Today at Flavorpill, we wondered if the Disney marketing team really knew what they were doing when they made this Joy Division/Unknown Pleasures tee. We tried to imagine how many terrifying Mark Jenkins sculptures we’ve seen in our lifetime without really knowing it. We were disappointed that the new Cormac McCarthy Twitter account was a fake. We were mesmerized by this dance of a thousand arms. We learned we’ll have to bite our tongues for another month until the Razzie nominees are announced. We were glad that Tracy Morgan feels up to returning to work on 30 Rock tomorrow. We were spooked by this island of Megan Foxes. Yes, plural. We wondered if we missed Buffy enough to buy this 1995 Chrysler LeBaron that Sarah Michelle Gellar used to own. We discovered what it takes to be a secret agent. We thought this snowy photo of a church in Switzerland looked like a dollhouse creation. We envied Harry Potter’s iElf app. We adored this illustrated Harold and Maude poster. And finally, we concluded that even if the critics didn’t like Steven Tyler’s rendition of the National Anthem, Wayne and Garth probably did.

1. Tracy Morgan was taken to a hospital yesterday after he collapsed during a dinner at the Sundance Film Festival; apparently the cause of the incident was “a combination of exhaustion and altitude,” but according to one person who was there, Morgan “seemed out of control, yelling and falling onto the ground.” [via USA Today]

2. Swizz Beatz would like you to know that he is not the CEO of Megaupload (he was still in negotiations for the gig when everything went down last week), and “is in no way connected to the crimes of which they are being accused.” [via MTV]

3. Claire Danes has been named 2012 Woman of the Year by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals of Harvard University, and as such, will lead a parade through Cambridge on January 26th; the group has yet to announce who its Man of the Year will be. Any nominations? [via EW]

4. Steve Buscemi will reprise the role of private detective Len Wosniak in an upcoming episode of 30 Rock that he’ll also be directing. The promising premise: “Jack wants Len to help him form a private police force where the salary starts at $5 million, so the police have the same interest in protecting the rich.” [via InsideTV]

5. Nicki Minaj’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, which was originally scheduled to come out on Valentine’s Day, apparently won’t be dropping until April 3rd now. How do you think this news makes poor little Sophia Grace feel? [via Vulture]

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Soon after the news broke, in June of last year, that Tracy Morgan had launched into a homophobic rant during a stand-up performance, it occurred to us that the incident might turn up in the next season of 30 Rock. Over the years, the show has often addressed real-life controversies involving its cast — a great episode last year, for instance, tackled a dizzying array issues related to women in comedy, from the double-edged sword of Jezebel (known in the episode as “Joan of Snark”) to female comedians who infantilize themselves and use their sexuality to get ahead.

So we weren’t surprised when, earlier this month, we learned that Morgan’s outburst would indeed be worked into the 30 Rock plot. “They’ve incorporated [Morgan's rant] into the Tracy Jordan storyline,” MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts, who is gay, told The Huffington Post. “Liz Lemon writes Tracy’s apology on the show and says he’s not a homophobe, he’s an idiot. That offends idiots, so while NBC is being picketed by the LBGT community, now it’s also being picketed by idiots led by Denise Richards. She’s the leader of the idiots.” That’s a fairly accurate summary of what happened on 30 Rock last night, but to be honest, the episode sounded far more satisfying when I first read Roberts’ description than it actually turned out to be.

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An eight-month hiatus can be difficult for any primetime, network TV show to overcome. Fans may have changed their viewing habits or lost their place in the story line or simply forgotten that the series was coming back. It’s hard to know how the break will affect 30 Rock, which has a couple million deeply loyal viewers yet is always struggling to maintain its humble ratings. But one thing is sure: Despite some promising preview clips, Tina Fey’s wonderful sitcom will be faced with a few unusual obstacles when it returns January 12th.

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We think it’s safe to say that it’s been another colorful and crazy year. In the past few weeks we’ve taken a look at all the things we loved most in 2011 — including some of the best movie moments, the year’s greatest book covers, and the most controversial art shows. Every positive has a negative, however, and this year was no different. From directors who can’t seem to keep themselves out of hot water, to celebubimbos that we can do without, and 1% of the population that really pisses us off, we bring you ten of the year’s most controversial cultural icons that made everyone’s naughty list. Leave your picks below. Read More »

1. José Angel Santana, a 58-year-old former professor at NYU, says that he lost his job after giving James Franco a D in “Directing the Actor II,” and is now suing the university. Apparently the bad grade was attendance related; Franco only showed up for two of the fourteen classes. [via Vulture]

2. Now that Grinderman is “over,” Jim Sclavunos reports that Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds could be releasing a follow up to their 2008 album Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! as early as next year. [via NME]

3. Maya Angelou, who recently collaborated with Common on a track that appears on his forthcoming album, The Dreamer, The Believer, was “surprised and disappointed” to find out that the song “used the ‘N’ word numerous times.” His response? “I told her what ‘The Dreamer’ was about and what I wanted to get across to people. I wanted young people to hear this and feel like they could really accomplish their dreams.” [via ArtsBeat]

4. This weekend’s Jimmy Fallon-hosted installment of Saturday Night Live scored the show’s highest ratings of the season so far. No doubt appearances by former castmembers — including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Tracy Morgan, and Rachel Dratch — as well as a Jude Law cameo (who seemed to be channeling Michael Stipe in that hat), helped out. [via Deadline]

5. Pulling in a respectable $40 million, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows topped the weekend box office, followed by Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked ($23.5 million), and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol ($13 million). When you consider that Mission: Impossible was only playing at around 425 IMAX theaters, that number seems a lot more impressive. [via Digital Spy]

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Twitter is the perfect medium for comedians: It’s quick, text-based, and social, meaning that there’s a potential audience of millions for a great, concise joke. As such, we follow a lot of professional funny people, from Sarah Silverman to Aziz Ansari to Eugene Mirman. But we have found, often to our great surprise, that not all of our favorite comedians are funny on Twitter. Whether they’re saving their material for paying gigs, have other social media concerns outside of entertaining us, or just can’t translate what they do on stage to the Internet, they just aren’t making us laugh. We’ve rounded up ten top offenders after the jump.

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Regular readers will know that we’re not exactly big fans of Tyler, The Creator and his “Ur All Faggots” shtick. But even so, we can’t help noticing the contrast between a couple of stories that have emerged over the last couple of days — one involving Tyler and another involving 30 Rock’s Tracy Morgan. As has been well-documented, Morgan’s mouth got him into hot water back in June, when he said that if his son announced he was gay, Morgan would “pull out a knife and stab that little nigga to death.” Anyway, this week it was reported that the whole sorry business might be written into the script of the next season of 30 Rock, because, y’know, it’s hilarious, right? Tyler, meanwhile, has drawn continued condemnation, this time from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation after his victory at the VMAs: “Given Tyler’s history of [homophobic and misogynistic] remarks, viewers and potential sponsors should refrain from honoring homophobia and in the future look to a more deserving artist.”

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On this slow-news Friday, it seems like the whole Internet is up in arms about Tracy Morgan’s homophobic rant at a stand-up show last night. As audience member Kevin Rogers, who is gay, recounted on Facebook, Morgan — never one to shy away from edgy material — “took it upon himself to mention about how he feels all this gay shit was crazy and that women are a gift from God and that ‘Born this Way’ is bullshit, gay is a choice, and the reason he knows this is exactly because ‘God don’t make no mistakes’ (referring to God not making someone gay cause that would be a mistake).” He went on to cast doubt on the plausibility of lesbianism and the impact of bullying on queer kids. Then, “He said if his son that was gay he better come home and talk to him like a man and not [he mimicked a gay, high pitched voice] or he would pull out a knife and stab that little N (one word I refuse to use) to death.” If anyone can figure out what’s funny about that statement, please be sure to let us know.

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1. That free Black Eyed Peas concert that was supposed to happen in Central Park last night to raise money for the Robin Hood Foundation was cancelled because of the weather, making an estimated 60,000 people really mad. Given the fact that Will.i.am has been forgetting his own lyrics lately, maybe this was a blessing in disguise. [via ArtsBeat]

2. 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan is in hot water again over some seriously homophobic material in a recent stand-up performance in Nashville. A sample from his act: “Gays need to quit being pussies and not be whining about something as insignificant as bullying.” According to TMZ, Morgan later told the crowd, “[I don't] fucking care if I piss off some gays, because if they can take a fucking dick up their ass… they can take a fucking joke.” Lovely.

3. The union that represents theater directors is suing Spider-Man: Turn Off for an estimated $300,000 in unpaid royalties owed to Julie Taymor. Considering that she worked on the project for nine years, and the show — which hasn’t even officially opened yet — is making more than $1 million at the box office every week, we think the producers can afford to make good. [via CNBC]

4. Warren Beatty told a crowd at the Los Angeles Times Hero Complex Film Festival last night that he’s planning to make a sequel to his 1990 film Dick Tracy. As long as Madonna agrees to reprise her role as Breathless Mahoney, we’re game. [via Slashfilm]

5. After leaving Brown earlier this year to focus on Harry Potter and other projects, Emma Watson is reportedly enrolling at Oxford University. [via Contactmusic]

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