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Old Master-Style Still Lifes of the Ridiculous Food Musicians Request on Tour

By Alison Nastasi on

We’ve looked at the strange and hilarious demands that musicians made in their tour riders before, and artist Henry Hargreaves brought those contractual requests to life in a new photo series. In the style of Old Master paintings, Hargreaves photographed the nibbles pop stars like to stuff their faces with. “I was inspired to create this series after reviewing a few riders from some of the biggest acts in the world, all of which were ridiculous,” the artist wrote for Vice. “What I found most interesting about them is that they offered a glimpse into their larger-than-life personalities.” It’s true. Sinatra lived on booze, New Kids on the Block eat like 12-year-old boys, Axl Rose’s cuisine also makes you want to punch him in the face, and Prince sips tea. Meanwhile, Billy Idol has danced with himself for so long, he’s resorted to chocolate chip cookies and a tub of butter to soothe his weary feet (and soul). Take a closer look in our gallery. … Read More

Pop Culture

Camille Paglia’s Most Culturally Tone-Deaf Moments

By Chloe Pantazi on

Author, critic, self-avowed dissident feminist, and veteran professor of liberal studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Camille Paglia is in many respects a shrewd woman. And yet somehow Paglia has become just as well known for her frankly insipid and often unsound pronouncements about pop culture. Most recently, she wrote an article for The Sunday Times misleadingly comparing Rihanna to Princess Diana. The pop star, who apparently returned home sloshed to find her face melding beautifully into Lady Di’s on the cover of the paper, was thrilled with herself, posting the picture on Instagram, hashtagged with the made-up word: “extraordinaRIHbehavior.” To hold you over until she sees fit to compare Miley Cyrus and Kate Middleton, we’ve rounded up her most culturally tone-deaf moments. … Read More

Pop Culture

A Brief Survey of Celebrities’ Crushes on Other Celebrities

By Alison Nastasi on

With industry professionals thriving in a hotbed of talented, attractive people, it’s no surprise that celebs can develop major crushes on other celebrities. Who else can understand the pressures and pleasures of fame more than another pop culture star? Sometimes admiration turns into a deeper attraction and fantasies about powerhouse relationships. We looked at the crushes of ten artists who have a thing for the singers and screen stars working alongside them. It’s cute, sometimes creepy, and always entertaining. Tell us about your favorite celeb-on-celeb crushes, below. … Read More

Music

The Year in Controversial Album Covers [NSFW]

By Tom Hawking on

It’s not a year in music without at least one good bout of hand-wringing over someone’s controversial album cover, and 2012 has been no exception. The album cover is something of a dying art form these days, although the return of vinyl in recent years has revived it somewhat — but still, in an age when we get more and more of our art in a digital form, it gets harder and harder to attract people’s attention. If nothing else, the covers in this feature most certainly do the attracting-people’s-attention bit just fine — whether they’re actually any good or not is a judgement we’ll leave up to you. (Warning — one of the images that awaits you below is pretty spectacularly NSFW, and if you’ve been following the ongoing shitfight between Death Grips and their former label Epic, you can probably guess what it is.) … 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 got some excellent suggestions on what to do with our leftover turkey from F. Scott Fitzgerald, including his recipe for the Turkey Cocktail. We wanted to own every single one of these action figure versions of the most famous scientists of the 20th century. We drooled over… Read More

About

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Here’s the new trailer for Admission, a quirky dramedy in which Paul Rudd plays a typical Paul Rudd character and Tina Fey is basically doing a slight variation on Liz Lemon — not that we’re complaining.

2. In other movie-related news, this first teaser for Mobius — an Inception-esque,… Read More

Pop Culture

Do Seapunks Have a Right to Be Pissed at Rihanna?

By Tom Hawking on

If like us you’re interested in internet culture, you’ve probably followed the Rihanna-vs.-seapunk controversy with interest and amusement. If not, well, in short, Rihanna’s outfit/visuals/general aesthetic on her recent Saturday Night Live performance looked an awful lot like those associated with seapunk, the curious aquatic-themed internet movement that’s been leveraging a Little Mermaid obsession since the good old days of 2010. The seapunk overlords are none too happy about their stylistic ideas being lifted by her ladyship, just like they have been similarly miffed about Azealia Banks stealing their schtick for months. If this all sounds like a storm in a virtual teacup to you, well, you’d be right. But still, the whole thing has some interesting things to say about internet culture, and culture in 2012 in general. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Did you go see Skyfall over the weekend? The movie pulled in $90 million at the domestic box office, making it the biggest Bond film opening in the 50-year-old franchise’s history. [via Vulture]

2. Kevin Clash, who has voiced Sesame Street’s Elmo for the past 28 years — and charmed us all… Read More

Television

The Best and Worst of Last Night’s ‘SNL’ With Anne Hathaway

By Emily Temple on

Well, would you look at that. The notoriously goofy Anne Hathaway led a pretty decent episode of Saturday Night Live last night, full of large-mouthed energetic mugging and musical numbers. In fact, most of the sketches landed in the pretty-good category, so this week, we’ve treated you to four of the best, with only two in the figurative doghouse. Still, SNL should be shooting for brilliance, not just okay sketches! We know, we know, that’s a lot to ask. For now, click through to watch the best and worst from last night’s SNL, and let us know whether you agree with us, or whether you totally hated Mokiki (impossible) in the comments. … Read More

Television

Jason Sudeikis Turns into Anne Hathway in the New ‘SNL’ Promos

By Caroline Stanley on

For our money, Anne Hathaway’s performance as Selina Kent was one of the best parts of The Dark Knight Rises. She was surprisingly sexy for someone whose breakthrough role was in The Princess Diaries, and her quick banter with Bruce Wayne provided the film with some much-needed lightness. Which is a long way of saying, forget for a second that Hathaway co-piloted the train wreck that was the 2011 Academy Awards; go ahead blame that mess on James Franco. We do — and we have high hopes for this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live, which will feature Rihanna as its musical guest. As Jason Sudeikis points out in these promos — you know, before accidentally turning himself into her — it will be Hathaway’s third time hosting the show, and she’s always delivered good TV in the past (remember her Katie Holmes impersonation?). Click through if you’d like to watch the two of them engage in ontological debates and sexy hair battles. … Read More