine: He would make a documentary that would expose the United Nations for how he saw it. Two years later, the film is in the can. Emulating Moore's style, the camera shows an incredulous Horowitz wandering the halls of the United Nations, trying to find someone actually at work at their desk. He then travels the world, covering a range of the United Nations' failings, including its inability to prevent genocide in Rwanda and Sudan, and an accusation that former Secretary General Boutros-Ghali pocketed more than a million dollars from Saddam Hussein (Boutros-Ghali was never charged with any wrongdoing). Horowitz interviews with an often jocular approach, and peppers the film with animation and even a "peacekeepers gone wild" segment, showing U.N. personnel in Africa partying with prostitutes at a club. Throughout his dealing with the U.N., Horowitz told them he was making a film that "highlights the role of the U.N. around the globe," so the organization has been unaware of the barbarian at their gates. "We'll have to wait to see the film to respond," says a U.N. spokesperson. But does Horowitz really think he can sway public opinion? "Absolutely. [Super Size Me's Morgan] Spurlock was just a dude with a few thousand dollars and a camera--and look what he did to McDonalds," Horowitz says. "I'm similar. I'm just better dressed."

The UN is under attack! Upstart filmmaker Ami Horowitz, a former Lehman Brothers banker, is releasing his Michael Moore-style expose of the United Nations next month. In the flick, Horowitz, taking a cue from Moore, wanders the halls of the UN building searching for someone actually working at their desk. There's also a segment called "Peacekeepers Gone Wild" that shows UN personnel partying with prostitutes in Africa. Horowitz, not the bashful type, goes so far as to call himself the better-dressed Morgan Spurlock in the upcoming issue of Manhattan magazine.

When I was younger, there was one incident where a Russian diplomat was absolutely inebriated, drove through a stop sign and killed an American in New York City, then was let off because of diplomatic immunity. If anything, he should have had to have some kind of restitution for taking a human life while driving a vehicle out of his mind on alcohol. If anything, they should have recalled him and punished him at home for manslaughter. As far as I remember, nothing happened. That made me start looking at what the U.N. stood for, and I started seeing stuff like the 'oil for food' crisis and finding out that one Secretary General was a former Nazi, and another guy was a former spy. I feel really safe having these guys run the world's organization to prevent war and promote peace. There's a new movie coming out called 'You and Me' [sic], which I had some involvement in, and it's basically the 'Fahrenheit 9/11' for the U.N. I think once people see some of the stuff, they're going to be so blown away. Just the trailer that I saw that made me commit to being part of the movie was so unnerving."

A man named Bill Ayers has been in the news lately as Senator Barack Obama's connections to the 1960s-era domestic terrorist have become an issue in the presidential campaign. It reminded us of a segment cut from an earlier edit of Indoctrinate U. In this deleted scene, we told the story of how 1960s campus radicals morphed into today's academics. Three of those radicals were Ayers, his now-wife Bernardine Dohrn, and Mark Rudd. Together, they led the Weather Underground, a group committed to the violent overthrow the U.S. Government. To bring about their hoped-for communist utopia, the Weathermen bombed dozens of targets around the country including the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and military recruiting stations. In executing their various attacks, the Weathermen killed a few of their own and also murdered two police officers and a security guard while robbing an armored car. They targeted the families of judges, celebrated the Manson murders, and through legal technicalities, most of them avoided jail. Decades later, they're still unapologetic. In an interview published on September 11th, 2001, Ayers told The New York Times, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." What does all of this have to do with higher education? Watch the video to find out.

Do As I Say is funny throughout and does''t get bogged down in the sort of angry grinding that tends to characterize too much political polemic on both sides. Jonah Goldberg makes an appearance in the film, and he's in good form. By far my favorite stunt in the film has do to with Michael Moore's trust and investment portfolio, which includes interests in Halliburton, General Electric, and other defense contractors. Moore denies that he has any such investments, so the filmmakers get a copy of his trust's tax returns to document them. Moore refuses to look at it, so they do the obvious thing and employ a cake decorator to replicate the documents on delicious baked goods. Hilarity ensues as the police are dispatched to the Moore compound to deal with this dangerous dessert. It's beautiful stuff. Ted Kennedy gets ambushed, George Soros lampooned and, against all odds, you will learn something new and depressing about the Clintons' real-estate endeavors in Arkansas. (Yes, my eyes rolled when Clintonian real-estate deals came up, but hang on, it's an interesting segment.)

Hollywood comes by its indifference honestly. Certainly, the stock prices of the big media companies that own the film industry are getting pounded on the market along with the rest of us, and the canyons are no doubt full of little rivers of blood as individuals watch their net worth shrink. But out there at the box office, it is still morning in America. Four major movies opened on Friday, and they came on the heels of seven movies the week before, most of which did quite nicely, thank you. The fact that "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" has topped the box office for two weeks running and has taken in over $52 million may be one of the signs of the apocalypse, but not the kind that has anything to do with credit default swaps. "It's times like these that some of those jokes about the people in Los Angeles seem valid," said Peter Bart, the editor in chief of Variety. "There has always been the suggestion that this city is not acutely conscious of what is going on in the rest of the world, and this is one of the times when it lives up to the reputation. There are many people here who don't read a lot and because of that are less obsessed by what is happening back in New York." Spend any time here, and you will soon learn that Hollywood lives by its own clock. Because movies are generally large endeavors that take time to come together, they reflect things that were happening three years ago while the studios' capital outlays speculate on the needs of the market three years hence. After taking a big hit during the Depression, the Hollywood box office came back strong--and this time could be no different. The consumer might consider a night of watching the serial disaster movie on CNBC or CNN, or decide to head to the movies instead, which is why the people who finance Hollywood continue to make large bets that people will still go to the movies. In the last few weeks, billions--not from the federal government, but from actual banks--are being invested even as brokers back East stare into the abyss of their trading terminals. Reuters reported last Thursday that JPMorgan Chase--one of the industry's go-to financiers--knocked out three big deals, including a venture between the Reliance ADA Group of India and Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG. The bank has already put up $125 million--and $600 million more from other lenders is on hold for the moment, but there's no reason to think the deal won't go through. JPMorgan also wrapped up a $350 million deal for Media Rights Capital, the company that is making the latest Cameron Diaz movie and was the leader in gathering the $1 billion to finance the digital upgrade of 20,000 movie theaters to help increase the capacity to show 3-D films. There is enormous pent-up demand for films that will be ready in 2009 and 2010 because the writers' strike held up production and then the threat of an actors' strike pinched schedules. But the industry seems to have collectively decided that actors won't risk a strike during a huge economic headwind. Approximately 50 movies from the various studios have received some sort of approval and will enter production soon, according to Variety.

"Carol" is partially backed by nonprofit group the Moving Picture Institute, which gave a grant to one of the film's writers, Myrna Sokoloff, to help the part-time schoolteacher finish her work on the script. Partisanship, however, is immaterial to the Moving Picture Institute's decision to partially fund its script, founder Thor Halvorssen said. MPI's mission is "to nurture promising filmmakers who are committed to protecting a free society," Halvorssen said. What that has meant until "Carol" came along was producing, funding or supporting in a variety of ways 10 documentaries, and counting, that have been made by Democrats, Republicans and everything in between. "They didn't care about my politics. They put their money where their mouth is," said Colin Gray, who accepted a grant from MPI to help market "Freedom's Fury." Gray describes himself as "very left of center." "Freedom's Fury," which he made with his sister, is about "the bloodiest water polo game in Olympic history" and the role that game played in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. What convinced MPI to branch out from strictly documentaries and embrace a Zucker comedy is the film's irreverent approach to political correctness. "Support for freedom sometimes involves disrespect for authority," Halvorssen said.

The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said. Officials for the three-year-old league, which has eight teams and about 100 players, said they will disband Jericho's team, redistributing its players among other squads, and offered to refund $50 sign-up fees to anyone who asks for it. They say Jericho's coach, Wilfred Vidro, has resigned.