Pop Culture Odds and Ends – Back to School edition

In this part of country today is the first day of school, which has little direct impact on my except that I had to avoid school buses during my morning commute and that my Facebook feed is filled with pictures of my friends’ offspring heading off to their institutions of learning. It’s still weird to me to not have a first day of school anymore; when you are a student and teacher continuously from the age of 4 to 32, you get used to such things. I do miss back to school shopping. I may have to buy myself some highlighters and folders just for old time’s sake. Best of luck to all the kiddos and teachers out there for a productive and educational school year and congratulations to all the parents in weathering another summer (and a special shout out to those of you who now have all your children in school and no longer have to pay for day care – the nightmare is over!).

In honor of the first day of school, allow me to educate you on all the pop culture stories that you might have missed while you were looking for the school prescribed type of scissors or haggling over first day of school outfits. Kick back and enjoy the beginning of Fall with your biweekly pop culture roundup:

• Someone at HBO has been listening to me – next season of True Blood will be the series’ last. They are proving to be smarter than the books.

• The new cast of Dancing with the Stars was revealed. I knew it was only a matter of time until Snookie turned up, though I wouldn’t have predicted Bill Nye the Science Guy,

• I was already pretty stoked about Avengers: Age of Ultron, but now I am really excited since James Spader has been cast as the titular villain.

• Tonight will be the final episode of Futurama.

• Jon Stewart has returned to The Daily Show! I thought that John Oliver did a fantastic job filling in, but it’s nice to have good ol’ Stew Beef back:

 

• Kathleen Turner will appear in Dumb and Dumber To.

• How many Wizard of Oz shows do we really need? NBC thinks at least one more.

• I’m a big fan of BBC’s Luther (love me some Idris Elba), so I’m happy that the series might get a movie prequel.

• If you think people lost their minds when Ben Affleck was chosen to be the new Batman, imagine what would happen if Justin Timberlake was The Riddler.

• Affleck has dropped out of two upcoming directorial projects, including an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, to play The Caped Crusader. And so it begins…..

• There is one final Elmore Leonard book on the way.

• Official Comedy looks at what would happen if Mark Wahlberg got his wish and became Iron Man:

 

• Dustin Hoffman and Judi Dench will star in the BBC’s film adaption of Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot.

• Ron Howard’s Jay Z concert documentary Made in America will air on Showtime October 11^th.

• Check out this photo from a mini School of Rock reunion.

• The book Room is moving closer to becoming a movie.

• Stephen Moyer and Carrie Underwood will star in a live Sound of Music special for NBC. Vampire Bill can sing? Who knew?

• Clint Eastwood and his wife have separated (I called this when she got her own reality show).

• If you aren’t tired of talking about the VMAs, watch Morgan Freeman read the definition of twerking on Headline News.

• Ha – the inventor of the foam finger is none too pleased with Miley Cyrus.

• This dude made a homemade version of KITT from Knight Rider:

 

• The Princess Diana biopic starring Naomi Watts will be in limited release in the U.S November 1^st.

• X-Files creator Chris Carter has landed a pilot deal at Amazon.

• Watch a possibly intoxicated Alexander Skarsgard at a football match in Sweden (probably NSFW if you speak Swedish). This kind of makes me love him all the more, which is good news because he is once again single. Kate Bosworth, you are an idiot.

• Amy Poehler and Tina Fey may return as Golden Globe hosts.

• Here’s a photo of Peter Dinklage hula-hooping at a gay bar in Canada. If this doesn’t make you smile, you have no heart:

He was joined by his Game of Throne’s sister Lena Headey. Say what you will about the Lannisters – these people know how to have a good time.

• Chadwick Boseman, who was impressive as Jackie Robinson in 42, is doing another biopic, He has been cast as the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, James Brown.

• Actress Anna Gunn (Sklyer on Breaking Bad) wrote an interesting op-ed for The New York Times.

• Francis Ford Coppola is a fan of R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet series. Who can blame him?

• Check out the list of the highest earning celebrities for 2013. #4 makes me particularly annoyed.

• I’m happy that former Happy Endings actress Eliza Coupe has found work, but I’m sad it is on the dreadful looking The Millers on CBS (which is already squandering the talent of the great Margo Martindale and Will Arnett).

• Gisele Bundchen has recorded a song for H&M.

• Legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement.

• A&E will most likely renew Longmire for a third season. Am I the only person watching this show?

• This parody site offers suggestions for Robin Thicke for “what rhymes with hug me.”

• The new film Getaway has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score I have ever seen.

• General Mills is bringing back all five Monster Cereals for Halloween. I’d never even heard of Fruit Brute.

• This weekend we had a debate about what kind of tattoos we would get (neither of us got tatted up in college with all our friends). I’ve considered a lot of options, but somehow a Minion tattoo never crossed my mind.

• Eminem will release The Marshal Mathers LP 2 in November. Based on his references to Khloe Kardashian and Kevin Federline in the new single “Berzerk” I’m a little concerned his references might not be too up to date.

• If you missed it during its original theatrical run, This is The End will return to theaters this Friday. Highly recommended.

• Paul F. Tompkins nails Boardwalk Empire’s Richard Harrow in this Funny or Die short.

• The National are doing a Grateful Dead tribute album.

• Michelle Williams (the actress, not the Destiny’s Child singer) will make her Broadway debut in Cabaret. In other news, someone needs to get me tickets to Cabaret.

• Aaron Paul continues his general tour of awesomeness with this napkin that he left for a server that he found out was a Breaking Bad fan:

• Lady Gaga will appear on Saturday Night Live this season and may even host.

• J Lo is back at the judge’s table on American Idol and will be joined by newbie Harry Connick, Jr. and last season’s Keith Urban.

• Watch a trailer for the 4^th season of Downton Abbey:

 

• FX’s hilarious show The League begins a new season tonight. Uproxx looks at 56 fantasy football team names inspired by the show.

• This sounds interesting: Kevin Pollak is making a documentary about comedians.

• America’s favorite ambassador Dennis Rodman is headed back to North Korea; this can only yield good results.

• A&E has cancelled The Glades.

• Buzzfeed looks at how some popular childhood toys have changed over the years. The new Strawberry Shortcake never fails to depress me.

• Last Thursday, Dave Chapelle walked stage at a show in Hartford. This makes me a little nervous about my show this weekend.

• Also on Thursday, Fiona Apple stormed off stage. Seriously – was there a full moon?

• David Schwimmer angered his neighbors by tearing down a townhouse in NYC that was one year away from receiving landmark status. Their passive aggressive response is outstanding:

Did anyone think he was?

•  Meanwhile his former co-star Lisa Kudrow is headed to ABC’s Scandal.

• Crooner Michael Buble and wife welcomed their first child.

• Dave Attell is headed back to Comedy Central.

• We’re getting another North and South miniseries.

• SNL has four new cast members.

• Please, please, please let this be true: Kanye and Miley Cyrus have allegedly teamed up for a “Black Skinhead” remix.

• A modern version of Les Miserables is in the development process at Fox as a weekly TV show. I bet I won’t like that version either, though I doubt it will ever get to a pilot because this is a ridiculously stupid idea. Of course, I also thought Survivor would be cancelled after one season, so what do I know?

• Jay Pharoah does a fantastic Kanye impersonation in his parody of West’s “I Am A God” (NSFW):

 

• Bradley Cooper will voice Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy.

• Jim Gaffigan and Kate Walsh have joined Lorne Michaels’ comedy Staten Island Summer.

• This is ONLY A RUMOR, but Benedict Cumberbatch may join the cast of the new Star Wars film.

• If you need to catch up on episodes of The Good Wife, all four seasons will be streaming on Hulu.

• The director of the Academy Award winning animated short Paperman has left Disney. Best of luck to him in his future endeavors – I loved his film.

• Buzzfeed has a quiz to determine what Breaking Bad character you are. I’m a Gus, so watch out.

• Choose Your Own Adventure series is hoping to re-launch on iPad.

• Paul Giamatti is headed to FX.

• Internet sensations Grumpy Cat and Lil Bub met for the first time at the Internet Cat Festival in Minneapolis. Yeah – you read that last part correctly.

• The role of Daario Naharis on Game of Thrones has been recast. Because it isn’t hard enough already to keep all those characters straight when they are played continuously by the same actor.

• Hilarious mix-up of the week: Upon seeing the headline “DreamWorks Want to Remake Like Father, Like Son Following Steven Spielberg Seeing It In Cannes,” I briefly thought that they meant the Kirk Cameron/Dudley Moore body switch movie.

• Speaking of parent/child switcheroos, this tweet made me literally laugh out loud:

• Burger King has unveiled a French fry burger, which turns out to be far less exciting than the name indicates.

• MTV hopes that they have found their next Jersey Shore with the new reality show Big Tips Texas, which takes place in the bar Redneck Heaven.

• ABC Family has decided to cancel the promising show Bunheads. The cast reunited to do one last dance together:

 

• Syfy is developing a TV show based on 12 Monkeys.

• This guy definitely sounds like a legit doctor – a dentist who bought John Lennon’s molar at an auction wants to use it to clone the Beatle. Yup – that’s not at all creepy.

• This sounds VERY promising: Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer have teamed up for a movie

• I just discovered the LEGO CUUSOO web page, where users can submit a product idea to the LEGO Company. If a product receives 10,000 likes, it is considered for a LEGO release. Cool huh? Among those projects currently under consideration: the courthouse from Back to the Future and the Ghostbusters’ firehouse headquarters.

• Perhaps the guy who created these unofficial Monty Python and the Holy Grail playsets should submit his ideas.

• A Doctor Who Mr. Potato Head.

• Mad Men’s Ginsberg (Ben Feldman) is headed to The Mindy Project.

• Netflix will stream Russell Peters’s stand up special and four part documentary about his latest tour. I’ve been contemplating going to see him when he comes to town.

• Netflix will also debut Aziz Ansari’s newest standup special, Buried Alive (based on the tour I saw).

• Damn you to hell, Chase Utley. I have been perfectly content to hate you and your stupid hair since 2009 and then you had to go and do something relatively awesome like answer Mac’s fan letter from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

 

• The A.V. Club looks at discontinued merit badges.

• LeBron James is producing a TV sitcom. I’m guessing it isn’t Hot in Cleveland.

• Tumblr of the week: Drake-in Bad

• Introducing a new feature, Pinterest page of the week: Not Real Taylor Swift Quotes (Hitler quotes attributed to Taylor Swift)

• Jodi Foster will direct an episode of House of Cards.

• Kyle Chandler isn’t particularly interested in a Friday Night Lights movie (based on the TV show, obviously, since there already is a Friday Night Lights movie in existence). I still need to get around to watching season 5.

• Muhammad Ali and Liberace once performed together. No, seriously:

 

• This Vulture quiz was tricky: see if you can guess 20 movie comedies from their IMDB plot keywords.

• I love this video of a guy dressed up as Spiderman, schooling people on the basketball court:

That was twice as entertaining as The Amazing Spiderman.

• Chris sent in a link to Entertainment Weekly’s fall movie preview.

• Michael Phelps will appear on USA’s Suits.

• Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine has sold a comedy to NBC.

• This makes me very happy that I have Showtime: Joshua Jackson and Dominic West will co-star in the pilot The Affair.

• Further proof that Charlie Hunnam will do just fine in the Fifty Shades of Grey lead – he already basically played the other lead role on Queer as Folk.

• Yesterday I wrote about why I thought people were overreacting with their outrage over the casting in Fifty Shades which apparently didn’t make a difference since there is now a petition demanding that Hunnam be re-cast with Matt Bomer.

• According to Entertainment Weekly the greatest boy band of all time is……The Backstreet Boys.

• Speaking of boy bands – congrats to Lance Bass on his engagement!

• Seth Meyers is now a married man. Wait, didn’t he JUST get engaged?

• Bill Murray will star in Barry Levinson’s next movie Rock the Kasbah.

• The film Outbreak will become a pilot for NBC.

• Someone on The Walking Dead has been cast as the lead in another AMC show, which probably means their days on the former show are numbered. (Possible spoiler).

• Jason Priestley will appear on CSI’s 300^th episode.

• The name of the final episode of Breaking Bad is “Felina.” Let the wild speculation begin!

• Someone figured out how to play “Get Lucky” on Mario Paint:

 

• Simon Pegg and Nick Frost actually do a decent cover of the song as well:

 

As always, we end with the mashups and shupercuts

• A supercut of near kisses in movies:

 

• People on The Newsroom sure like to shout:

 

• Every time Leonardo DiCaprio says “old sport” in The Great Gatsby:

 

• A mash-up of Breaking Bad and the Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait (The Whisper Song)”

• The new season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia starts tonight on FXX. Watch clips from the show re-cut as a trailer for a psychological thriller:

 

• Kill Him – the supercut:

 

•  I was forced to watch a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine while babysitting a dreadful little boy while I was in grad school, so I took particular joy in this mash-up:

 

• And finally, a fan already cut together a trailer for Man of Steel 2, adding the rumored Brian Cranston as Lex Luthor for good measure: