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?

1. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol dominated the holiday box office for the second week running, pulling in an estimated $31.3 million. It was followed by Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which made an estimated $22.1 million, and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, which made $18.3 million. [via Moviefone]

2. Rupert Murdoch, the 80-year old chairman and CEO of News Corp, decided to join Twitter on New Year’s Eve; so far his @rupertmurdoch account, which has been verified, has amassed more than 50,000 followers. [via The Hollywood Reporter]

3. MTV has announced that a new season of Punk’d will premiere on March 19, with a rotating series of celebrity guest hosts that includes Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Kellan Lutz, Bam Margera, and Dax Shepard. [via Deadline]

4. Queen Elizabeth has appointed famed British painter David Hockney — who recently turned down a request to paint her portrait, and previously refused knighthood — to the Order of Merit, a “select group of individuals who have achieved distinction in the arts, learning, science and public service.” [via Guardian]

5. Fans of Terrence Malick’s Palme d’Or-winning headscratcher The Tree of Life might be interested in these revealing storyboards which feature sequences that were not included in the final film. [via The Playlist]

Bonus Buzz: Filipino Prisoners Inspire a Musical

And thus it begins: The Daily What tipped us off to this clever new billboard intervention by Dr. D in London. While we’re sure the Metropolitan Police are less than thrilled that their ad got hijacked, and it doesn’t hold a candle to Saul Bass’ opening titles for the Hitchcock original, is there anything more exciting than topical street art? [Image via Wooster Collective]

Today, the UK national newspaper News of the World, owned by Rupert Murdoch, printed its final issue. The best-selling tabloid, which began publishing in 1843, has been embroiled in a phone-hacking scandal since 2006, when Clive Goodman, the royal editor, was jailed for illegally intercepting the voicemails of the royal family. More recently, the paper was accused of hacking into the voicemails of the relatives of deceased British soldiers, victims of the 2005 London bombings, and teenage murder victim Milly Dowler. Disgraced and faced with public outrage in the UK, the paper announced last Thursday that today would mark its final issue. The last edition of News of the World includes a full page apology for the scandal, reading, “We praised high standards, we demanded high standards but, as we are now only too painfully aware, for a period of a few years up to 2006 some who worked for us, or in our name, fell shamefully short of those standards. Quite simply, we lost our way. Phones were hacked, and for that this newspaper is truly sorry.” But don’t worry. If you act now, you can send away for your free souvenir edition. [via Washington Post]

1. Conservatives are angry about last night’s 90-minute Glee episode, which included the music of Lady Gaga and addressed issues of anti-gay bullying. “This is Ryan Murphy‘s latest depraved initiative to promote his gay agenda,” said Dan Gainor of the right-wing Media Research Center. [via Hollywood Reporter]

2. Beyoncé has released a new music video — but it’s not the highly anticipated “Girls (Who Run the World).” It’s a sweet, school-centric clip for “Move Your Body,” a version of “Get Me Bodied” that she produced to support Michelle Obama‘s anti-obesity campaign. Watch it here.

3. William S. Burroughs has been dead since 1997, but Turkey has just caught on to how odd his books are. The Turkish translation of his 1966 novel The Soft Machine was released in January, and, despite the testimony of its publisher, the Prime Minister’s Council has decided that it “does not constitute a literary piece of work in its current condition.” Governments: clearly culture’s most competent critics. [via io9]

4. The actress Melissa Farman has been cast as Bristol Palin in HBO’s adaptation of Game Change. Damn. We were really pulling for Miley. [via WSJ]

5. Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp is hoping to find a bidder that will pay over $100 million for Myspace. Sounds unlikely to us. [via Reuters]

Bonus link: Watch the new REM video for “Every Day Is Yours to Win,” on YouTube for only 24 hours

Today at Flavorpill, we watched Alison Brie and Gillian Jacobs share a “moment” on the set of Community. We visited Kraft’s 400,000 square foot underground cheese cave. We wondered if everyone is drinking their bagels in the future, then that means that we’ll have to chew our Bloody Marys — hopefully not. We were frightened by how much crap Janis Joplin used to lug around in her purse. We felt guilty for laughing at this hilariously bad sexual harassment stock photography. We got a gander at the playbill for The Book of Mormon, the new musical from South Park‘s Matt Stone and Trey Parker. We got a better idea of who is going to be working for Rupert Murdoch’s semi-mysterious iPad newspaper, The Daily. We looked at the microorganisms that live inside of our belly buttons under a microscope. And finally, we got sneak peek at Sue Sylvester’s Cheerios dancing to Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” while wearing blue wigs and flame-shooting tops in Glee’s upcoming Super Bowl episode. Unfortunately, it was less thrilling than it sounds.

After weeks of delays, News Corp. has officially announced that the launch of Rupert Murdoch’s iPad newspaper The Daily will take place on Wednesday, February 2 at the Guggenheim Museum. Despite earlier rumors, we’re now hearing that Steve Jobs will not be in attendance, but Apple’s VP of Internet Services, Eddy Cue, will be. From what little we’ve already seen, The Daily‘s content doesn’t look to be much different that what we’d see on the cover of the New York Post; that said, a staff that includes editor Sasha Frere-Jones and critic Heather Havrilesky suggests that there will be some meatier features as well. And for a $4.25 monthly subscription, we think most iPad users will be willing to risk it. Are you planning to check it out?

Supposedly, the official premiere of Rupert Murdoch’s iPad newspaper, The Daily — whose promising culture staff includes editor Sasha Frere-Jones and critic Heather Havrilesky — is less than a week away. But for media nerds who can’t wait another moment comes an interesting shred of info from Poynter‘s Damon Kiesow, who poked around in its website‘s source code for a while and found what looks like an in-house ad that pictures two possible covers, featuring obvious attention-getters Oprah and Brett Favre. Other (not particularly surprising) details: The Daily will be equipped with a full range of social media sharing options, an embedded video player, and a “Story Carousel” that will give readers the ability to virtually page through the publication. [via Fishbowl NY]

1. Hollywood producer (and Elizabeth Hurley ex) Steve Bing provided the Boeing 737 jet for Bill Clinton’s North Korea mission to release Current TV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. [via The Daily Beast]
2. While the details are still hazy, Ridley Scott and Leonardo DiCaprio will collaborate on a film adaption of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. [via The Hollywood Reporter]
3. Rupert Murdoch plans to charge you for all of the online content associated with the newspapers and television stations he owns. [insert Dr. Evil laugh here] [via CNET]
4. Bob Dylan (who converted from Judaism to Christianity in the late ’70s) is working on a Christmas album. [via NME]
5. The Piven Monologues, a show that explores the public controversy over Jeremy Piven’s sushi-fueled departure from Speed-the-Plow, will play Joe’s Pub in September. [via Playbill]

Brace yourselves, sci-fi geeks: According to Variety, Ridley Scott will be directing the long-discussed Alien prequel for FOX. “It will precede that film, in which the crew of a commercial towing ship returning to Earth is awakened and sent to respond to a distress signal from a nearby planetoid. The crew discovers too late that the signal generated by an empty ship was meant to warn them.” Sigourney Weaver has stated that she can’t imagine being involved with any prequel — and can’t imagine how Scott can be on board either. Read More »