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The Kardashians

Pop Culture

Why “Changing the Channel” Doesn’t Always Work

By Paul Hiebert on

Right now, the Kardashians are probably the most well-known American family living in defiance of Plato’s maxim, “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” To the voluptuous Kim and company, more is more. The very name of their reality TV show — one of their many reality TV shows — Keeping Up with the Kardashians, is a blatant celebration of accruing status, money, and power without much of a point besides staying ahead of one’s neighbors. And, perhaps, the Hiltons.

Some people are angry about this. They don’t want these valueless values to spread throughout society. They abhor the idea that Kim Kardashian — someone who got famous for essentially making a sex tape with the brother of an R&B singer, remained famous simply for being famous, and is still famous for divorcing her professional basketball-playing husband after 72 days of turbulent marriage — is one of the more prominent characters in America’s media landscape. … Read More

Celebrity

A Collection of Fantastic Celebrity Barbies

By Caroline Stanley on

We’ll be the first to admit that it has been a long, long time since we were in the target demographic for Barbie, yet when we heard that a collection of dolls inspired by the Kardashians is rumored to be in the works, we couldn’t help but react with a resounding “huh?!” What’s the fun in that? The whole point of playing with Barbie dolls is the escapism and fantasy; meanwhile, whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, you have to admit that the Kardashian sisters have built their ever-growing empire around their willingness to overshare every last banal detail of their daily lives with the public– not exactly the most thrilling source material. Plus, while their fashion choices are typically on-trend, they’re also pretty darn boring. So, we decided to do a little bit of digging, and discovered that there are plenty of celebrity-inspired Barbies on the market that we wouldn’t mind playing with — even as adults. Let us know which doll is your favorite in the comments. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

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… Read More

Television

What We Learned from Barbara Walters’ ‘Most Fascinating People’ Special

By Caroline Stanley on

Last night Barbara Walters’ annual Most Fascinating People special aired, and as we previously mentioned, it featured a list of celebrities who for the most part seemed a bit dated. The most surprising moment of the evening came when Walters’ revealed Steve Jobs as her pick for the most fascinating person of the year — but only because it had always been her policy to only feature the living. (Walters explained that, taking a note from Jobs himself, she decided that “rules were made to be broken.”) Because we don’t expect you to sit through a whopping hour and a half with Katy Perry and the Kardashian clan, we’ve collected some of the most interesting tidbits from the evening for you after the jump; if you find you need a palate cleanser after, may we suggest Flavorpill’s Most Fascinating People of 2011? … Read More

News

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

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we discovered something known in the disaster relief business as the “Waffle House Index.” We found a few of the tidbits in Mental Floss’s roundup of 18 famous TV roles originally played by someone else totally shocking. We read about a city in Germany that recently… Read More

Television

Rate-a-Trailer: HBO’s ‘Cinema Verite’

By Caroline Stanley on

Long before the Kardashians had multiple TV shows on E!, Ozzy Osbourne had ever unintelligibly bellowed out “Sharon,” or Jon and Kate’s eight were even a twinkle in their eye, there was a family called the Louds who were the subject of a 1973 PBS documentary series called An American Family. Considered one of the first reality TV series, it also tackled many taboos of the day, chronicling Bill and Pat Loud’s separation and eventual divorce, as well as the sexuality of their openly gay son, Lance. HBO’s upcoming original movie Cinema Verite, which stars Diane Lane, Tim Robbins, and James Gandolfini, provides an imagined look at what went on behind-the-scenes as cameras took over their Santa Barbara home. Is it a little weird that a fictional movie is being made about a reality TV show? Sure. But thanks to a stellar cast, we think that this definitely looks juicy enough to tune in — if only to ogle their ’70s-inspired ensembles. Click through and let us know what you think. … Read More