Mail.app on 10.8: How to get back the "N Messages Selected" label? In OS X 10.7 Lion: Mail.app in "classic layout" (Preferences > Viewing > Use classic layout), would display a very helpful "N Messages Selected" label in the empty bottom pane when you selected multiple messages:



But in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, the helpful label is gone and replaced by some terrible (slow, choppy) animation of individual messages flying around and being added to a stack of overlapping messages.

Question: is it possible to get the old "N Messages Selected" label back on OS X 10.8?
I usually just drag the selected messages a few pixels and then let them drop back. While you're dragging them, the number of messages is shown next to the cursor.

Not exactly the same thing, but it does the job for me.