Along the same lines:

=begin private

_benjamin(...)

Movie starring Goldie Hawn.

=end private
[download]

Not like there's any functional difference, but I've always found =for to be a bad choice, both esthetically and because I think it'd be confusing to future maintainers, who may not immediately get what you're doing here.

Also, according to perlpod you're misusing =for in that example. There shouldn't be a blank line between the =for FOO and the POD you're for'ing. pod2html, for instance, will let the 'private' POD be displayed if you do that. Also, =for doesn't take an =end, which will also kill pod2html/Pod::Html with the error "Unmatched begin/end". (At least, it will for version 1.02 that comes with the Perl 5.005.03 that I'm using right now...)

Update: There is one functional difference that bears mentioning: using begin/end like this will let you hide multiple paragraphs. (Update #2: cleaned up some confusing word choices in one sentence, that I just couldn't stand to let stand.)

-- Frag.