If you thought Zooey Deschannel of and Samuel L. Jackson would be the only celebrities Apple would use to promote Siri, we suggest seeking wiser counsel. Apple's latest actor-whose-best-friend-is-an-AI commercial stars John Malkovich, a cup of coffee, a spacious living room, and a white iPhone 4S. In the two 30-second spots, the prolific actor (Empire of the Sun, Dangerous Liaisons, Santabear's First Christmas) offers Siri curt one-word requests and patiently listens to the wordier responses — "weather," "evening," "Linguica," and "joke" in one; just "life" in the other.

Although the low-quality TV captures we saw last night specifically referenced carriers — an AT&T logo at the end of "Life," a Verizon one at the end of "Joke" — the HD versions Apple uploaded to its YouTube channel are decidedly network-agnostic. Apple's previous celebrity ads came out less than six weeks prior to this, which means it wouldn't surprise us one bit if another famous co-starred with Siri sometime before the 4th of July.