People frequently argue about what activities qualify as "sports." (I've got news for you: Poker is not the new hot "sport," no matter what CNN says. Neither is ice skating or synchronized swimming.) Also included in the is-it-or-isn't-it semantic debate is the argument over which older movies should be granted "classic" status. Now, we may finally have a legal answer. As the New York Times reported today, Time Warner Cable sued American Movie Classics channel, alleging that AMC veered too far from its original format of classic movies. The best part of the article is undoubtedly the caption under the photo of John Travolta striking a half-nude pose: "John Travolta played the role of Tony Manero in 'Staying Alive,' a 1983 movie that is, by legal standards at least, not considered a classic."

Perhaps the Senate Judiciary Panel should ask John Roberts whether he thinks Smokey and the Bandit or Home Alone 2 are "classics." (The court decided that they were not.) To conservatives' credit, I doubt it takes a strict constructionist to properly rule that AMC's 8 p.m. Monday movie, Two Weeks Notice, does not warrant such consideration.