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An elementary school teacher and a school bus driver are among the 16 New Jersey men who have been arrested since early February on charges related to alleged child pornography, People confirms. New Jersey’s Acting Attorney General Robert Lougy announced the arrests on Wednesday before detailing the state-organized sting, dubbed "Operation Safeguard." Conducted by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice and Ice Homeland Security Investigations, the sting targeted alleged members of an online file-sharing network. Some of the files, Lougy said, contained videos of young children being raped. • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news,...

An elementary school teacher and a school bus driver are among the 16 New Jersey men who have been arrested since early February on charges related to alleged child pornography, People confirms. New Jersey’s Acting Attorney General Robert Lougy announced the arrests on Wednesday before detailing the state-organized sting, dubbed "Operation Safeguard." Conducted by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice and Ice Homeland Security Investigations, the sting targeted alleged members of an online file-sharing network. Some of the files, Lougy said, contained videos of young children being raped. • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news,...

The much-ballyhooed reteaming of Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz for Focus Features' A Little Game Without Consequence has turned out to be short-lived. Both Carrey and Diaz have exited the project, which was announced in early September (HR 9/6). The movie's director, Gabriele Muccino, also has departed. Production was to have started this month in New York. Sources cited problems with the script as the principal reason for the departures. The script was said to have gone in a different direction than the actors expected when they became involved. Allan Loeb (Things We Lost in the Fire) penned a draft of the screenplay based on a play by Jean Dell and Gerald Sibleyras, which also was turned into the 2004 French film Un petit jeu sans consequence, written by Bernard Rapp. Muccino wrote the most recent draft.

Jim Carrey will reteam with Cameron Diaz in Focus Features' A Little Game Without Consequence. It will be their first feature together since 1994's The Mask, which boosted both of their careers. The film will be directed by Gabriele Muccino, who has helmed the upcoming The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith. The comedy-drama revolves around a married couple who have been happily married for five years but decide to play a trick on their friends by pretending to break up only to discover that most of their friends and family never thought they belonged together in the first place. Allan Loeb (Things We Lost in the Fire) penned the screenplay based on a play by Jean Dell and Gerald Sibleyras, which was turned into the 2004 French film Un petit jeu sans consequence, written by Bernard Rapp. Producing are Alain Chabat and Stephanie Danan through their Los Angeles-based banner WAM along with Muccino's producing partner Domenico Procacci. The project will begin filming next month in New York.

Leave it to the French to create a dark psychological drama that mainly revolves around the intricacies of dining on gourmet cuisine. Bernard Rapp's "A Matter of Taste", about a waiter recruited as a food taster for an upper-class businessman, might not succeed in fully developing the myriad themes of class differences, sexuality, etc., that it wishes to explore, but there's no denying that it is as elegant as the sharp clothes and extravagant meals enjoyed by its central characters. "Taste" is a critical and popular hit in France, where it received five Cesar Award nominations.

Told in distracting flashback style, the story revolves around the bizarre relationship that develops between Nicolas (Jean-Pierre Lorit), a handsome, carefree waiter, and Frederic (Bernard Giraudeau), an imperious and wealthy business mogul. They meet when Frederic, being waited on by Nicolas, suddenly asks him to taste his food for him. When Nicolas is able to name every ingredient in the dish, the impressed Frederic offers him a job as his official food taster, with one of his chief responsibilities being to determine if any dish contains seafood or cheese, two items to which Frederic is deathly allergic.

Despite the objections of his bourgeois-hating girlfriend Beatrice (Florence Thomassin), Nicolas quickly takes to his new position, especially since he soon gets to enjoy the same high-flying lifestyle as his employer. Unfortunately, his role quickly takes on disturbing ramifications, as Frederic seems intent on making his food taster a personal clone, even to the extent of first starving and then poisoning him in order that Nicolas share his own food preferences. The two eventually become embroiled in a sinister, psychologically interdependent relationship that, needless to say, doesn't end well.

While the film seems initially promising in its audacious explorations of obsession and identity, the screenplay doesn't sufficiently develop its ideas into a coherent whole. Torn between its comedic, dramatic and satirical elements, it doesn't truly succeed on any level, though there are more than a few quietly chilling and perversely funny moments along the way. Adding greatly to the film's overall impact are the two lead performances, with Giraudeau particularly memorable as the supremely officious Frederic.

A MATTER OF TASTE

Attitude Films

Director: Bernard Rapp

Screenwriters: Gilles Taurand, Bernard Rapp

Producers: Catherine Dussart, Chantal Perrin

Director of photography: Gerard de Battista

Editor: Juliettte Wilfling

Original music: Jean-Philippe Goude

Production designer: Francoise Comtet

Color/stereo

Cast:

Frederic Delamont: Bernard Giraudeau

Nicolas Riviere: Jean-Pierre Lorit

Beatrice: Florence Thomassin

Rene Rousset: Charles Berling

Magistrate: Jean-Pierre Leaud

Running time -- 90 minutes

No MPAA rating...