Pop Culture Odds and Ends – Epic Roundup edition

So it appears I went a little overboard this week with the links; I was freaking out that I was behind schedule on this post and just started plugging away in compiling links. Next thing you know, the document was nine pages long. I guess I just kind of lost track of what I was doing. So while you wade through all the pop culture goodness I’ve cultivated for you over the last two weeks, I’m going to consider taking a nap after a job well done.

• Chris Brown is facing possible jail time after an alleged hit and run incident. That’s kind of like getting Al Capone on tax evasion.

• A new MGMT album is coming in September. So is new music from Elton John.

• Cap’n Crunch appears to have falsified his resumé.

• Don Draper’s childhood home is a real place (and for sale), though it was heavily CGIed for Mad Men. Michael Jackson’s Thriller video and scenes from Chinatown were filmed in the same neighborhood.

• Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum will be back for Independence Day 2, which is proceeding without Will Smith.

• Get off the ledge – Robert Downey, Jr. is confirmed for Avengers 2 and Avengers 3.

• Breaking Bad is the latest TV show to get its own beer. Anyone in Albuquerque want to send me some?

• The second Game of Thrones beer is due this Fall.

• I haven’t forgotten about you, wine drinkers – a Downton Abbey line of wines will be released.

• Um….am I the only one that finds it odd that they are using an Eminem song in the trailer for Despicable Me 2?

 

• Starz has officially announced a new series Outlander, based on the books by Diana Gabaldon. Not sure it is for me, but sounds interesting.

• According to an interview with W magazine, Kanye is still working on a Jetsons movie.

• A Tupac musical is getting closer to Broadway.

• No shocker here – Dan Harmon finally watched the 4^th season of Community and he wasn’t a fan.

• A clinical psychologist analyzes some superheroes.

• Flavor Flav’s last chicken and ribs restaurant has closed. Fun fact – Flavor Flav is inexplicably one of my Twitter followers (Word up, Flavor FLAV!).

• This statistic made me sad – there are only357 Drive-Ins left in America. I consider myself lucky that three are close by.

• Stephen Colbert’s mother passed away last week. If you haven’t seen his touching tribute to her, it is a must watch. I bawled through the whole thing.

 

• Sorry Doctor Who fans – the new Doctor won’t be announced until Fall.

• The national nightmare is over – Twinkies, Ho Hos and the rest of the Hostess cake family will return to shelves July 15. I’m guessing the people who dropped a ton of cash to stock up are feeling kind of foolish right now.

• Someone (brave) got an Arrested Development inspired license plate:

 

• The Faceblock App from the new episodes of Arrested Development can now be downloaded.

• In honor of the Encyclopedia Brown movie that is in development, Vulture ranked the books by the awesomeness of their titles.

• Shark Week is coming in August – and if this promo is an indication, it’s going to be particularly twisted. RIP Snuffy.

 

• CNN breaks down the accuracy of the recent Lifetime movie on Jodi Arias (which yes, I watched). Good job CNN – no worldwide crises you should be covering.

• Macklemore & Ryan Lewis announced an arena tour this fall.

• Nick Swisher and his actress wife Joanna Garcia have released the first picture of their baby daughter and she is just precious:

 

Welcome to the world, Emerson Jay!

 

• Boo – Sandra Bullock is no longer in talks to play Miss Hannigan in the Annie reboot.

• He was overdue for an outburst – Charlie Sheen had his Anger Management co-star Selma Blair fired.

• Finally! One of Taylor Swift’s (alleged) exes has (allegedly) written a song about her. Oh John Mayer – I knew you were the one that was douchey enough to do this and I love you for it.

• Netflix is bringing back Hemlock Grove for a second season.

• Jon Stewart was on the Egyptian version of The Daily Show. It switches over to English about 2.5 minutes into the interview

 

• I’m not making this up – the FBI is using a Portlandia sketch in its training program.

• Aaron Carter claims he was attacked by four New Kids on the Block fans – that were men. The Boy Band war wages on.

• Neil Patrick Harris will return to Broadway to star in Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

I’m still reeling from the death of James Gandolfini and am touched with the various ways he has been honored:

• Broadway marquees will dim their lights tonight in his memory.

• Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played the Born to Run album in its entirety in a concert as a tribute to their fellow New Jersey icon.

• The New York Yankees took a moment to observe his passing:

 

• Holsten’s Ice Cream, the locale for the final scene of The Sopranos, saved a table in his honor:

 

• Sesame Street posted a clip of his 2002 appearance:

 

• His funeral will be Thursday in New York City. I still can’t believe he’s gone 😦

• Gary David Goldberg, creator of Family Ties and Spin City, passed away. Michael J. Fox remembers him.

• I’m regretting that I didn’t go to the Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival – it happened only a hop, skip and a jump away in North Adams, MA. I’m especially bummed I missed Wilco’s all cover set, but now I can listen to it online in its entirety.

 

• I am relieved to hear that a supporting character on Parenthood is now officially returning for the next season.

• A Knight Rider movie is being penned. I’m not sure why they think this will do better than the recent TV reboot, but best of luck to them.

• This Into the Woods film adaptation keeps getting better and better – Anna Kendrick is in talks to play Cinderella.

• The guy who inspired the Soup Nazi character on Seinfeld is rolling out some food trucks (Thanks to Kristin for the tip!)

• Happy 50^th birthday to Georgios Kyriacos Panagiòtou (George Michael to the uninitiated).  In honor of half a century, here’s one of my favorite songs:

 

• A new poster has been released for the final season of Breaking Bad (did anyone else internally yell out Fame? Just me? Moving on….)

 

• Game of Thrones continues its world domination. There are close to 150 babies in the U.S. named Khaleesi.

• Men’s Wearhouse has fired their founder (and star of their commercials). I’m guessing they didn’t like the way he looks.

• Liam Neeson will get $20 million to appear in Taken 3.

• The Village Voice has an interview with my favorite member of The Roots, Questlove.

• A Street Fighter parody – with cats. My Pumpkin would dominate in this.

 

• I am SO excited to be going to the Funny or Die Oddball Comedy and Curiosity Festival.

• Among the new Houseguest on this season of Big Brother – Rachel’s sister (if you watched the show, you know what this means).

• Late Night with Jimmy Fallon was really exceptional last week – great guests and fun bits – but this Super Mario Brother’s rap is really fantastic:

 

• This is not a promising development – the Sin City sequel has been delayed a year.

• Jim Carrey has refused to publically promote his upcoming movie Kick-Ass 2, as post Sandy Hook he thinks it is too violent.

• Jay-Z’s newest album will feature some Nirvana lyrics.

• Speaking of…this photo makes me deliriously happy:

 

• The first episode of the Stephen King miniseries Under the Dome did very well for CBS. The rich get richer.

• Fat Joe is headed to the slammer.

• Paul Giamatti has joined the cast of Downton Abbey.

• Kenny Chesney fans and the city of Pittsburgh are not a good combination.

• An infographic of Leonardo DiCaprio movies.

 

• Ha! EW has a fun quiz – who said it, Kanye or Lucille Bluth?

• A biophysicist fact checks World War Z. Read my review here.

• This ASL interpreter at a Wu Tang Clan show is phenomenal.

• If anyone is looking to get an early jump on my birthday present, I’d love a print of this Muppet periodic table.

• A cool Lego exhibit has opened in Times Square.

• The first trailer for the upcoming Lego movie has been released:

 

• Liv Tyler has joined the cast of Damon Lindelof’s HBO pilot.

• Bring back Celebrity Deathmatch – Kid Rock is talkin some smack about The Biebs.

• Barnes & Noble will stop making the color version of the Nook.

• Neil Diamond will release a charity song next week to benefit the Boston One Fund and The Wounded Warriors Project.

• The Rock’s diet to prepare for his upcoming role in Hercules sounds intense.

• 2014 is shaping up to be a big year for Arnold Schwarzenegger – not only will he appear in the next Terminator movie, but he’ll also star in the zombie flick Maggie.

• People magazine is offering a free 8 song country music sampler.

• Chris Rock has cast Kevin Hart, J.B. Smoove and Sherri Shepherd in his new TV show.

• This screencap pretty much sums up the 90s:

 

• Who knew that Channing Tatum was such a fan of sweaters? He’s a regular Bill Cosby.

• A-Rod had joined Twitter. Heaven help us all.

• Jeff Garlin takes his parking spaces very seriously.

• Parks and Recreation will kick off its sixth season with an hour long episode that takes place outside Pawnee.

• T-Bone Burnett will not return to Nashville for season 2.

• Disney has (thankfully) decided to change the name of the upcoming Muppets sequel from The Muppets…..Again! to Muppets Most Wanted.

• Universal has picked up the orphaned Dumb and Dumber sequel.

• They aren’t officially recording together yet, but here’s video footage that rapper Wale and Seinfeld do in fact know each other

 

• Some plot details for the forthcoming Doctor Strange movie have been revealed.

• Tumblr of the week: Kanye Wes, Game of Portlandia and Mad Men Screenshots with Things Drawn on Them

• Ridley Scott. Cormac McCarthy. Brad Pitt. Michael Fassbender. Penelope Cruz. Javier Bardem. Cameron Diaz. All associated with one movie – The Counselor

 

• Pixar movies as infographics.

• The Jim Henson Company is looking for writers for a The Dark Crystal prequel.

• The actor in this character might look familiar – he was the awful Oliver on The O.C.

 

• Jodi Sweeten – best known as Stephanie Tanner on Full House – is ending her third marriage. How rude!

• OK – I PROMISE this is the last Kanye-related thing this week. He made a terrible short film to promote his new album Yeezus that features fellow Kardashian baby daddy Scott Disick and Kim BFF Jonathan Cheban. They are not great actors, but this is kind of hilarious since Disick has always given off an American Psycho vibe. Glad to see he owns his sociopathic-ness.

 

• Mike Tyson’s one man show is coming to HBO.

• This isn’t really pop culture related, but it’s far too crazy not to share (and it happened a few towns over from me).

As always, we end with the mashups and supercuts

• Here’s montage of famous movie actresses, edited to make their heads explode

 

• Wonder what it would be like if John Lennon auditioned for The Voice? Wonder no longer

 

• I’m still not tired of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky;” listen to it performed by President Obama:

 

• A Star Wars/Game of Thrones art project mashup.

• Every movie reference made on The Office.

•  A supercut of all of Troy McClure’s credits on The Simpsons

 

• A supercut of John Goodman freaking out.

• Jon Snow gets an 80’s style training montage, as it should be:

 

• This supercut seems to indicate that David Letterman is kind of obsessed with drums:

 

• A supercut of zombie headshots

 

• And finally – Hannibal’s open credits get an Arrested Development make-over:

 

Have a great week!

Pop Culture Odds and Ends– Lots of videos edition

Happy Wednesday! The sun is actually shining today, which gives me hope that the rain is behind us for a while. I was so over the dreariness. The good news about all the rain is that it gave me plenty of time to hole up and surf the web in search of pop culture stories to share with you, my dear readers. I found more videos of interest than usual, so this week is more audio/visual heavy than usual. Why read when you can just click a button and watch? Enjoy your biweekly roundup of all things pop!

• The Colbert Report has an hour long special with Sir Paul McCartney tonight (June 12^th)

• The Dumb and Dumber sequel that would reunite Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels has been dropped by Warner Brothers. Directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly are shopping the project to other companies. Countdown until the inevitable Kickstarter?

• Umm….Will Ferrell’s mini-series parody on IFC sounds AH-MAH-ZING.

• Congrats to Kate Winslet on her pregnancy. This will be her third child, her first with new husband Ned Rocknroll (still the best name ever).

• Johnny Depp is FIFTY! How the f*&k did that happen?

• I’ll be interested in how this works: a Choose Your Own Adventure movie is being developed. I loved those books!

• A new trailer has been released for the next Hobbit movie:

 

• Also recently released – a trailer for the newest Woody Allen movie Blue Jasmine. Look – It’s Louis CK!

 

• Happy belated birthday to the wonderful Peter Dinklage. He turned 44 yesterday. I could watch this scene of him slapping Joffrey all day long.

• That was quick – after a solid opening weekend, The Purge is getting a sequel.

• Even faster – Man of Steel hasn’t even opened and its sequel has been fast-tracked.

• The guy who plays Hodor (Hodor!) on Game of Thrones is also a DJ.

• What’s that you say? Baseball and boy bands? You have my attention.

 

• Carey Mulligan has reportedly turned down the role of Hillary Clinton in an upcoming biopic. I’m kind of glad – I didn’t think she was right for the part anyway.

• It’s good to be king; CBS had 12 of the top 25 rated TV shows of last season.

• I’m slowly working my way through the Fast and Furious franchise, which I guess will have to include this short 20 minute film, Los Bandoleros, which ties up some of the loose ends of the series (thanks to Chris T for the tip!)

• Laraine Newman and company nail this Girls parody:

 

• One more reason to love Amy Poehler: she knows her Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary.

• A Duck Dynasty Christmas album is on its way.

• MTV promises to be all about music for TWELVE WHOLE HOURS  on July 4^th.

• Pizza Hut Canda has unveiled a Cheesy Beef Poutine Pizza. That is reason alone for a visit to our neighbors to the North. FYI – I tried the Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich from Dunkin Donuts; it’s not amazing, but it was better than I expected. Don’t judge me.

• The Writers Guild of America rated the 101 best written TV series of all time.

• Peter Mayhew, best known for play Chewbacca, was briefly detained by TSA because of his lightsaber inspired cane.

• Christoph Waltz is attached to a detective thriller based on a real case. It sounds pretty interesting.

• Mumford & Sons have cancelled a bunch of tour dates.

• Portlandia has been renewed for two more seasons.

• Bob Saget couldn’t help but stop by a familiar location while on a trip to San Francisco

• Yet another compelling reason for me to buy a house: more wall space for Seinfeld quotes on typographic posters.

• Another cast member that I don’t care for is leaving Revenge.

• Must.Buy.Breaking.Bad.action.figure.

• True Blood returns for its 6^th season on Sunday. Here’s to hoping that it’s better than last season; as you may recall, I was not too impressed.

 

• FX has cancelled Brand X, but isn’t out of the Russell Brand business.

• It’s déjà vu all over again – HBO has cancelled Eastbound and Down (again).

• James Franco has written an essay on American Psycho.

• Next time I’m in Florida, I may have to swing by Universal Studios and have a drink at a fully functional Moe’s Tavern.

• Jennifer Love Hewitt is having a good month – she announced her pregnancy and got engaged.

• Diablo Cody now has a sidekick for her new talk show on TBS.

• The new season of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee drops tomorrow at noon:

 

• Tenacious D’s Festival Supreme comedy lineup looks pretty fantastic.

• If you believe the scuttlebutt at UK gambling agencies – and who doesn’t – Rory Kinnear may be the new Doctor on Doctor Who.

• The Wizard of Oz will get a limited IMAX release in September.

• Tim Tebow just signed with the New England Patriots on Monday and the prop bets are already out. The signing also received the Taiwanese animation treatment.

I didn’t watch the Tonys – Game of Thrones and Mad Men own my Sunday nights – but looks like I missed a hell of a show.

 

Note to Seth MacFarlane – THAT is how you host an awards show. Full slate of winners (and the shows that are now impossible to get tickets to) can be found here.

• I love when TV shows reference other TV shows. Here are the 12 best Game of Thrones mentions on other shows.

• Attention all Juggalos – Insane Clown Posse is getting their own show. I’ll admit – the episode of their webseries that I saw was kind of amusing.

• The band Portugal. The Man scored some familiar faces (if you are a It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fan) for their newest short:

 

• Speaking of It’s Always Sunny – if you ever wondered what the guys were saying backwards in the end credits each season, wonder no more:

 

• Y’all know I have a weakness for terrible Lifetime movies, but this one sounds slightly promising: Christina Ricci will play Lizzie Borden.

• A Muppets’ stage show? Oh pretty pretty please make this happen.

• The sequel to 21 Jump Street will be called 22 Jump Street. Makes sense, though I would have gone with 21 Jump Street: Even Jumpier.

• I love these covers of songs from Bob’s Burgers. This one is by The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt and it’s great.

• Looks like I’m planning a trip to DC this fall – An Anchorman exhibit opens at the Newsuem in November.

• Warner Brothers gave up their rights to Friday the 13^th and South Park for a piece of the new Christopher Nolan movie.

• Will Arnett will appear on The Simpsons.

• Big Brother 15 will debut on CBS on June 26th

• Samuel L. Jackson reads the iconic “I am the one that knocks” monologue from Breaking Bad. My head just exploded.

 

• Tublrs of the week: Suri’s Burn Book (Suri Cruise throws some shade at other celebrity kids) and Hipsters who dress like Jackie (as in Aunt Jackie from Roseanne).

• Yay! NBC renewed Hannibal.

• A trip to the “Happiest Place on Earth” is going to cost you.

• Do you have a cat that is also a fan of Indiana Jones? Then I have a gift for you.

• John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame is writing an opera.

• HBO has greenlit a pilot from Lorne Michaels and two former Late Night with Jimmy Fallon writers.

• This is kind of cool: Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” reimagined in different musical styles through the decades:

 

• Kanye has confirmed his collaborators for his upcoming album Yeezus. He’s doing something right – Kanye also recently got the video game treatment with the creation of a RPG.

• One thing Kanye ain’t lacking is confidence, as evidenced by this New York Times article with the self-proclaimed “visionary.” The most ridiculous quotes are here.

• The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Scott Thorson (Liberace’s Ex) about HBO’s Behind the Candelabra (a must see – Michael Douglas and Matt Damon are fantastic and you have to see Rob Lowe to believe it).

• Uproxx has a roundup of casting news and some other info about Sons of Anarchy.

• Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell announced that he has Hodgkin Lymphoma.

• A writer at McSweeney’s compared Taylor Swift’s lyrics to “22” to what it’s actually like to be 22.

• If you missed it, Google had a wonderful Google Doodle earlier this week honoring the late great Maurice Sendak:

 

• Look for Alvin and the Chipmunks 4 in 2015. Shows how much I know – I didn’t even know that there had already been 3 movies.

• Holliday Grainger (The Borgias) has joined the cast of the live action reimagined Cinderella.

• While waiting for a Green Day concert to start, an Bohemian Rhapsody sing-a-long broke out:

 

• Wanda Sykes will have a comedy special on OWN (Oprah’s network).

• Showtime has renewed Nurse Jackie for a 6^th season.

• Leo continues to surprise me with his role selection – he’s currently attached to play Rasputin.

• A Christmas Story, the Musical returns to New York this holiday season (but not on Broadway).

• Watch a young Ryan Gosling on Goosebumps.

• Singer Jon Marco isn’t famous, but he’s trying to make a name for himself with a video that features recreations of several 80s movies. Not so sure about the song, but I’ll give him points for creativity.

 

As always, we end with the mashups and supercuts:

• A supercut of this year’s best TV drunks.

• I refuse to tire of these Daft Punk mashups. This one is with moments from the Bill and Ted’s franchise:

 

• Sex and the City debuted 15 years ago last week. To celebrate, here is a mashup of all the guest stars on the show (I remember almost none of them).

• Spoilers abound in this Princess Bride/Game of Thrones mashup, so proceed with caution:

 

• Mad Men reacts to the Red Wedding on Game of Thrones (SPOILERS – but seriously – that episode was almost two weeks ago. Catch up already)

 

• A supercut of all the fake websites on Arrested Development:

 

• A mashup of animals who can’t handle mirrors:

 

And finally, these supercuts of NBC’s Brian Williams make me giggle uncontrollably. Damn you Fallon – you’ve done it again:

• Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang”

 

• Warren G’s “Regulate:”

 

• The pièce de résistance– NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton”

 

Have a great day!

Pop Culture Roundup – Post Thanksgiving Edition

Hopefully by now all the effects of the massive amounts of turkey everyone consumed over the holiday weekend have worn off. It’s funny – I only had two days off from work for Thanksgiving, yet it felt like a lifetime. It feels weird to be back to work and be putting in a full week.

While I readjust to life in the office, check out the usual roundup of some pop culture nuggets from the last two weeks.

• RIP Larry Hagman. J.R. Ewing goes down in the record books as a great TV villain. Hagman was one of the best things about the Dallas reboot on TNT. A handful of episodes for the second season have already been filmed, but his death will be addressed on the show.

• A family has named their baby Hashtag. I hope they started a fund for that kid’s therapy.

• The only thing surprising about this is the timing, since I’m guessing the show won’t be back after this season – Chevy Chase has quit Community.

• Discovery Channel has cancelled Dirty Jobs.

• Even NBC is having a tough time believing that they won November sweeps.

• Travelex has created a map of the filming locations of IMDB’s top 250 movies.

• Monday night I let my nerd flag fly as I went to a lecture by famed documentarian Ken Burns. He was being recognized by the NYS Achieves and it is no exaggeration to say that I was definitively the youngest person in the room. Between this and Lincoln, I’m spending a lot of time with octogenarians recently. I am a big fan of Ken Burn’s Baseball anthology, so I was interested to hear what he had to say. He was great and even gave the audience a sneak peek at his 2014 documentary The Roosevelts.  He’s also working on a documentary on the history of country music.

• Fiona Apple has cancelled several tour dates to be with her dying dog. As a pet owner, I totally get it; as a concert goer, I’d be kind of annoyed.

• I don’t know what is in the water over at Two and a Half Men, but it apparently makes their cast act erratic. Angus T. Jones (the half man from the title) made a video in which he refers to the show he stars on is “filth” and has encouraged people to stop watching it. (Side note – Angus T. Jones sounds more like the name of an Old West Sherriff than a child actor). Yesterday he issued a statement apologizing for the remarks. Jon Cryer – your move.

• Curious what happened to some of The Real World cast members?

• Speaking of erratic – Charlie Sheen reportedly gave Lindsay Lohan $100,000 to pay off a tax debt.

• This makes me very sad – Wyatt Cenac is leaving The Daily Show.

• AMC has ordered pilots for two more historical dramas.

• Ninjas are headed for extinction in Japan. Or maybe they are just hiding really, really well.

• If you’ve got an hour to kill, check out Conan O’Brien’s interview of Judd Apatow.

• The band Slayer has is now selling their very own “ugly Christmas sweater.” Seriously.

• I plan to check out the new BBC America show Ripper Street.

• The allegations toward former Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash continue – a third alleged victim has come forward.

• Since it looks like I’m not going to make it to the 12-12-12 Sandy relief concert at MSG, I’m glad I can still see it on cable.

• For some reason this makes me happy – John Stamos and Bob Saget spent Thanksgiving together.

• Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino are reuniting for Martic Scorsese’s new film, I Heard You Paint Houses. The title isn’t promising, so hopefully this isn’t another Righteous Kill.

• Neil Patrick Harris’ new webseries, Neil’s Puppet Dreams, has debuted:

 

• FX has ordered more episodes of Brand X (Russell Brand’s show) and Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell. Not a Brand fan, but I have been meaning to check out Totally Biased. Glad I’ll have the chance.

• The Boy Meets World sequel, Girl Meets World, has officially signed Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel to appear.

• A 90s TV reunion that apparently isn’t happening? Kenan and Kel.

• Bad news Sherlock fans – season 3 may not air until 2014 stateside.

• Lenny Kravitz is attached to play Marvin Gaye in an upcoming biopic.

• I love this headline from Gawker comparing Halle Berry’s life to an episode of Maury. Not a big fan of her, but I do feel for her daughter.

• If NBC’s Hannibal fails, it won’t be from lack of star power. And yes, Hannibal refers to Hannibal Lecter of Silence of the Lambs fame.

• A Hip-Hop Tribute to The Goonies? Kind of terrible and kind of awesome all at the same time.

 

• If you’ve got some spare change lying around, the piano from Casablanca is up for auction at Sotheby’s next month. (Better use of your money – sending it to you favorite pop culture blogger).

• Though the Candy Corn Oreos eluded me, I finally found Ben and Jerry’s Cannoli flavored ice cream. It was OK – I’d be hard pressed to think any ice cream is bad – but probably wasn’t worth the months of searching.

• Hugh Laurie is in talks to play Blackbeard form NBC.

• Is Joseph Gordon-Levitt going to be the new Batman?

• Portlandia will air a special winter episode on December 14^th on IFC and season 3 will premiere on January 4^th. An impressive list of guest stars is lined up for the new season.

• Alicia Keys stopped by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to sing a very special song:

PS. Did everyone else know that Alicia Keys was on The Cosby Show? She is the second little girl in this clip:

 

• Those scamps over at The Onion tricked a Chinese newspaper into believing they had really named dictator Kin Jong Un the “sexiest man alive.”

• NBC has ordered a period drama from the creator of Downton Abbey.

• Speaking of Downton Abbey, it has been renewed for a 4^th season, but perhaps without a key character returning.

• Paramount has released the official synopsis for the new Star Trek movie, Star Trek Into Darkness. I wasn’t a fan of the original series or movies, but really enjoyed the reboot.

• Moonrise Kingdom won best picture at the Gotham Independent Film Awards on Monday, which could be a sign that it may get a nod come Oscar season. Or it could mean absolutely nothing.

• The Independent Spirit awards have released their list of nominees.

• Florence Welch will use her time away from The Machine to write a musical.

• This Guy Fieri sketch for SNL was done in dress rehearsal, but never made it to air:

• I quite enjoyed the horror movie Insidious, so I’m happy there will be a sequel.

• NPR did a story on Chuck Lorre, producer of The Big Bang Theory, Mike & Molly and Two and a Half Men. I only consider one of those shows watchable, but you can’t argue that all three are successful.

• It’s the beginning of the end – the cast of Breaking Bad is receiving scripts for the first episode of the final season. I will probably cry when this show ends – it is one of my all time favorites.

• Anna Nicole Smith’s 6-year-old daughter will model for Guess, following in her mother’s footsteps.

• Liz & Dick actually didn’t do as well as I thought; it only scored a modest 3.5 million viewers.

• CeeLo teamed up with the Muppets for a music video:

 

• HBO’s Beyoncé documentary will premiere February 16^th. You think that woman isn’t powerful? Microsoft Word just autocorrected the spelling of her name to include the acute accent mark.

• My freshman year of college I would hang out with some of the guys in our dorm lounge to watch CHiPs re-runs in between classes, so this Star Wars/ CHiPs mashup made me smile:

• As an avid fan of all things The Wire, I couldn’t pass up this interview with Dominic West (McNulty).

• Coldplay is planning a long hiatus.

• Killer Karaoke and Wives with Knives? Real shows.

• These Game of Thrones figurines are far too cute for what most of these characters are up to.

• Want proof of the power of a laugh track? Watch Game of Thrones reimagined as a sitcom:

 

• And finally, The Shining: The Musical:

Much more creative than Oklahoma and Grease, both of which my high school did.

Happy Wednesday!!