With apologies to John McCain, even the presidential nominee's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last night couldn't still the buzz around his vice, Sarah Palin. Palin's prominence has breathed new life into some of the grande dames of movements past in Search.

… Back to the future. The anti-feminist, pro-life leader Phyllis Schlafly, whose politics were formed around defeating (successfully) the Equal Rights Amendment back in the 1970s, is back in the news. Searches for the social conservative spiked on word that she criticized Palin for not showing up at a pro-life dinner to accept an award. Any perceived slight didn't dampen her enthusiasm for the new poster child of pro-life policies. "It is really just stunning the way she has invigorated the grassroots across the board," Schlafly told the Minneapolis St. Paul Star Tribune.

… Au Contraire. Gloria Steinem, the founder of Ms. magazine and the modern women's movement, says Sarah Palin is not the right woman for the job. Searches for "gloria steinem" rose 723%, along with "gloria steinem sarah palin" and "gloria steinem palin," on the news that Steinem is (no surprise) no Palin fan. In a Los Angeles Times editorial, Steinem invoked her old foe in noting, "Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger." Schlafly couldn't put it better herself.

… Hello, Dolly. Palin certainly seems to be a lightning rod on Search. We're watching as Palin's Internet nickname, "caribou barbie" (+26%) spreads like crazy online. We're not sure who started it, but we're guessing the nickname's not a term of affection.

A film so dangerous, even most critics can't see it. Well, that's not exactly the motivation in letting Nicolas Cage's latest showcase nearly slip by unseen, but the "eh" reaction is hardly a prepossessing start to the fall movie season. Web anticipation is completely lackluster, as searches for "Bangkok Dangerous" weakly aims, but fails, to crack the top 10,000 this week. (Among the limited releases, only the comedy "Everyone Wants to Be Italian" is getting the online once-over.)

The lukewarm reception to the tale of a Western killer in Thailand's chaotic capital brings up two very different questions—and neither involve Cage's shifting hairline. Well, not quite.

The first: How could two sibling directors buff its 2001 gritty original (originally in Thai) to such a dull finish? Or, in other words, does Hollywood really think American audiences can't take the Thai chili-pepper heat? The Pang brothers adapted their own film with the help of "Swing Vote" screenwriter (which might be the first clue) and, as Variety lays out, goes from a voyeuristic fascination into the Thai underworld to a sanitized drive-by travelogue.

Hollywood has done a dubious job as cultural interpreter. In importing Japanese horrors, heightened suspense translates into knee-jerk shock moments (as recently evidenced in "Mirrors"). As for adapting Hong Kong dramas, directors usually toss out brotherhood themes and sub in improbable romances (compare Martin Scorcese's "The Departed" and its inspiration "Infernal Affairs.")

The second question: Whatever happened to the Oscar-winning Cage? Projects like "National Treasure" brings in the box office, but his true winsome talents have gone missing like Robert Downey Jr. from the '90s. As if mourningfully looking over an old photo album of a past lover, Premiere reviews his best and worst, Entertainment Weekly reminisces his 25 signature roles, and New York Magazine asks if we could be fast approaching his "tipping point."

The answer for now seems to be lazy cluelessness. While Hollywood—as least its movie arm—likely won't learn anytime soon not to underestimate American audiences, surely there's time for Cage's redemption. With age cohorts like Downey, George Clooney and Brad Pitt who can give advice on getting back up from some down projects, maybe he can start a support group... before he can get into more dangerous territory.

The appearance of the entire McCain clan on the stage at the Republican National Convention last night electrified the Web. Before the evening was over, a massive number of people had turned to their computers to seek more on "mccain children," "mccain family," and "john mccain family pictures." Many people asked, "how many children does john mccain have?" The answer is seven, but it's a little confusing. Here's how it breaks down:

When John McCain married his first wife, Carol, he adopted her two sons: Doug, who is now 48, and Andy, 46. John and Carol then had a third child, Sidney, 41. After the couple divorced, John married Cindy. They had three children: Meghan, 23; Jack, 22; and Jimmy, 20. In 1993, the McCains adopted a little girl from an orphanage in Bangladesh. That's Bridget, 17, and she makes seven. As ABC said recently, "Navigating through the McCain family album might require a road map."

Map or no, this brood stirs up buzz. After Bridget's story aired last night, queries surged for "cleft palate," a deformity she suffered from as a child. Both Jack and Jimmy have drawn attention for their service in the U.S. military; Jack as midshipman in the Navy and Jimmy as a Marine. Meghan, the most vocal of the bunch, has published a children's book and maintains her Web profile with a blog about her father's campaign. The Washington Post recently called her "the gorgeous golden girl, the GOP's next Jenna."

And then there's the other golden girl—their mom. Over the past months, Cindy McCain has proved to be an enduring figure in Buzz. Her husband's poll numbers may spike and plunge; media perception of his campaign may ebb and flow, but no matter what, searchers and buzzers want more on the senator's wife from Arizona.

Before she even spoke into the microphone last night, queries were stirring about the "serene" and well-dressed figure. People wanted to know her biography; they wanted to see photos of her now and when she was young; they wanted to review what they'd heard of her struggles with a drug addiction. (According to Scripps, she "recovered from an addiction to painkillers after disc surgeries" in 1994.)

But most of all, folks wanted to know how old Cindy McCain is. Yeah, we know, it's not polite to ask a lady her age—but this is the Web, people. Queries like "how old is cindy mccain," "cindy mccain age," and, well, "cindy mccain plastic surgery" all leapt. We can't confirm anything about the latter, but we can tell you that the self-styled "Western conservative mother" is a surprising 54.

Finally, where would a family be without its matriarch? As last night made clear, John McCain has a close relationship with his mother, Roberta McCain. The 96-year-old was in attendance at the convention, looking proud of her son and even boasting in a video clip that he's a real "mama's boy." Though searches also rose for "admiral mccain" (that could be his father or his grandfather), it was McCain's mother who drew a 483% rise in queries.

Let the Palin family steal the media spotlight for now. It may very well be the extended McCain kin who produce the campaign's best buzz in the months to come.