Anne Thompson has a glimpse of Entertainment Weekly's "Smart List" up.  Judd Apatow leads the charge in what has to be construed as typical flavor of the month list-mania.

I laughed at "Knocked Up."  I thought "The 40 Year Old Virgin" was a high mark for comedy.  Going way back, I thought "The Cable Guy" was dark comedy hilarity.  But with "Superbad" and the upcoming "Walk Hard," it seems like he's willing to tread similar creative territory rather than "push the industry forward" as the list apparently proclaims to advocate.

I get it, of course.  Right now, this moment in time, Apatow makes sense as a #1 choice.  But these lists really irritate me when they fail to see the big picture.  Tell me why Ben Stiller deserves a slot in the top 20 when a producer as creatively diverse as Kathleen Kennedy is down at #31.  Call me crazy, but to go from "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and "Persepolis" this year to "Indiana Jones" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" next year, seemingly without missing a beat, speaks more to "smart" than does "Night at the Museum."

The Smart List is supposed to "rejuvenate" the "tired old EW Power 100," according to Anne Thompson, but it reads like old hat to me.