Pop Culture Odds and Ends – Cut to the Chase Edition

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This week, let’s skip the preamble and get right down to business. We’re all busy people and I don’t have any ideas for witty banter, so we’ll dive right in to the pop culture goodness.

• Glorious news – Neil Patrick Harris will host the Oscars!

• Peter Quill’s Awesome Mix Vol. 1 from Guardians of the Galaxy will be an actual mixtape.

• You can now watch every episode of The Simpsons on-line (assuming you can get it to load or your cable provider is included)

• Look for the first trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron  during next week’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

• Jimmy Fallon has written a children’s book.

• Fallon and Bradley Cooper cannot hold it together during their interview:

 

• Fox has cut the season order for Mulaney. Probably not a good sign.

• CW has given full season orders to Jane The Virgin and The Flash.

• Eddie Murphy is back with a serious role in Cook.

• Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany is doing an off-Broadway play.

• That’s one way to get a role – Jada Pinkett Smith brought a guy on a leash to her Gotham audition.

• Leslie Jones has been promoted to a feature player on SNL.

• This didn’t come up during The Wire reunion I attended, but there were plans for a spinoff.

• Tom Hanks has a short story in The New Yorker.

• Confirmed: Zack Snyder will direct a two-part Justice League movie. Confirmed: I’m not thrilled.

• Actor Gerald Parkes, best known for playing Doc on Fraggle Rock, has passed away.

• Top Ten with the Foo Fighters:

 

• Who knew Google had a sense of humor? Stephen Colbert went on an epic rant about them listing his height wrong; Google makes a minor adjustment.

• Could Batman v. Superman feature a female Robin?

• Ryan Hurst (Sons of Anarchy’s Opie) is checking in to the Bates Motel.

• NBC is working on a Marley and Me show.

• Sean Beam joins Matt Damon in The Martian.

• FX will not bring back The Bridge for a third season.

• Kramer’s best business ideas from Seinfeld.

• Robert Downey, Jr. took home an interesting souvenir from The Avengers.

• Ryan Murphy is developing a horror-comedy anthology for Fox.

• Starting in 2015 you’ll be able to get HBOGo without a cable subscription.

• CBS has also launched a digital subscription service, which I’m sure will confuse the hell out of the average CBS viewer.

• NBC is going to try again with their adaptation of The IT Crowd.

• Top of the Lake is getting a second season.

• Suck it, TBS – all episodes of Friends will soon be streaming on Netflix.

• The Ben-Hur reboot certainly has an interesting cast; now a Game of Thrones alumni may join.

• Key and Peele are making a movie.

• Try, try again – Christian Slater signs on for another TV show.

• Rainbow Brite is getting a reboot online. Molly Ringwald will voice a villain.

• A new Pee-Wee Herman movie will start filming in 2015.

• Be honest – would you have known that this is Renee Zellweger if I didn’t tell you?

• Lorde’s song “Royals” has been banned from San Francisco airwaves until after the World Series.

• Henry Rollins will star in comedy-horror miniseries He Never Died. Is this a genre now?

• This is awesome – Laurie Holden (Andrea, The Walking Dead) helped save 55 sex trafficking victims in real life.

• Disney Animation announces Moana in 2016.

• Talk about striking while the iron is hot – Ridley Scott and Fox are developing an Ebola series based on The Hot Zone.

• Saw may be coming back.

• Billy Eichner will appear on New Girl.

• Benedict Cumberbatch is now a wax figure.

• It doesn’t sound like Ghostface will be in the Scream TV series.

• Are hoverboards finally a reality?

• The film adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be at least a trilogy.

• Rowling is planning to build a Hagrid Hut on her estate. I’m beginning to worry about her.

• An oral history of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

• Robert Redford is in talks for Pete’s Dragon.

• Well this is sure to piss some people off – Star Wars Episode VII may have Ewoks. Personally, I’m a fan, but there is also no way in hell that I’m seeing this movie.

• Here’s Seth Rogen and Bel Biv Devoe performing “Poison”

 

• Dave Grohl was almost a Heartbreaker.

• Watching Jason Momoa’s Game of Thrones audition tape, it’s pretty clear why he got the gig.

• The man formerly known as Khal Drogo is launching a brewery in Detroit.

• Billy Joel is working on new music about the history of Long Island.

• Paul Rudd is helping Adam McKay re-write Ant-Man.

• Bronies unite! A My Little Pony movie is coming in 2017.

• Lost’s Mr. Eko is heading to Game of Thrones.

• Also coming to Game of Thrones this season – flashbacks. Coincidence?

• Bono always wear sunglasses because he has glaucoma.

• Tony Mendez, the longtime Late Show with David Letterman cue card man, was fired after assaulting a crewmember.

• Could Tom Hardy be in X-Men: Apocalypse.

• Armie Hammer is developing a semi-autobiographical comedy for NBC.

• It’s official…Sharknado 3 will rain down on Washington D.C. and Orlando.

• Gwen Stefani dropped her first new single in a while:

 

• Fox has ordered a drama on the present-day private space race.

• NBC has pulled its space show Mission Control before it launched. Krysten Ritter has the worst luck.

• We now know who Allison Tolman will voice on Archer – Pam’s “far, far worse” sister.

• There will be a mini Freaks and Geeks reunion in the forthcoming Vacation reboot.

• See how you do on the American Horror Story SATs.

• Paul Rudd invited Royals fans to his mom’s house for a party.

• Channing Tatum doesn’t sound too enthused about 23 Jump Street.

• Archie Panjabi is leaving The Good Wife.

• Alan Cumming provides his point of view of Shia LaBeouf’s outburst during Cabaret.

• A piece of Star Wars memorabilia turned up on Antiques Roadshow and was worth a nice chunk of change.

• UPROXX examines which Keanu Reeves character you would want on your side in a bar fight.

Trailer Time

• Call of Duty: Advance Warfare:

 

• A first look at the 5^th season of Downton Abbey:

 

• Lisa Kudrow in The Comeback:

 

• Chris Rock in Top Five:

 

• Cabin Fever is being remade using the original script.

• Chris Noth, who played Mr. Big on Sex and the City, called Carrie Bradshaw a whore.

• Solid addition – Kim Dickens will join House of Cards for season 3.

• Sleater-Kinney reunites for a new album and tour.

• Ryan Gosling, Margot Robbie, Will Smith and Tom Hardy have all been approached for Suicide Squad.

• Britney Spears’ Vegas residency extended through 2017.

• Chris O’Dowd is adapting his Irish sitcom Moone Boy for ABC.

• Jack White canceled some tour dates after the death of his keyboardist, Isaiah Owens.

• A mini Goonies reunion:

Data & Mikey @SeanAstin #thegoonies pic.twitter.com/sPGwoVmHUN

— Elijah Wood (@elijahwood) October 20, 2014

 

• Tommy Lee is now in Smashing Pumpkins?

• Bethenny Frankel is returning to The Real Housewives of New York City.

• The organization Clowns of America International (wait…what? That name makes no sense) is not happy with AHS: Freak Show.

• Bewitched is getting another reboot.

• Jay Leno awarded Mark Twain Prize.

• Leno is headed back to NBC…….CNBC.

• Syfy is bringing Dark Matter to TV.

• Nicholas Brendon, who played Xander on Buffy, was arrested in Idaho.

• NBC is making a comedy about a gay soccer player.

• Somewhat curious – Norman Reedus keeps Andrew Lincoln’s beard in his fridge:

http://instagram.com/p/uZinY5McDU/

 

• Christian Bale is in talks to play Steve Jobs.

• Robin Williams may have a tunnel named after him in San Francisco.

• This week in pop culture real estate: the funeral home featured in The Sopranos is for sale.

• Al Pacino is heading back to Broadway.

• Erykah Badu sang in the streets of New York and only earned $3.60.

• Glee’s Matthew Morrison got married.

• Actress Misty Upham was found dead after being reported missing.

• Charlie Sheen and his porn star fiancée have called it quits. Love is dead.

• Pacific Rim 2 will start filming in 2015 and will tie directly into (a currently not ordered) Pacific Rim 3.

As always, we end with the mashups and supercuts

• The Simpsons channeled some other cartoon characters in this year’s Treehouse of Horror:

 

• Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reprise their Shaun of the Dead roles on Phineas and Ferb:

 

• A supercut of drivers and passengers in cinema:

 

• Here’s an orchestra performing Rage Against the Machine:

 

• Ever wonder what some famous Disney creatures would look like as humans? Wonder no more:

 

• This supercut proves that Fallon says “fun” a lot:

 

• Dawson’s Creek – with dogs:

 

• The Hobbit told in 72 seconds and in LEGO. I could have saved myself a lot of time:

 

• The Walking Dead mashed-up with all sorts of pop culture favorites:

 

• The Ohio State marching band continues to kill it with their halftime shows. This week’s theme – Classic Rock:

 

• And finally, Breaking Bad meets….American Doll?