Ben Affleck, who has bounced between films terrible and great, serious and frivolous, is clearly in the realm of the great and serious with “Argo.” A Friday premiere screening at Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival brought “a rousing ovation to the movie, which appears to me to be a very solid contender to score a best picture Oscar nomination,” says Scott Feinberg in The Hollywood Reporter:

The film manages to be an edge-of-your-seat thriller (”We did suicide missions in the Army that had better odds than this”), a laugh-aloud comedy (”You’re worried about the Ayatollah? Try the WGA!”) and a genuine tearjerker. This is in large part because of the strong work of everyone in its large ensemble. The audience also separately applauded when Affleck’s credit appeared — he also stars in the film — and when the names of Oscar winner Alan Arkin and John Goodman, who play key supporting characters, flashed on the screen.

Feinberg’s not the only one describing a smash. “The closing credits … hadn’t even rolled at Friday evening’s Telluride Film Festival screening before audience members were signaling their thunderous approval,” wrote Glenn Whipp in the Los Angeles Times, noting also a tweet from Hitfix’s awards columnist, Kris Tapley:

Applause in the middle of the movie. Hearing nothing but “wow” and “outstanding” outside the theater. A big hit.

By the way, that rumor about Affleck directing a “Justice League” superhero movie? The rumors moved on to the Wachowskis, of “The Matrix” fame, and then to Brett Ratner, of, um, “Rush Hour” and “X-Men: The Last Stand” fame — the latter being pretty much loathed as one of the worst superhero movies ever and a total squandering of respect given the franchise by director Bryan Singer — and Ratner himself being pretty much loathed for convincing people he’s a homophobe, liar and all-around terrible person.

Paul Michael Glaser signs copies of his books Feb. 18 in Sacramento, Calif. (Photo: Robert Couse-Baker)

We don’t hear much about Paul Michael Glaser — he was in the news most while starring as Dave Starsky in the 1975-79 cop drama “Starsky and Hutch” — but he’s been keeping busy as a writer of young adult fantasy such as “Chrystallia and the Source of Light.” It was while visiting Bowling Green, Ky., to give readings for that book that he was busted May 10 for pot possession.

Glaser, 69, was born in Cambridge and attended Buckingham Browne & Nichols before making it in Hollywood. He lives now in Venice, Calif., where he was probably happy to return after being cited for the misdemeanors of possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia — a small wooden pipe alleged to contain pot residue. According to the Bowling Green Daily News, Glaser was nabbed after police got “an anonymous complaint ‘of a person named ‘Paul Glaser’ smoking marijuana near the elevators’” at the Hilton Garden Inn.

On Wednesday an attorney entered pleas of “not guilty” for Glaser, who returns to court Oct. 22.

“Whoever turned him in is a low-life rat,” said one commenter to the bgdailynews.com story.

Saying Passion Pit’s “Take a Walk,” off its sophomore album “Gossamer,” is about the immigrant experience, the economy, making it in America and politics doesn’t make it sound like much fun. But it’s a great tune, in fact fairly addictive, and people love playing with it. Chew Lips has a remix of the song here on Stereoboard, for starters, and Australian Pachinko Pictures takes that literally and has created a browser-based video game you play while the song and video runs in the background. In the game, the animal characters you control take a walk and jump for glowing spots that earn points. Even when you’re a jumping bug, though, you can’t miss lyrics such as “But then my partner called to say the pension funds were gone / He made some bad investments / Now the accounts are overdrawn … We can rip apart those socialists / And all their damn taxes” — but, really, the song is great and the game is fun. (It may, however, require the download of a browser plug-in.) Here it is via Pitchfork, and the non-game version is above.

Rapper Sammy Adams told The Boombox how he named his EP “OK Cool”:

We were in Paris working on a project with DJ White Shadow and DJ Snake, and everywhere we went we didn’t know where we were … but everyone was so nice to us. After they gave us directions, we’d be like “Merci, thank you so much” and they’d be like “OK cool.” After that, you sort of pay attention to “OK cool” and you notice how many people say it every day. It’s sort of like in the ‘70s people saying, “I dig it” or “Yeah, I feel that.” It’s like, “OK cool”; it’s very universal.

The full-length album due this fall, Adams’ first, is called “I Wish,” and Boombox writer Caitlin White says it reveals “a surprising sensitivity lurking behind his party boy persona, baggy jeans and knuckle tattoos.”

Enrique Iglesias also sees depth in Adams, who is featured on his new single, “Finally Found You” from his forthcoming 10th studio album. Its available Sept. 25 on iTunes, but the video is above.

And with hit-making producers Bei Maejor and Pharrell Williams working on “I Wish,” Adams told Popcrush that he’s discovered something about himself: Williams told Adams that his habit of writing thoughts in a notepad and iPhone notepad app constantly is a signal Adams suffers from “sensory deprivation.” If, like Adams, you don’t know what that is but want to, the answer is here. Don’t expect much.

Matt Damon co-wrote and is starring in an Oscar-buzz movie about the dangers of fracking for Gus van Sant, yet was also named one of “Hollywood’s all-time top action heroes” by a “CBS This Morning: Saturday” panel. At least he has consistency in best friends, though: Already a neighbor of Affleck and family in Miami, he’s also just bought a home near Affleck in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, Zillow says. Damon and his family got a landscaped half-acre lot (with koi pond, pool and spa pavilion) and 8,890-square-foot, three-story, six-bedroom, eight-bathroom home for $15 million. Other details from Zillow: 35-foot mahogany vaulted ceilings; disappearing walls of glass; open atrium and floating staircase; office, maids’ rooms; and large gym.

Harvard Square resident John Malkovich is committed to directing Julian Sands in the one-man “A Celebration of Harold Pinter” running Oct.-Nov. 4 at The Irish Repertory Theatre in New York, according to Theatermania. He also is a is part-owner of the Big Sleep Hotel chain, which has three locations in the U.K., according to a Fox News list of “Hotels owned by your favorite celebrities.”