1. If you blinked during last night’s Super Bowl half-time show, then you might have missed MIA flipping off the crowd while performing “Gimme All Your Luvin” with Madonna and Nicki Minaj, but now it’s all that anyone is talking about. The official apology from NBC: “Our system was late to obscure the inappropriate gesture and we apologize to our viewers.” [via THR]

2. Chronicle, Fox’s low-budget new movie about a group of teen boys with superpowers, topped the Super Bowl weekend box office (which is usually a total wasteland), taking in an estimated $22 million. Daniel Radcliffe’s thriller Woman in Black surprised everyone by coming in second place with $21 million, followed by The Grey, which made about $9.5 million. Not so lucky? That Drew Barrymore saves the whales movie. [via ArtsBeat]

3. The @CormacCMcCarthy Twitter account, which counts Margaret Atwood and Jack Dorsey among its followers, has been exposed as a hoax — news that isn’t entirely surprising given the famed novelist’s belief that “anything that doesn’t take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.” [via Guardian]

4. Harrison Ford is in talks to resurrect his Rick Deckard character in Ridley Scott‘s new Blade Runner film. Does this mean that it’s going to be a sequel as opposed to a reboot? [via Vulture]

5. Here is that slightly-extended version of The Avengers trailer that debuted last night. There’s not a lot of new footage, but you do get a better look at Mark Ruffalo’s take on the Hulk and the army that Loki has amassed.

Bonus Buzz: The Single Most Awkward Photo Of Madonna During Her Halftime Show

It’s the day of the Superbowl, and millions of fans are waiting with great anticipation for “the greatest show on earth,” even though they’ll have to sit through at least an hour of sports to get to it. In case you haven’t heard, this year, after a series of mostly ho-hum post-Nipplegate classic rock performers, the NFL has asked the Queen of Pop to perform the halftime show, and supposedly it’s going to be a doozy. We know, we know, they say that every year. This time, Madonna has promised that viewers will be “knocked out of their seats from beginning to end,” but we’re thinking you might need a little help with that, so we present to you our patented 2012 Superbowl Halftime Show Drinking Game, for use this evening as you watch Madge knock it out of the park (or kick it under the table) — not to mention a bunch of football. Click through to find out the rules, and let us know what you think of the performance in the comments!

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1. Last night Madonna released a sneak preview of her music video for “Give Me All Your Luvin’,” which she’ll be performing at the Super Bowl this weekend– presumably with some help from Nicki Minaj and MIA, who co-wrote the song. Watch the full-length version of the football-inspired clip here.

2. Not to be outdone by Madge, MIA dropped the new video for “Bad Girls” — a remix of the track that appeared on her Vicki Leekx mixtape — this morning too. Do you prefer her in a cheerleader costume or a metallic jumpsuit? Watch it here and decide.

3. There’s a rumor floating around that Simon Cowell has offered Beyoncé $500M — or $100M a year for five years — to be a judge on The X-Factor. We wonder how Mariah Carey feels about that. [via MediaTakeOut]

4. After filing the paperwork with the Federal Election Commission last month, Roseanne Barr has formally announced that she’s running for the Green Party’s presidential nomination. If she can only convince Aunt Jackie to be her running mate, we don’t see how she could possibly lose. [via Deadline]

5. Apparently, Chris Rock is writing a romantic comedy for Melissa McCarthy “in which he envisions the Bridesmaids breakout playing his wife as the pair indulge in some boisterous dysfunction — a ‘Jerry Springer couple,’ as Rock put it.” [via Vulture]

Bonus Buzz: Four Breakfast Cereals Inspired By TV Characters

Editor’s note: Welcome to The Fug Report! Each week our fashion blogger friends Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, the sartorial geniuses behind Go Fug Yourself, will feature some of the most memorable looks of the week in this space. We hope you enjoy it!

This week, on Go Fug Yourself, it was all Golden Globes, all the time. So much happened! Thomas Jane wore a crazy hat, as is his wont to do. Claire Danes looked awesome. Erin Wasson looked almost totally naked in a getup that made her look like a stripper who got in a knife fight in the hosiery section of Macy’s. Kelly Osbourne went grey, and a little green. Taissa Farmiga, on the other hand, could have used a little color. Giada wore a crazy pantsuit that she forgot to drop off at the tailors. Viola Davis looked smashing, and Will Arnett photobombed Amy Poehler. Emily Watson needed some styling help, and Lindsay Lohan… could have looked worse? Sure. A much-older-looking-than-she-really-is Cameron Diaz modeled her new boobs, and Salma Hayek showed off her usual ones. Octavia Spencer brought an unusual date, and Madonna brought back her fingerless gloves. Thank god we held onto ours all these years!

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

[Editor's note: While your Flavorwire editors take a much-needed holiday break, we're revisiting some of our most popular features of the year. This post was originally published August 15, 2011.] Our recent, wildly successful posts about author-on-author insults and filmmaker-on-filmmaker insults got us thinking about similar cattiness in the music industry, which has long been a breeding ground for both feuds and lunatics. An investigation of the history of musician-on-musician insults didn’t disappoint, and we’ve collated 30 of the harshest after the jump. It’s interesting comparing them to the previous pair of posts, too. The verdict: what musicians might lack in verbosity, they more than make up for with vitriol. And UK musicians are far bitchier than US ones (or, perhaps, the UK music press just delights in reporting on insults). Anyway, don’t let your boss catch you reading this…

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We all fall down the YouTube rabbit hole every once in a while. Most of the time, it’s an inane abyss, but every once in a while, you stumble upon something that makes your day. That’s exactly how we came upon the treasure trove of music history you’ll find below — a set of notable TV commercials for some of pop and rock’s most popular and influential albums. What makes these clips so interesting is that they were made before the records in question had been sanctified by critics and/or certified platinum, giving us a glimpse at how legendary albums were introduced to the public. See Kurt Cobain give birth, Michael Jackson in neon, and Blondie go disco after the jump.

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Where do you like to string your tinsel and LED lights? On your house? On your tree? On your body? This time of year, holiday parties and city streets are overwhelmed with costumes parodying Christmas’s jolliest bearer of gifts. Inspired by Katy Perry’s opening monologue ensemble from the latest installment of SNL, we’ve decided to take a look at an earthlier, rarer costume alternative — the Christmas tree. It’s pretty, it’s bright, it smells good. What’s not to love? Dangle a few ornaments from your ears, coat yourself in lights, and stick a star on your forehead — you’ll light up any office party with an accessible power outlet. The following celebrities know what’s up; take note from some intentional and accidental Christmas tree costumes after the jump. Read More »

The Occupy movement is famous for welcoming anyone who wants to join. But you can’t help but wonder if, for campers who’ve endured taunts and snow and pepper spray, some musical guests are more welcome than others. Yes, it’s a thrill to see Philip Glass using the people’s mic at Lincoln Center, but too many of the celebrities who visit OWS seem (at the risk of being uncharitable) to be using its fame for their own good instead of vice-versa. One wonders, for instance, how many impassioned discussions of banking regulations and foreclosure statistics were ever interrupted by the comment, “You know who I’d love to hear right now? Third Eye Blind.”

With that in mind, we offer ten dream concerts for OWS — double bills of music that’s relevant and rousing, from artists (unlike these movement-friendly newcomers) with enough name recognition to draw both fans and media attention to Zuccotti Park, or anywhere else the 99 percent are trying to make themselves heard. Read More »

Serious literary prizes like the Booker and the National Book Awards are all very well, but we’ll be honest and say that the award we really look forward to every year is the Literary Review‘s Bad Sex in Fiction award. This year’s winner was announced this week — it’s David Guterson, for his novel Ed King, which described the titular character having sex with, um, his mother as follows: “It didn’t take long for the beautiful and perfect Ed King to ejaculate for the fifth time in twelve hours, while looking like Roman public-bath statuary. Then they rinsed, dried, dressed, and went to an expensive restaurant for lunch.” Right. But anyway, the whole sorry business got us thinking that there really should be an equivalent for film — after all, Hollywood has been responsible for some of the most hilariously awful depictions of sex you’ll ever see. Like the ones after the jump, for instance. (This is all hugely NSFW, by the way.) Read More »