I thoroughly enjoyed Catch Me If You Can, an entertaining but well-crafted story that reflects the thoughtful touch of Spielberg. It got me thinking about what fascinating stories and personal drama lie behind seemingly unsexy and often neglected headlines--in Catch's case, bank fraud *yawn*. Take this blurb, for example, which was buried in the back pages of Thursday's NY Times. Can you imagine the kind of stories that must lie behind this terse, dry account?

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 25 (AP) — A woman has been arrested on charges that she brokered dozens of fake marriages for men from the Middle East and North Africa seeking United States citizenship.... The authorities say Ms. Whiteside, who was charged with three counts of filing a false document and is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, arranged phony marriages between low-income women in the United States and foreign men, mostly from the Middle East and North Africa. Ms. Whiteside may have set up 200 marriages over several years, the authorities said. She has pleaded not guilty.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/26/national/26MARR.html