1. Last night Jon Stewart stopped by The Colbert Report to sign paperwork that legally makes him the head of Stephen Colbert’s super PAC — a move that will allow the late night host to pursue his “possible candidacy for the president of the United States of South Carolina.” [via Huffington Post]

2. Surprise: There’s another film project about Abraham Lincoln in the works! This one, which will be produced by Ridley Scott, is a documentary based on Bill O’Reilly‘s recent book Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever — source material that, as The Playlist points out, is “so factually inept, the National Parks Service has banned it from being sold at the Ford’s Theater.”

3. Kenneth Branagh will direct Kate Winslet in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a juicy-sounding period drama about a magazine reporter’s relationship with the residents of a Nazi-occupied island off the coast of Normandy. [via Vulture]

4. The Flaming Lips’ next album, which we already knew would feature collaborations with the Plastic Ono Band and Bon Iver, will apparently also include contributions from Nick Cave, Ke$ha, Lykke Li, and Erykah Badu. The LP is set to be released this coming April. [via NME]

5. The Daily reports that, thanks to a multimillion-dollar deal to be the spokeswoman for a pharmaceutical company, Paula Deen is about to reveal to the world that she has Type 2 diabetes. Does this mean no more deep-fried Twinkies for breakfast, y’all?

Bonus Buzz: 21 Examples Of Bizarre Furniture

Every summer’s most exciting hip-hop tour, Rock the Bells, has announced its 2011 line-up — and this time, they’ve really outdone themselves. The big news is that, not only is Ms. Lauryn Hill a headliner, but she’ll be playing her classic 1998 album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. If that isn’t enough to thrill your inner ’90s hip-hop fan, how about Nas performing Illmatic, Cypress Hill doing Black Sunday (yes, the one with “Insane in the Membrane” on it), Black Star teaming up again to do their self-titled debut, GZA reprising Liquid Swords, and Raekwon and Ghostface Killah reviving — you guessed it — Only Built 4 Cuban Linx?

As unbelievably fantastic as these full-album performances sound, they’re far from the only reason to snap up Rock the Bells tickets this year. Other acts will include Erykah Badu, Curren$y, Childish Gambino, Immortal Technique, Murs, Big K.R.I.T., and many more. And there will be a whopping four stages — three main stages and one called the “36 Chambers Stage,” curated by RZA and featuring members of Wu-Tang and other like-minded acts. Here’s the rub, though: Rock the Bells will only be in four cities this year (New York, LA, Boston, and San Francisco), so if you’re not on a coast, start planning your vacation now. For the full line-up and more information about the tour, visit Rock the Bells’ website. [via Brooklyn Vegan]

When people talk about the ’90s being back they think of our recent infatuation with grunge, plaid, and spandex. But with the nods in Fall 2011 collections to utility coats, mannish outerwear, and even pajamas-as-daywear, what’s really back is ’90s hip hop fashion. We’ve paired nine of this fall’s looks with the hip hop divas who might well have inspired them.

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Singing, rapping, speaking, and chanting are all part of the same animal, made from the greatest of all instruments. There’s no one formula for a compelling vocal; some great singers and rappers sound bored, some sound utterly transfixed. Personality is the key, and if you can get that through Auto-Tune, great. The results are what matter. Here are 10 performances that hit us particularly hard, listed alphabetically by name.

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There was a time when music videos had to conform to certain guidelines: they had to be short, so as to hold the attention of teens who watched TRL (unless they were “Thriller”), and they had to be tasteful enough to air on basic cable. But now that we get so much of our entertainment online, and MTV barely airs music videos anymore, the rules have changed. These days, as this collection of 2010′s most gawked at and talked about clips demonstrates, anything goes. From the artsy to the political to the bizarre to the just plain awful, this is your year in NSFW music videos.

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Rappers, generally speaking, aren’t universally known for their forward-thinking feminist viewpoints. Nope, mostly women in rap songs are video hos or strippers or gold diggers, celebrated not so much for their intellect as for their cup size. But that doesn’t mean that all rap songs are about detailing a woman’s measurements and Gucci nails — there’s actually a strain of hip-hop that prizes the ladies who know how to hold a conversation, run a business, and read books — at least comic books. Below the jump: a countdown of rap songs about ladies who can work a spreadsheet, not a stripper pole.

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1. Because she got naked in public for her controversial “Window Seat” video, Erykah Badu must pay a $500 fine and will serve six months of probation. [via EW]
2. J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot are developing a horror movie based on “7 Minutes in Heaven” — and yes, we mean the kissing game. [via THR]
3. January Jones has landed the role of Emma Frost in Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class. Also joining the cast: Zoe Kravitz. [via The Playlist]
4. A showdown of Lady Gaga vs. Elvis Presley fans? It could only happen in Vegas. [via NY Post]
5. Courtney Love has settled a dispute with a management company over the $20 million proceeds from a sale of rights to Kurt Cobain‘s songs. [via BBC]

Bonus link: National Parks Infinite Photo

We don’t find it shocking that someone decided to parody Erykah Badu’s controversial new video for “Window Seat.” We find it shocking that the person who decided to do it first was Wanda Sykes, who had the musician on her show Saturday night. Badu’s response to the spoof: “You know what? In the tradition of performance art I think it’s beautiful. Because that’s funny as hell.”

Watch Sykes in “Middle Seat” after the jump.

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As you may have heard, Erykah Badu has dropped a buzzy new music video for “Window Seat” from her new album New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh. Why the hype? In the five-minute clip — which is an homage to Matt and Kim’s “Lessons Learned” — the soul songstress strips down from a black overcoat into eventual full-frontal nudity.

But as quickly as it surfaced, the video was taken down from YouTube by Universal Music Group, and we were left feeling slightly pervy for craving more naked music videos. We’ve done the dirty work so that you don’t have to, and rounded up 10 of our all-time favorites after the jump. We’ve come a long way since Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film.”

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With a new album set to drop this week, Erykah Badu decided to celebrate by playing a “secret” show in NYC on Saturday night at the Hudson Hotel’s underground venue, Good Units. Of course, it was about as much of a secret as the opening of Hot Tub Time Machine, meaning the last-minute tickets sold extremely fast. Those who did manage to snag one were treated to a phenomenal show from the born performer, but not one that went off without its hitches.

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