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10 of Pop Culture’s Most Famous Advice-Givers

By Emily Temple on

Like many of you, this week we were saddened to hear of the death of Pauline Phillips, the woman behind the legendary column Dear Abby, who infused the advice column industry with some much needed spunk and tough love. To celebrate her legacy, we’ve put together a list of some of our favorite advice-givers of all time, both fictional and non-fictional, but all culturally relevant. Check out our picks after the jump, and if we’ve missed your favorite mentor, add them on to our list (perhaps with a choice sage missive or two) in the comments. … Read More

Books

The Private Book Collections of 10 Famous Readers

By Emily Temple on

Earlier this month, we stumbled across Carolyn Kellogg’s great article about Bernie Madoff’s book collection, parts of which are being sold slowly on eBay by the person who won Madoff’s books in an auction. Sure, the books someone has may not be as great an indicator of their personality as, er, some other things we know about them, but, nerds that we are, we tend to consider our libraries extensions of ourselves. So of course, we did a little digging, pouring through the collections of famous (or infamous) cultural icons and see what they were made of. After the jump, browse through our excerpts of the private libraries of everyone from Darwin to Houdini to Oprah, and draw your conclusions where you may. … Read More

About

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Presented without comment: “The British hospital treating the former Kate Middleton admitted Wednesday it was victimized by a crank call in which information on her condition was given out to a woman impersonating Queen Elizabeth II.” [via

Books

Read Harper Lee's Letter to Oprah About Her Love of Books

By Emily Temple on

In 2006, Harper Lee, author of American classic To Kill a Mockingbird, wrote a letter to Oprah about her experience growing up with reading: first listening to family members reading aloud, then hunting down and trading for books, and later connecting with old friends over what books they had been reading. The letter, which we… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. “It was a weird, confusing space to be in, because as angry as I was, as angry and hurt and betrayed, I just felt like he made that mistake because he needed help and who’s going to help him? Nobody’s going to say he needs help. Everybody’s going to say he’s a monster without… Read More

Books

Ask Oprah a Question about Cheryl Strayed’s ‘Wild’

By Caroline Stanley on

We were thrilled when we first heard that Oprah was relaunching her Book Club with a recent favorite of our own — Cheryl Strayed’s beautiful memoir Wild — but we were also kind of curious. How was it that she came across the book? Did she connect with the same parts of the story that we did? Was she as reluctant to put it down as we were? Lucky for us, Oprah recently joined Vyou in order to field readers’ questions, and she’s already posted a few interesting responses — including the clip that we’ve posted after the jump, where she discusses the “aha” moment (or rather, moments) that she experienced after reading Wild. Click through to watch, and then head over to her Vyou profile for even more Oprah or to ask the media mogul a question yourself! … Read More

Books

The Triumphant Return of Oprah’s Book Club

By Emily Temple on

Okay, Oprah, we know we’re cool, but you really have to stop copying us. It’s just awkward for everyone. After two years of silence on her favorite novels, Oprah Winfrey has finally reinstated her famous book club. Possibly the book world’s biggest and most important tastemaker until her talk show aired its final episode in 2010,… Read More

Celebrity

2012′s Best Celebrity Commencement Speeches

By Caroline Stanley on

With the 2012 college graduation season nearly wrapping up, and the unofficial start of summer just days away, we thought that now would be a good time to round up clips of all of the fantastic celebrity commencement speeches that have taken place so far. From Mayor Bloomberg’s topical response to North Carolina’s referendum banning same-sex marriage at UNC Chapel Hill to Andy Samberg’s much more lighthearted (and impression-filled!) appearance at Harvard — as well as contributions by not one, but two Obamas — you’ll find a treasure trove of interesting life advice from some of pop culture’s biggest names after the jump. Check out the videos, and let us know in the comments who you think needs to quit their day job and become a full-time inspirational speaker. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Are you as surprised as we are to hear that Jennifer Lopez — who is apparently contemplating leaving American Idol — topped Forbes’ annual list of the most powerful celebrities? There’s no way that she’s more powerful than Oprah. [via Gawker]

2. Larry David may be joining forces with Superbad… Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we swooned over this clip of Joseph Gordon-Levitt doing an acoustic cover of R. Kelly’s “Ignition.” We wondered how much it would cost to have a ketchup fountain at our next big event. We couldn’t believe that someone’s friend would allow them to get this … Read More