diff --git a/django/utils/httpwrappers.py b/django/utils/httpwrappers.py
index 2312891b6a..eeebda565d 100644
--- a/django/utils/httpwrappers.py
+++ b/django/utils/httpwrappers.py
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@ class HttpRequest(object): # needs to be new-style class because subclasses defi
                 return d[key]
         raise KeyError, "%s not found in either POST or GET" % key
 
+    def has_key(self, key):
+        return self.GET.has_key(key) or self.POST.has_key(key)
+
     def get_full_path(self):
         return ''
 
diff --git a/docs/request_response.txt b/docs/request_response.txt
index 5b01fc3482..150a5bc92c 100644
--- a/docs/request_response.txt
+++ b/docs/request_response.txt
@@ -110,6 +110,18 @@ All attributes except ``session`` should be considered read-only.
 Methods
 -------
 
+``__getitem__(key)``
+    Returns the GET/POST value for the given key, checking POST first, then
+    GET. Raises ``KeyError`` if the key doesn't exist.
+
+    This lets you use dictionary-accessing syntax on an ``HttpRequest``
+    instance. Example: ``request["foo"]`` would return ``True`` if either
+    ``request.POST`` or ``request.GET`` had a ``"foo"`` key.
+
+``has_key()``
+    Returns ``True`` or ``False``, designating whether ``request.GET`` or
+    ``request.POST`` has the given key.
+
 ``get_full_path()``
     Returns the ``path``, plus an appended query string, if applicable.