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Now that we’ve got most of the major players (okay… now that we’ve got our Finnick) for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, we thought we’d go ahead and cast the rest of the film. Take a look at some of our picks for the film’s more minor characters below. (WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!)
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Earlier today, EW revealed that the Man of Steel and a certain Amazon princess are the Justice League’s new power couple. Though Lois Lane isn’t romantically involved with Superman in DC’s “New 52″ continuity, the news has still left Metropolis’s most famous reporter feeling curiously sad. Want proof? After distracting Lane with a fresh pint of ice cream — thanks for the idea, Jon Stewart — we managed to swipe a page from her very secret diary. The following entry has been reprinted without her permission. We think Lois would understand, though; sometimes, a writer’s gotta do what she’s gotta do.
Dear diary,
As a rule, I don’t wallow. After all, I’m Lois Freakin’ Lane — Pulitzer Prize winner, Daily Planet Executive Vice President of New Media, possessor of perfect hair. I can cover superheroes fighting alien monsters in my sleep. I eat annoying interns for dinner. I am, generally, so awesome that I couldn’t find anything to wallow about even if I wanted to. But something happened today that’s given me a serious case of melancholy — even though there’s no reason it should.
While preparing myself for another late night at the office, I looked out my window and saw a strange sight: Superman, Metropolis’s golden boy, engaging in a mid-flight makeout session with some chick in a star-spangled bathing suit.
Image Credit: Murray Close
Accio random Harry Potter history facts!
The greatest — well, one of the greatest — things about the Harry Potter canon is that there was just so much stuff that happened. The books are full of flashbacks and details, and J.K. Rowling is great about providing additional information — Pottermore — about the world, even if it was never in print (But we’re still waiting on that promised encyclopedia, Jo).
Because of that, you can pick almost any date on the calendar, and read up on exactly what happened that day in history. You know, hypothetically. I want to state for the record that I fully understand that it’s not “real.”
August 22 is a major day for Harry and Co. It’s no April 1 (Happy Birthday, Fred and George!) or October 31 (there isn’t enough time to list everything that ever has gone down on Halloween!) but according to exhaustive HP fansites, it is the date of one of the most infamous Quidditch World Cups of all time: the one from Goblet of Fire, where Ireland defeats Bulgaria and Barty Crouch Jr. kicks off the real story, casting the Dark Mark into the sky using Harry Potter’s own wand. It’s also Percy Weasley’s birthday, if you want to celebrate a traitor who finally came back to his family in the end. READ FULL STORY »
Before Darren Criss was a star of the Broadway stage and the small screen, he was just a wizard, standing in front of Ginny Weasley, asking her to love him.
Criss shot to fame in 2009, when a Harry Potter parody he co-wrote went viral on YouTube. A Very Potter Musical‘s various parts have since been viewed millions of times, allowing Criss and his comrades — collectively, they’re known as Team StarKid — to create a similarly popular sequel in 2010, as well as a variety of other productions. But when Hollywood beckoned that same year, Criss moved on to bigger things, and plans for a third Potter parody — A Very Potter 3D: A Very Potter Senior Year — had to be put on hold. Until now.
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Comedian Phyllis Diller died today in her Los Angeles home. EW’s Jessica Shaw profiled “the most celebrated female stand-up in history” in 2005 when the actress was still breaking ground at 87: She had penned a new memoir, Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse, and landed a role on a fall TV pilot, The Book of Daniel. Diller’s wit was as sharp as ever, despite her failing health.
Phyllis Diller isn’t feeling so hot right now. She’s flung herself back in a black stretch limo, forcing deep breaths in and out of her mouth, weakened from a recent bout with pneumonia. Just two hours ago, things were not looking so dire for the comedy pioneer, who just published her autobiography, Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse. Diller had joined her friends General Hospital‘s Anne Jeffreys and socialite Louise Danelian at the Colleagues Spring Luncheon, an annual charity fashion show in Beverly Hills, where the median age hovered around a very tight-skinned 80. The well-preserved posse gossiped about the diamond-dripping donors between sips of Perrier and discussed AARP-friendly topics like menopause, the perils of driving, and the difficulties of falling asleep in old age. Clad in a self-designed, Pepto-Bismol-colored, machine-washable, zigzag-hemmed dress, Diller, 87, eagerly flashed a toothy smile (all real!) to photographers who’d tired of snapping Betsy Bloomingdale and Mr. Blackwell.
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When Joe Biden shakes hands with Paul Ryan before the vice-presidential debate on Oct. 11, many observers will focus on the contrasts. Notably, their ages: Ryan is only 42 while Biden is now 69. But the vice-president may feel for a moment as if he’s looking in the mirror. After all, he was one of youngest men to ever join the U.S. Senate when he was sworn in at the age of 29 in 1973 (when Ryan was only 2 years old.) Both men are favorite Irish sons from their respective states, Roman Catholic, and famously more handsome and charismatic than most of their Washington peers. Ryan is happy to discuss his workout regimens, but Biden is an ex-football player who maintains that he still pumps some iron now and again. It will be interesting to see whose hand is whitest when they finally release their killer grips.
One of the reasons we’re interested in politicians pop-cultural preferences is because their selections sometimes give us a clue about who they really are, in a way that 1,000 stump speeches cannot. Biden’s not exactly an open book, but his favorites do tell you quite a bit about who he is and where he came from. First off, he embraces his Irishness, and all that it entails. READ FULL STORY »
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In the halcyon days of pre-election 2008, Barack Obama wasn’t just a presidential hopeful — he was a bona fide phenomenon. But Obama’s cultural caché came from an unlikely place, at least for a politician. From his exotic background to his youthful, energetic campaign to those shirtless bodysurfing pictures, the Democratic nominee just seemed, well, cool. He took Michelle to see Do the Right Thing on their very first date! He wouldn’t shut up about how much he loved The Wire! He even smoked — which, yes, is bad and gross, but nevertheless is something that a lot of cool people do. No wonder John McCain’s campaign once called Obama “the biggest celebrity in the world.” They meant it as a slight, but like any number of Hollywood hotshots, Obama seemed to simply ooze awesome.
Four years later, the bloom is off the rose. The American people are now better acquainted with the real Barack Obama — and it turns out that he’s not actually the political equivalent of Arthur Fonzarelli. (Or whoever the kids are into these days.) Instead, Obama is a textbook example of an archetype on the rise: the Cool Dad.
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Mitt Romney isn’t exactly known for his wild-and-crazy-guy side, but the Republican presidential candidate has made a point of emphasizing he’s “just like us” when it comes to his list of pop-culture faves. Listen up, voters!
Romney is currently 65 years old. He came of age at the height of Beatlemania (and yes, Romney is a Beatles fan!), when the roaring ’60s counterculture movement was in full swing. Some of the top books of 1965 were The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Alex Haley, and In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote.
For Romney himself, his personal book picks are a little more predictable: The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, about the rise of new technologies; David McCullough’s presidential biography, John Adams; Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, about Abraham Lincoln; and Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. One outlier? He loves The Hunger Games.
For movies, in People magazine this week, Romney once again confirmed that one of his favorite movies was O Brother, Where Art Thou? by the Coen brothers. No word on whether “the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find” is an omen for his campaign. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: InStyle
Cover girl Jennifer Lopez reveals why she’ll never give up on love, the pressure she feels to succeed as a parent, and how often she washes her hair in the September issue of InStyle. [People]
Fifty Shades of Grey lingerie, loungewear, and T-shirts are coming soon. No word on when fans can expect merchandise inspired by the more ribald passages from the book series. [E! Online]
Games over. Browse photos of abandoned Olympic sites around the world. [Flavorwire]
You’d think she would have learned her lesson after the meat dress. Lady Gaga has drawn the ire of animal rights group PETA for wearing a succession of animal fur jackets. [MTV]
Olympic star Gabby Douglas wore a gold foil skirt from BCBG –and accessorized with her gold medal — when she joined fashionable FLOTUS Michelle Obama on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. [Styleist]
Round 2 of our Superhero Showdown bracket game continues today with four soul-searing face-offs between eight of our most beloved costumed crimefighters, each of them in their own way deserving of the title “Greatest Superhero Ever.” Famous anti-gun advocate Batman battles the Punisher, a rabid pro-gun proponent. Star-crossed lovers Wolverine and Jean Grey will decide once and for all which X-Man is the best X-Man. Wonder Woman and Captain America will battle for the honor of the island of Themyscira and the Stars and Stripes, respectively. Lastly, Iron Man and Deadpool will match weaponry and witticisms. (“Weaponry and Witticisms” would be a great name for a jazz collective.)
Click on the image above for a printable bracket. Check out our pocket biographies of each superhero, and scroll to the bottom of each page to register your vote. Voting will conclude in exactly 48 hours, at 12:30 PM EST on August 16. And remember, voting is still open on the first four match-ups in round 2: Superman vs. Thor; Hellboy vs. Captain Marvel; Green Lantern vs. Invisible Woman; and Spider-Man vs. the Hulk. READ FULL STORY »
