Last week saw the publication in English of France’s resident literary bad boy Michel Houellebecq’s newest novel, The Map and the Territory, heralded by some as his magnum opus. The resurgence of the literary great got us to thinking about other literary bad boys who rocked the boat and won notoriety for it — most of them buoyed by endless talent, or just star power. After all, everyone loves to hate (or in some cases, loves to love) the literary rebels and the scandalous men of letters. Click through to check out our list of legendary literary bad boys — and if we’ve forgotten your favorite enfant terrible, be sure to let us know in the comments.

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1. Old Ideas, the lovely Leonard Cohen’s first studio album in seven years, isn’t due out until January, but you can already stream one of the tracks called “Show Me The Place” here.

2. Julie Delpy has signed on to direct The Right Profile, a biopic about Clash frontman Joe Strummer that will focus on his later years, which were spent largely outside of the spotlight. [via CinemaBlend]

3. Stephen King, Haruki Murakami, James Frey, and Chris Adrian are among the authors on the shortlist for the 19th annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award, which is organized by the Literary Review. The lucky winner will be announced at a ceremony on December 6. [via Telegraph]

4. According to a new study in the UK, more successful male artists have more sexual partners than less successful artists. Oddly, the researchers’ findings did not hold true for female artists. [via Guardian]

5. While discussing last weekend’s pepper spray incident at UC Davis with Bill O’Reilly, Fox News host Megyn Kelly felt the need to point out that it is “a food product, essentially.” Meanwhile O’Reilly says, “I don’t think we have the right to Monday-morning quarterback the police, particularly at a place like UC Davis, which is a fairly liberal campus.” [via Gawker]

Bonus Buzz: Zoidberg Reimagined

We are nearing the end of Banned Books Week and realized that there have been so many titles in the past few years that have ruffled the feathers of elected officials, holy men, and her highness, Oprah. Some have been great, some have been horrible, and some just downright racist. We’re always curious about books that are deemed so dangerous that the public shouldn’t be able to read them. Although we would be taken aback if we saw a friend openly displaying Mein Kampf on her bookshelf, we think that with enough critical distance people can learn a lot from books that uncover the wicked underbelly of society. So read on, dear readers, and tell us what “dangerous books” you’ve read and enjoyed.

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1. Starting next Monday, Lady Gaga will be streaming her new album, Born This Way, in FarmVille; players will have to complete tasks for access to each of the tracks. Says Gaga: “I want to celebrate and share Born This Way with my little monsters in a special way that’s never been done before. Zynga has created a magical place in FarmVille where my fans can come play and be the first to listen to the album.” [via THR]

2. Fox kicked off the 2011 schedule announcement season by cancelling five of its more forgettable shows and picking up four new ones — including Zooey Deschanel’s The New Girl, “a comedy about a girl who leaves her boyfriend and moves in with a bunch of immature, wacky guys.” [via A.V. Club]

3. Oprah Winfrey is planning not one, but two episodes with James Frey during the final full week of her talk show. The shows will air May 16 and 17. Does anyone else find this totally strange? [via NYP]

4. The Dude’s trademark, zip-front cardigan sweater — one of four created for the costume department of The Big Lebowski, and the only one worn by Jeff Bridges — is going up for auction this weekend in Beverly Hills. [via CinemaBlend]

5. Ethan Hawke has joined Colin Farrell and Bryan Cranston in the cast of the Total Recall remake. Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel are in negotiations for the female leads. [via THR]

Bonus link: Hanksy Strikes Again!

1. Despite some truly horrible reviews from critics (particularly Roger Ebert), the alien invasion thriller Battle: Los Angeles conquered the weekend box office, taking in $36 million for a first place finish. Rounding out the top three were Rango ($23 million) and Red Riding Hood ($14.1 million). [via AV Club]

2. Variety is reporting that Academy Award-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) is close to locking down the leading role of Katniss in the upcoming film adaptation of The Hunger Games. Discuss. [via ComingSoon]

3. A Million Little Pieces author James Frey is teaming up with art-gallery owner Larry Gagosian to release his new book, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible, a kind of racy story about the second coming of Christ which takes place in the Bronx projects. [via Vulture]

4. Someone is leaving hipster traps — baited with Pabst Blue Ribbon, American Spirits, a bike chain and neon-pink Wayfarers — in locations around New York City. [via The Daily What]

5. The Strokes premiered five of the 10 songs from their upcoming album Angles (which is due out on March 22nd) live in Las Vegas on Saturday night; the band’s next stop is SXSW. [via NME]

Bonus link: Watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Recut As an Indie Coming-of-Age Movie

It’s hard being a member of the creative class sometimes. Writers throughout history have been known to run afoul of the law, with charges ranging from disorderly conduct to murder. With the advent of the mug shot in the late 1800s, a latent image emerged of these various offenses, realized through this new, curious medium. In On Photography, Susan Sontag wrote, “The camera has the power to catch so-called normal people in such a way as to make them look abnormal.” But what if you’re unusual to begin with — what does the camera capture then? The following is a list of the top 10 authors to have walked the line.

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Oprah’s name signifies much more than the famous talk show host herself — it stands for character: lifting oneself up, striving for human decency, searching for philanthropy and constantly improving one’s self-awareness. Oprah often guides us “to live our best life” by showing us… what to purchase. In fact, the New York Times has called her “the most powerful endorsement in pop culture.” And, the pressure for Oprah’s “picks” to perform is most apparent when she reaches out to the literary world. According to Business Week, “Publishers estimate that her power to sell a book is anywhere from 20 to 100 times that of any other media personality.” With those odds and that much personal pull, something is bound to go awry. Here are a few titles she touched that turned to gold, but not without a dash of drama and controversy along the way.

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Salon asked 18 authors — including Dave Eggers, James Frey, Tao Lin, and Laura Hillenbrand — to name the book they enjoyed most this year and used the results to create a fantastic slideshow. But don’t read it yet! We’ve got a little quiz for you first. See if you can match each author on the list with his or her favorite read of 2010. Highlight the blacked-out boxes under the book titles to check your answers.

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Among the most iconic pieces in artist Damien Hirst’s controversial body of work — a bizarre mix that includes dissected animals, a pickled shark, dot paintings, spin paintings, butterfly assemblages, a rotting cow’s head, and diamond-encrusted skulls — are the Medicine Cabinets.

The first two cabinets, which were made in 1988 by the then 23-year-old Hirst in his London kitchen, contained pharmaceutical packaging from his recently deceased grandmother’s medicine cabinet. He followed these sculptures, Sinner and Enemy, with a suite of twelve cabinets that were titled after the tracks on the Sex Pistols debut album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. Four of the medicine cabinets from the series were exhibited in Hirst’s degree show at Goldsmiths College of Art in 1989, but the whole group has never been shown together — that is, until now.

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Today at Flavorpill, we wanted to take a ride on this bizarre tricycle, but we weren’t sure exactly how to go about it. We tripped out over Leo Villareal’s hypnotic light sculptures. We found this handy chart which tallies the insane body count in The Expendables. We wondered if a Destiny’s Child reunion will ever happen. We listened as Christopher Walken read us some things. We were glad that the word “cheeseball” finally made it into the Oxford Dictionary of English. We loved this spoof on 16 & Pregnant. We watched Arcade Fire’s new video for “Ready to Start.” We were intrigued by the news that Mark Wahlberg and James Frey will be working together on a new show for HBO about the porn biz. We reimagined Free Willy as a horror movie. And finally, we wondered what someone did to this poor potato to push him past his breaking point.