1. Paul McCartney has announced that he will release a new album in February that will feature guest appearances by Stevie Wonder and Eric Clapton and a mix of covers of “songs he was inspired by during his childhood,” as well as two original compositions. [via NME]

2. In case you’re curious, here are the results of a yearly demographic survey of Broadway audiences. The stat that we find the most interesting: The average age of the Broadway theatergoer was 44 years. [via Pop Culture Brain]

3. Regardless of what yesterday’s Twitter rumors might have led you to believe, Bon Jovi was not found dead from cardiac arrest in a New Jersey hotel. He’s actually alive, and making sort of funny signs about it. [via The Daily What]

4. If you could use some help waking up this morning, you can now listen to “Stupid Hoe,” the second single off of Nicki Minaj’s forthcoming Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded album, here.

5. Ryan Gosling has joined the growing list of celebrities, which also includes Zooey Deschanel and Alicia Silverstone, who have publicly asked McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner to step in and prevent his company from using battery hens to source its eggs and other animal products. [via Jezebel]

Bonus Buzz: Super-Nerdy Snow Sculptures

1. The Hangover Part II star Bradley Cooper has been declared People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive,” an honor that has previously gone to actors like Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Ryan Reynolds. His initial response to the news? “My mother is going to be so happy.” [via EW]

2. Mariah Yeater has decided to drop her paternity suit against Justin Bieber. This comes following the news that her lawyers quit the case after the singer’s management threatened her with legal action for making a false claim. [via NME]

3. After a successful debut in New Jersey, Disney has decided to mount a low-budget, three-month run of Newsies the Musical on Broadway this spring. Why are they being so cautious? Two recent big time flops: Tarzan and The Little Mermaid. [via NYT]

4. Today a public art commission in San Francisco votes on whether or not to withdrawal the city’s multiple contracts with artist Tom Otterness, the famed sculptor who shot and killed a shelter dog “for art” back in 1977. Allegedly, they didn’t know about his controversial past when they originally commissioned the works. [via Gawker]

5. Julien’s Auctions has removed Michael Jackson’s death bed from its upcoming auction of items from his final home at the request of the singer’s family, claiming, “we would never do anything that is not in the best interests of Michael’s children, his mother or the Estate.” [via EW]

Bonus Buzz: Donaghy Vs. Swanson Fight Poster

Hitchcock’s noir drama Rebecca will be hitting the Broadway stage with actress Sierra Boggess — who has appeared in musical faves like The Little Mermaid — as the headliner. The Master of Suspense’s 1940 film is based on the Daphne du Maurier novel of the same name, which finds a wealthy couple haunted at their gothic estate by the husband’s former wife, now dead. Boggess will play the new bride, Maxim de Winter’s second spouse who has been renamed “I” for the stage production. Preview performances begin next March, with an opening in April at the Broadhurst Theater. The show will cost a whopping $13 million to produce. Hopefully this Broadway musical sees fewer injuries than Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which cost a ridiculous $75 million to make and nearly killed everyone in the process. Can you picture the gripping tale on the big stage, with … songs?

A play is causing a ruckus amongst our friends on the other side of the pond. The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Marat/Sade (The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade) — originally written by Swedish playwright Peter Weiss — seems to be too “perverse” for British audiences. Ironically, the production was first staged at the RSC in 1964, where it was applauded for its progressive, avant-garde approach. Nearly 50 years later, up to 80 audience members a show are walking out on Marat/Sade — which is set in an insane asylum and revolves around inmate the Marquis de Sade’s play about the assassinated Jean Paul Marat. This play isn’t the first controversial theatrical work that upset audiences, however. Hit the jump for a look at other “shocking” stage productions.

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South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with an underrated assist from Avenue Q creator Robert Lopez, conquered Broadway with the foul-mouthed and heartwarming show, The Book of Mormon. Now, the duo have confirmed to EW that they plan to adapt their Broadway hit into a feature film.  “Hopefully it will have a big run and a big tour and then we can do the movie in several years,” says Parker, which pretty much makes this a done deal, right?

Here’s where things get a bit interesting, however. Stone admits the trio behind the Broadway hit will do all of the film work themselves, as it should be. “The great thing is, a lot of Broadway teams would have to go team up with a Hollywood producer and bring on a Hollywood director, but Trey’s a director and Scott [Rudin]’s a great producer. We’ve all made movies. So it’s kind of cool, it can stay in the same family.” There’s no timetable for a film adaptation, but Book of Mormon has been such a huge success it feels like this would happen within a few years time to capitalize on the show’s buzz. [via HuffPost]

Lately, the idea of rock stars bringing their material to Broadway has become a bit of a trend, with mixed results. Apparently not put off by Bono’s recent experiences on the Great White Way, Sting is collaborating with Brian Yorkey (the multiple prize-winning book writer and lyricist of the very excellent Next to Normal), on a new musical called The Last Ship, that will begin table readings in New York this October. While there’s no plot summary at the moment, based on the musical’s characters and setting (1980s Newscastle), it sounds like the show will be at least semi-autobiographical.

“I won’t say the score is complete, because the score’s not complete until God knows when,” Yorkey told ArtsBeat. “But he’s written a couple dozen, maybe 20, 24, amazing new songs for the show. He’s writing great theater music. It’s very, very distinctly Sting but it also is theater music. It’s not just pop music transposed into the theater.” What do you think? Does the softer, New Age yogi Sting have a rock musical in him? Or would you be more excited to hear what the Sting of an earlier era would have come up with?

1. Starting this fall, all of the superhero titles in the DC Comics stable will reboot with issue No. 1, and some major characters will have new origin stories. The overhaul begins with the first issue of “Justice League” No. 1 in September, which will reunite the classic lineup of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, and Green Lantern. [via Jacket Copy]

2. Some interesting news in light of this post from yesterday: a musical adaptation of Rocky could be coming to Broadway in the spring of 2013. The project — which involves Sylvester Stallone and the Tony Award-winning songwriting team behind Ragtime — will makes its debut in Germany next fall. [via ArtsBeat]

3. In case you’re curious, Smashing Pumpkins have unveiled a tentative tracklisting for Oceania, the end result of the band’s ongoing “Teargarden By Kaleidyscope” project, which is set for formal release later this year. Check it out here.

4. Bradley Cooper will join Ryan Gosling in the cast of the multi-generational crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines; the film reunites Gosling (who will be playing a bank robber to Cooper’s cop) with his Blue Valentine writer-director, Derek Cianfrance. [via Vulture]

5. In case you haven’t heard it yet, here’s Beyonce’s second official single off of 4, a much slower jam that’s called “Best Thing I Never Had.” The album comes out on June 28 via Columbia Records.

Bonus link: This is the world’s deepest-living animal.

The 1988 Broadway adaptation of Carrie — based on Stephen King’s book and Brian DePalma’s subsequent film — was such a notorious turkey that it became shorthand for ill-advised stage productions; a compendium book of them even bears the title Not Since “Carrie”. But somehow, the show still has its supporters, and it seems that a few of them have convinced investors that it deserves a second shot. Thus, Carrie will return to the New York stage early next year, albeit this time in an off-Broadway setting.

Carrie’s return may have as much to do with the current cautious atmosphere in the New York theatrical world as it does with the quality of the much-maligned production — with costs (and ticket prices) ballooning, Broadway producers seem only interested in sure things: revivals, big stars, so-called “jukebox musicals.” The theory is that the tourists who keep the New York stage solvent will only part with Broadway dollars if they’re spending them on a brand they’re familiar with; hence the Spider-Man musical, say, or The Million Dollar Quartet. And then, of course, there is the movie-to-stage adaptation — why not come see a live production of something you’ve already seen on film? Movie-to-musical shows have popped up sporadically for decades, but after the smash success of The Producers a decade ago, we’ve seen an onslaught; this season saw the debuts of Catch Me If You Can, Sister Act, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, in addition to long-running hits like The Lion King and Billy Elliot. But successfully staging a beloved movie is harder than it looks; it’s important to remember that for every Hairspray or Little Shop of Horrors, there’s an Urban Cowboy or High Fidelity. After the jump, we’ll take a look at ten popular movies that tanked on the boards.

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Today at Flavorpill, we watched the official trailer for Scenes From The Suburbs, Spike Jonze’s companion short film to his music video for Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs.” We were horrified to hear that Larry King may join the cast of The Daily Show. We couldn’t decide which Disney movie Broadway musical adaptation idea is more misguided: Freaky Friday or Father of the Bride. We watched some of the angriest walk-outs in 60 Minutes history. We were excited to hear that longtime Flavorwire favorite Maura Johnston is the Village Voice’s new music editor. We wanted to own a pair of these Nikes that Gabriel Dishaw made out of old computer parts. We were jealous of whoever lives in this futuristic bedroom that has its own waterslide in the closet. We were impressed by Wile E. Coyote’s James Franco impression. And finally, we flipped out over these knit versions of our favorite movie characters — particularly The Dude.

All the hubbub about Brian Bedford’s spectacular performance as Lady Bracknell in the recent Broadway revival of The Importance of Being Earnest has gotten us thinking. So much media in our culture revolves around, or at least includes, elements of cross-dressing or gender confusion, whether to comic or dramatic effect. Is this an evolution towards greater acceptance and understanding of all, or just, in some way, a deeply ingrained human impulse? Of course, cross-dressing is no new trend. The phenomenon is evident in everything from Norse and Hindu mythology to figures that shaped actual historical events (usually in the form of women dressing up as men to fight wars or be pirates, for some reason) to literature, theater, film and every kind of media in between. There are hundreds of examples, so there’s no way to document them all here, but the trajectory of our favorites still has some bearing on the largeness of the phenomenon. Click through for out brief history of cross-dressing in media.

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