Today at Flavorpill, we wondered if Germany’s way of dealing with irresponsible drivers would work in American cities. We took a look at sex in modern art. We saw what RuPaul looked like in 1979. We watched the new Volkswagen Super Bowl commercial. We found out an answer to the eternal question: do big cats purr? We watched people make out on Skype using a pig-shaped robot. We had a chat with a Morrissey zine maker. We traveled to 21 of the most “lesbianish” cities in America. We said goodbye to Dorothea Tanning. We felt the love thanks to this giant Valentine’s Day sculpture in Times Square. We learned how to pronounce things hilariously. And finally, we adored this mashup of the X-Files and Downton Abbey theme songs. Who doesn’t love a little sci-fi with their lavish period drama?

1. Demi Moore has been cast as feminist icon Gloria Steinem in that Linda Lovelace biopic that we feel like we’ve been reading about forever now, and is finally shooting in Los Angeles. Also part of the ensemble: Amanda Seyfried, who plays Lovelace, Peter Sarsgaard as her husband, and James Franco, who will make a cameo as Hugh Hefner. [via THR]

2. On New Year’s Eve Patti Smith announced that her annual residency at the Bowery Ballroom — a beloved tradition for New York-based rock fans — was coming to an end; according to Lenny Kaye, her lead guitarist, the band will continue doing the yearly batch of shows, just at an alternate location. [via ArtsBeat]

3. Despite underwhelming performance at the box office, Sony says that a sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is still in the works, with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara already on board to reprise their starring roles. That said, David Fincher has not signed on to direct the sequel just yet. [via Vulture]

4. Elton John would like for Justin Timberlake to play him in a forthcoming biopic that’s in the works; JT previously played a younger version of the legendary performer in David LaChapelle’s video for “This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore.” [via LAT]

5. A pixelated image of Morrissey has been hidden in Google Earth, just outside of the UK’s Salford Lads Club, the venue that appears on the cover of The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead album. [via NME]

Bonus Buzz: Who’s Writing Rupert Murdoch’s Tweets?

[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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Say what you will about the controversial animal rights activists at PETA, but we’re excited that they’ve finally found a way to promote vegetarianism without exploiting women and spreading misinformation. Yes, although we don’t generally endorse their tactics, we’re fairly charmed by the set of stamps they’ve teamed up with the USPS to produce, featuring such famous vegetarians as Morrissey, Joan Jett, Gandhi, Natalie Portman, Leonardo da Vinci, Russell Simmons, and Paul McCartney. Score a sheet for yourself — or the vegan stamp collector/snail mail enthusiast on your holiday shopping list — at PETA’s website. Read More »

‘Tis the season to be jolly, and all that. But if you’d rather pass the holiday season seeing some awesome bands than sitting inside gorging yourself on turkey and roast vegetables, then we’ve got you covered with this roundup of the shows that we’d love to be attending over the next month or so (if our budget extended to jetting all over the country to see them all, which sadly it doesn’t). Anyway, have a read and let us know what’s on your gig-going itinerary for the next month or so. We can make it through this together.

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Steven Patrick Morrissey has many preferences: He prefers celibacy (or at least the illusion thereof). He prefers that immigrants stay the hell out England. And, of course, he believes “meat is murder” and prefers that you don’t bring any of it into the hallowed space of a Morrissey performance. This has long been the case; Moz is known to prohibit meat at the venues where he performs. But now, he’s taken his obsessive-compulsive vegetarianism to a new level. According to Britain’s Daily Mirror, he’s now instructing security at his gigs to search fans’ bags for meat products!

“A member of the security staff then went through my bag and told me that they were checking to make sure that I was not carrying any meat products inside,” recalled concertgoer Mel Stokes, opining, “I think it was just Morrissey being a diva – again.” Although venue staffer Laura Hannaway told the Mirror that they do perform searches for anything attendees might be able to throw at the band — and Moz has been pelted by his share of sausages over the years — she did concede that confiscating meat was “a bit random.” [via NME]

For old Smiths fan like us, anything new from one Stephen Patrick Morrissey is always cause for interest, if not necessarily celebration – we’re resigned to the fact that nothing he makes now is going to rival the glory days of The Smiths, but nevertheless, his solo material is still worth hearing. As such, we were excited to hear that he performed three new songs on BBC Radio 2 today, and that these songs are now available online to stream for your listening pleasure. See what we made of them after the jump. (And also click through for new stuff from Brian Eno and Flying Lotus.)

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Every day, we give thanks for the bounty the internet bestows on us. And today, we’re especially grateful to the generous soul who is in the process of scanning the contents of Select, a British music magazine that ran from 1990-2000, and archiving it online. While the project is hardly finished, there are already tons of fantastic features up. (We especially love this 1993 spread on rock couples.) After the jump, we indulge our nostalgia with a pictorial journey through the alternative music of ’90s, from L7 and Spiritualized to Björk and Placebo, seen through the lens of Select.

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Over the weekend, to the surprise of absolutely no one, Morrissey put his foot in his mouth… again. Yes, the Smiths legend and protector of all creatures (besides humans) has let his PETA-fueled rage get out of control. This time, he took his anger out on the Chinese people as a whole. But, as anyone who’s followed Moz’s career knows, they’re hardly the first to feel his sharp-tongued, asexual wrath. After the jump, we give you the rundown on 10 people or groups Morrissey hates. Add your favorite Moz takedowns in the comments.

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1. In case you missed it last night, watch Arcade Fire perform on The Daily Show (and gentle giant Win Butler tower over Jon Stewart). [via Twentyfour Bit]
2. Stephen Fry is putting together an unscripted one-man show that’s inspired by his fans on Twitter. [via The Star]
3. SMITH Magazine has posted a comic Harvey Pekar wrote before his death. [via Pop Candy]
4. After months of speculation about their status, Kanye West has confirmed his split from girlfriend Amber Rose. [via Showbiz Spy]
5. In honor of Friday the 13th, Morrissey has put together a list of his favorite 13 albums of all time. [via The Quietus]

Bonus link: The Ten Sexiest Celebrity Stoners