1. Donald Trump has revealed the lineup for the upcoming season of Celebrity Apprentice, and the rather depressing roster of “celebrities” includes Arsenio Hall, Clay Aiken, Dee Snider, Debbie Gibson, and Real Housewives star Teresa Giudice. [via Deadline]

2. Les Miserables director Tom Hooper has offered the choice roles of Eponine and Cosette to Taylor Swift and Amanda Seyfried, respectively. Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, and Sacha Baron Cohen are already on board the project. [via Collider]

3. Pop icons (and longtime mutual admirers) Madonna and Kylie Minogue are finally going to be performing a duet together as part of a British TV special honoring Minogue’s 25th anniversary in music. Any guesses as to what they’ll sing? [via Vulture]

4. The Kardashians are rumored to be launching a new magazine with American Media, the publisher of Star, The National Enquirer, and Shape. Word is that the girls will be involved with the project editorially, but it’s unclear at the point whether it will be more of a fanzine or a lifestyle title. [via NYP]

5. Patti Smith wrote a song inspired by Amy Winehouse that will appear on her next album. “We were at [New York studio] Electric Lady doing a whole other song and I wrote Amy a little poem when she died and my bass player, Tony Shanahan, wrote a piece of music and the two matched perfectly.” [via NME]

Bonus Buzz: 30 Billboards That’ll Make You Say WTF

Today at Flavorpill, we took a tour of the Trumps’ incredibly gilded penthouse. We discovered that Snooki was wrong when she claimed that whale sperm is what makes the ocean so salty. We knew a few people who could stand to read Total Film’s exhaustive guide to The Hunger Games. We were excited to see Mayim Bialik recreate her Sassy cover photo from 1992. We were amazed by these “neon signs” made out of glowing E. coli. We vicariously ventured into an unguarded strategic military rocket motor factory near Moscow. We were surprised to learn that Ernest Hemingway once shopped at Abercrombie and Fitch. We were impressed by President Obama’s lovely handwriting. We imagined what Twilight would have been like if it had been penned by one of these literary greats. And finally, we decided that it was worth exploring The Daily Beast’s roundup of 31 ways to get smarter in 2012, especially as it involves playing more Words With Friends.

Last night Barbara Walters’ annual Most Fascinating People special aired, and as we previously mentioned, it featured a list of celebrities who for the most part seemed a bit dated. The most surprising moment of the evening came when Walters’ revealed Steve Jobs as her pick for the most fascinating person of the year — but only because it had always been her policy to only feature the living. (Walters explained that, taking a note from Jobs himself, she decided that “rules were made to be broken.”) Because we don’t expect you to sit through a whopping hour and a half with Katy Perry and the Kardashian clan, we’ve collected some of the most interesting tidbits from the evening for you after the jump; if you find you need a palate cleanser after, may we suggest Flavorpill’s Most Fascinating People of 2011? Read More »

1. Art in the Streets — the enormous street art exhibition which is currently on view at the MOCA — will not be coming to the Brooklyn Museum later this year, as was previously planned. The official reason being cited is budget cuts, but as a source told LA Weekly: “I think it could be a combination that the museum is afraid of the show and the negative press it could bring them. Why would New York not want this show? I don’t believe that someone would not pay for this exhibit.”

2. Page Six reports that Columbia Records is hoping to put together a Destiny’s Child reunion album to help offset the money that they’re expecting to lose on Beyoncé’s new album, 4.

3. In the week leading up to the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2, AMC Theatres has announced that it will screen a marathon of the previous seven films from the series in 29 cities nationwide. Click here to see if your town made the cut. [via EW]

4. NBC has decided to give Donald Trump a raise for his work on Celebrity Apprentice, to an estimated $65 million a year, which makes him the highest paid reality star on TV. Considering that the President makes a mere $400K annually, suddenly his refusal to run for office makes a lot more sense. [via Daily Intel]

5. Happy news: Jon Hamm just signed an eight-figure deal for three more years of Mad Men; since the show’s creator, Matthew Weiner, recently locked down a similar contract, it sounds like we’ve got a few more seasons of our favorite show to look forward to. [via Deadline]

Bonus link: Jon Stewart Reads Off Laundry List of False Statements by ‘Lying Dynasty’ Fox News (video)

1. Today in Sarah Palin news: The state of Alaska will release 24,000 pages of its former governor’s emails to members of the press who have requested them (note: they’ll have to pay the shipping fees for the five boxes, which weigh 55 pounds apiece). Last night in Sarah Palin news: She took a break from her patriotic bus tour to sit down for a slice of pizza with Donald Trump.

2. Thurston Moore told NME last night that Sonic Youth will be getting together later this year to record new material. As for their recent time off? “We made the decision to have a good solid year of not doing too much as a band,” he explains. “We just wanted to regenerate.”

3. Former sitcom writer Ken Levine (Cheers, M.A.S.H., Frasier) has come out against Roseanne Barr’s recent piece in New York magazine, saying that she “treated people like shit” and was “endlessly combative.” Barr says that he just loathes women. Meanwhile, Laurie Gelman, the first female writer-producer to work on Roseanne, is on Team Levine, and claims that Barr’s actually the sexist one. Barr says Gelman is just mad because she isn’t funny. Who to believe? [via Vulture]

4. Jesse Eisenberg may be reuniting with his The Squid and The Whale director Noah Baumbach; the film, which will also star Naomi Watts, tells the story of “a 40-ish childless couple that begins feeling alienated from their friends as those friends start to procreate, and strike up an unlikely friendship with a younger couple.” [via LAT]

5. This first look at the puppet from Guillermo Del Toro and The Jim Henson Company’s upcoming Pinocchio movie is definitely the creepiest thing you’ll see all day — especially when you remember that Nick Cave is doing the film’s soundtrack.

Bonus link: A Chanel bag made out of hand-stitched sheets of beef jerky

Editor’s note: Each Friday, our internet-savvy friends over at BuzzFeed curate a post for us that’s filled with links to some of their favorite items on the web that week. Enjoy!

Donald Trump’s bizarre birther publicity stunt came to a head this week when the White House publicly released the president’s long-form birth certificate. We have the Top 20 Crazy Tea Party Reactions and the Top 20 Conspiracy Theories that have sprung up in its wake.

Last Sunday was Easter, so we took to Facebook to find out what people like about chocolate bunnies.

Prince William and Kate Middleton were married only days after the premiere of the new season of Dr. Who, which begged the question: What do you get when you mash them together?

Read More »

Editor’s note: Each Friday, our internet-savvy friends over at BuzzFeed curate a post for us that’s filled with links to some of their favorite items on the web that week. Enjoy!

What a week! It’s been Friday every day since last Friday thanks to breakout tween poplet Rebecca Black. The insipid lyrics of the original left listeners dumbfounded, inspired others to record their own covers, create animated GIFs, and landed Ms. Black an interview on Good Morning America. As for us, we never want this weekend to end.

* Casey Heynes, a 16-year-old bullying victim, became a controversial internet hero this week after a video of him delivering a Street Fighter-style pile-driver to his tormentor went viral, despite efforts to have it removed.

* Comedy Central’s Roast of Donald Trump featured The Situation’s horrendous attempt at humor. And if you thought that was bad, wait ‘til you hear the jokes that were cut from the broadcast.

* Poor, bleach-blonde Alexandra Wallace was upset about Asian people making “ching chong” noises in the UCLA library and interrupting her studies. Offended? Don’t worry. YouTuber Jimmy explains that “ching chong” means “I love you.”

* Gilbert Gottfried, notorious for going dark when other comics won’t, was fired from his gig as the voice of the Aflac duck after tweeting jokes about Japan.

* Amid all of this entertainment, news of Japan remains on our minds as the nation recovers from the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis. Check out all of the top reports on the BuzzFeed Viral Topic Page: Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

Donald Trump is “seriously thinking about” a run for president because he thinks the U.S. has become “the laughingstock of the world.” Also, he’d sure like to tell China, “You’re fired.” This looks promising. [CNN]

In the year since he was branded “too fat too fly,” Kevin Smith has lost 65 pounds. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t still pissed off about the incident. [Time]

Dr. Dre will join Eminem in a performance at this weekend’s Grammy Awards. Does this mean Detox really is almost ready for release? Bob Dylan will also take the stage Sunday for a collaboration with Mumford & Sons. [MTV News]

Big news, comic fans: Spider-Man is joining the Fantastic Four. Beginning March 23, he’ll replace the Human Torch, who died last month. Here’s hoping he fares better on the page than on the stage. [AP]

Emma Watson has signed on to star opposite Logan Lerman in the big-screen adaptation of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Stephen Chbosky, the book’s author, will direct the film, and John Malkovich is the executive producer. [Digital Spy]

Bonus link: Did you know that glass melts when it gets too cold?

Ridley Scott, the man behind the likes of Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator and Robin Hood, has officially ventured into new and, er… well-worn territory, with a take on Hasbro’s iconic Monopoly boardgame. Luckily, the mystery protagonist will not need to wear a top hat, mustache or spectacles — it will be a modern day dramedy, after all. Scott has cryptically said the film will focus on the role of greed in society: “The most amusing thing about Monopoly is it can turn your benign aunt or your benign sweet little grandmother into a monster,” Scott told Hasbro. And while we’re not convinced of the “Untitled Monopoly Project’s” merit, check out our casting predictions for the film after the jump. And no matter how ridiculous, feel free to share your own predictions in the comments below.

Read More »

Today at Flavorpill, we were sad to hear that Der Scutt, Donald Trump’s favorite architect and a lover of the mirrored glass box look, had died at 75. We decided that Nina Maria Kleivan’s baby dictators series is way scarier than any Anne Geddes photo that we’ve ever seen — and her work scares the hell out of us. We played this super sicko Nightmare on Elm Street game where you make a blonde haired girl do various things — including cutting herself — in order to stay awake and safe from Freddy Krueger. Very dark, Warner Bros. We listened to the top 13 hidden tracks of all time. We embraced eight online tournaments that have nothing to do with basketball. We couldn’t wait to see Larry Charles’ new satire about Steve Jobs — but we’ve never even heard of the EPIX channel. We were oddly thrilled to hear that it’s now legal to keep bees in New York City. And finally, we decided that after coming across this photo of Mike Tyson kissing a pigeon, it was time to go home. We’d seen it all.