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Japan nationalists not singing 'For He's a Jolie Good Fellow'

Also in Tattle: Dylan sings Sinatra, BET honors Kanye, wacky Joaquin and more.

FILE - This March 8, 2012 file photo shows actress Angelina Jolie at the Women in the World Summit in New York. Jolie says that she has had a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried a gene that made it extremely likely she would get breast cancer. The Oscar-winning actress and partner to Brad Pitt made the announcement in  an op-ed she authored for Tuesday's New York Times under the headline, "My Medical Choice." She writes that between early February and late April she completed three months of surgical procedures to remove both breasts.  (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)
FILE - This March 8, 2012 file photo shows actress Angelina Jolie at the Women in the World Summit in New York. Jolie says that she has had a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried a gene that made it extremely likely she would get breast cancer. The Oscar-winning actress and partner to Brad Pitt made the announcement in an op-ed she authored for Tuesday's New York Times under the headline, "My Medical Choice." She writes that between early February and late April she completed three months of surgical procedures to remove both breasts. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)Read moreAP

JAPANESE NATIONALISTS are in a tizzy over Angelina Jolie's new movie, "Unbroken," the story of U.S. Olympian and World War II POW Louis Zamperini.

According to Zamperini's story and the book about him by Laura Hillenbrand, Zamperini wasn't treated too well by Japanese guards while he was being held captive.

But protesters claim that the depiction is unfair and untrue, and the London Telegraph says that those criticizing the film are trying to have it banned from Japan.

"It's pure fabrication," Hiromichi Moteki told the Telegraph. Moteki is the secretary general of Japan's Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact, the most Orwellian-named organization to ever appear in Tattle.

"This movie has no credibility and is immoral," he added.

Japanese nationalists made the same claims about Hillenbrand's 2010 book.

Torture, shmorture. Our guards were always perfect gentlemen of Japan, claim the nationalists.

Really? Is it even remotely unreasonable to assume that prison guards overseeing the enemy during a world war might be a wee bit hostile toward their captives? Given what we now know about Abu Ghraib, rendition and the militarization of local police (and we're the good guys), can anyone actually believe that POW guards had the demeanor of Sgt. Schultz in "Hogan's Heroes"? Would anyone think less of Japan if their POW guards were nasty?

Dylan sings Sinatra?

We're trying to imagine what the lyrics might sound like when Bob Dylan mumbles his way through the songs of Frank Sinatra, one of pop music's great enunciators.

London's Daily Mail reports that Dylan's "Shadows in the Night," dropping Feb. 3, will feature interpretations of classics sung by Ol' Blue Eyes, with minimal orchestration.

The album will feature Dylan's versions of 10 popular songs from the 1940s, the decade he was born.

"I've wanted to do something like this for a long time but was never brave enough to approach 30-piece complicated arrangements and refine them down for a five-piece band," Dylan said in a statement yesterday.

"I don't see myself as covering these songs in any way," Dylan said. "They've been covered enough. Buried, as a matter of fact.

"What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them," he said. "Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day."

TATTBITS

* As if his head isn't swelled enough, Kanye West will receive the Visionary Award next month at the BET Honors. West will be one of five luminaries honored at the eighth-annual event, to be hosted by Wayne Brady.

Usher will receive the Musical Arts Award for his two-decade career, while Phylicia Rashad will receive the Theatrical Arts Award. Johnnetta Betsch Cole, director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art and former president of Spelman College, will receive the Education Award. Former Microsoft chairman John W. Thompson will receive the Technology and Business Award.

The BET Honors will be taped Jan. 24 in Washington and will air Feb. 23. Ticket sales will benefit the National CARES Mentoring Program.

* Is it fair to call Joaquin Phoenix a little odd?

We know it's not nice to criticize anyone, especially someone whose entire life seems like a piece of performance art, but that dude is weird.

Monday night, he announced his "engagement" on the "Late Show with David Letterman," only to say hours later on yesterday's "Good Morning America" that it was a joke.

"I can get engaged again if you like," Phoenix told ABC's George Stephanopoulos after telling him he wasn't really ready to get hitched.

Phoenix's silence-filled appearance on Letterman's "Late Show" in 2009 became one of late-night TV's first viral videos. Letterman memorably called that session to a close by saying, "I'm sorry you couldn't be here tonight."

On "GMA," Phoenix explained his engagement joke this way: "I think, like, my life is so boring, it seemed like it was something exciting to talk about," he said. "I just want the audience to like me, and they really like people who are getting married."

Letterman's response yesterday: "Not engaged? Fine. Send back the slow-cooker."

* TMZ.com reports that since Lorde tweeted her admiration for porn star James Deen last month, she's earned an invitation to next month's Adult Video News Awards.

AVN wants her to sing.

Don't do it.

After that it's only a short step to starring in "My Sweet Lorde," "Jack Lorde" or "Oh, Lorde! Oh, Lorde! Oh, Lorde."

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

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On Twitter: @DNTattle