Learning about seminal pop culture scenes in reverse

George Clooney buys woman new car

What could possibly be better than stalking George Clooney's dinner party? How about getting in a fender bender with the dreamy actor that culminates in him buying you a brand new set of wheels? It's not just my restless Friday fantasy. Recently while in Italy, the Oceans star rear-ended a woman's car, but instead of calling Geico, Clooney shelled out $28,000 to buy her a brand new one! I was pretty jealous until I actually saw a Lancia Ypsilon. I think a few fleeting moments exchanging insurance information and accepting his tender, heartfelt, near-tears apologies, would be worth more to me than this tin can on wheels.

(BTW, am I the only one who's a little worried about Clooney's aptitude behind the wheel? It was less than a year ago that he and then-girlfriend Sarah Larson were involved in a gnarly motorcycle accident. If you need some driving lessons, George, you know who to call. Wink. Wink.)

Comic-Con: 'Aren't They Adorable?' panel

FAKEOUT! These are the five bizarre little mascots for the Beijing Olympics. Are you getting psyched?!

What's the last time you, entertainment expert, were actually wrong?

We've done posts about our stupidest pop-culture related arguments and whether or not we correct strangers when we overhear them making an error in conversation. But today, we're sharing that one time when we were (gulp) actually wrong.

Earlier this week, I was talking with a colleague about Kevin Costner. (Because, why wouldn't I be?) Like me, he's pro-Kevin, and was making the point that from 1987 to 1992, Costner had an amazing run, with at least one megahit each year. Then, he started talking about the Oscar love those films received. He referenced Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' nomination for Best Picture. Best Picture?! Please, the only nomination that movie got was for Best Song. (Though Alan Rickman should've been recognized for his unexpectedly twisted portrayal of the Sheriff of Nottingham. His performance was a precursor to Johnny Depp's Keith Richards-inspired take on Captain Jack Sparrow, if you ask me. At least Rickman took home the BAFTA for supporting actor.)

When I finished laughing at this colleague, who'd been so adamant about the film's nomination, I told him I'd be blogging our exchange — which is when he asked not to be named. Help him feel better. When were you completely and utterly wrong about a pop-culture factoid?

What lyrics have you always gotten wrong?

My PopWatch compadre Gary Susman recently sent me a video of Joe Cocker singing "With a Little Help From My Friends" at Woodstock, back in 1969. (I'll take this moment to 'fess that I had no idea that Cocker was still alive -- according to IMDB, he played a bum, a pimp, and a "mad hippie" in last year's Across the Universe. I smell a tasteless PopWatch item in the making: Stars you thought were dead, but no, just fallen off the radar. ANYWAY.) While I've tried to decipher Cocker's lyrics for years, this video (watch it below) offers up helpful subtitles, with even more helpful illustrations of said lyrics. Of course, it doesn't help matters that the lyrics are totally WRONG, and quite hysterically so, but I think I prefer "Whoa, I let the river out / and I don't know why" as opposed to... whatever he actually sang.

This got me thinking: What song lyrics have you repeatedly misheard? Have you ever embarrassed yourself in front of friends? (Check out KissThisGuy.com for inspiration.) I'll go first. When I was growing up, it seemed like my local radio station had Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" on every 15 minutes. And I'd dutifully sing along every time I heard it, even though I thought the lyrics were awfully morbid: "Out on the road today / I saw a dead head sticking on a Cadillac..." Ick! (Henley was actually singing "I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac," but this was some years before I knew what a "Deadhead" was. My parents were that good.)

Your turn.

When rock stars attack!

The Limewire blog has compiled a collection of YouTube clips that capture rock stars' less-than-composed moments. But before you peep, be forewarned — angry rock stars are more likely than not to use unladylike language, so very few of these are SFW. A few choice vids: Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz gets embroiled in a mob scene that looks — and sounds — downright scary, while KISS's Paul Stanley segues from a ballad (he ends it with a sincere "God bless you all!") to, "Hey schmuck! Take the laser out one more time and I'll put it right up your ass! Promise." (The "promise" is my favorite part — as if anyone would question a threat posed by a man wearing Spandex and platform boots.)

One PG-13 exception here is Björk, captured below in an infamous 1996 incident at a Bangkok airport. She's greeted by a British journalist, who tells the pop star, "Welcome to Bangkok," and Bjork's reply is a left uppercut, followed by some hair pulling. (Björk's record label later claimed that the reporter had been pestering her for days.)

Have you ever witnessed a rock star meltdown? Or a brawl at a rock show? Share!

The Miley Cyrus photos: Racy or artistic?

Last week, photos of Miley Cyrus surfaced in which she was playfully flashing her lime green bra (oh no, Hannah Montana wears a bra!). But now the tween star is stirring controversy again, this time for not wearing a bra (or a shirt, for that matter).

In photos for the June issue of Vanity Fair, taken by the renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz, the 15-year-old singer posed topless, though draped in a sheet, exposing her bare shoulders. Originally, Cyrus seemed pleased with the shots: In a caption running with the photo spread, she is quoted as saying, "I think it's really artsy. It wasn't in a skanky way. Annie took, like, a beautiful shot, and I thought that was really cool. That's what she wanted me to do, and you can't say no to Annie."

But now Cyrus is singing a different tune. In a statement released through her publicist, the singer says, "I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed. I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about."

It's time for PopWatch's 'Major Movie Star' challenge!

Let's play a game, and see how many individual things we can find wrong with the trailer for Jessica Simpson's abysmal looking Major Movie Star. Click here to watch, then select one and only one reason it's an unspeakable mess. (To raise the stakes, try not to pick anything that your fellow readers have already mentioned.)

I'll get us started: That "boing" sound effect when the bulldog cocks his ears.

Okay, your turn!

Ann Curry: Getting the 'Today Show' Shaft

Ever get the feeling that the other folks on the Today Show aren't all that fond of Ann Curry? For instance, I was watching Today this week, when they were all into their "At the Ends of the Earth" stunt. On Monday, Matt Lauer was in the arctic circle, Al Roker was at the equator, Meredith Viera's in the NYC studio (wimp), and Ann Curry was in Antarctica. Bully for them. Neat little programming trick.

By yesterday, everyone's back in the studio...except Ann. Who's been trying, and failing, to make it to the South Pole. And today, after, like, 48 attempts, she finally got there. But I got this weird vibe that they were all kinda glad to see her try, for as long as she needed to. "Don't give up, Ann. Grrrl power! (But take your time.)"

Greetings from the South Pole!

Butt-Kicking Babes: You were right, we were wrong

So, we made something of a boo-boo. An error. A lapse in judgment. A brain fart. And more than 50   100  200 300 of you took the time to let us know, in a thoughtful and measured manner. (And by "thoughtful" and "measured," I mean "loud" and "angry.")

Yes, we left Buffy Summers and Sydney Bristow off our 22 Butt-Kicking Babes List. Trust me when I say that it was not intentional, at all. My love for Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a matter of record. It pains me to realize that, in updating this gallery, I left off the Butt-Kicking-est Babe of All.

As for Sydney Bristow, I must admit that I'm not the biggest Alias fan. (In fact, I much prefer the Marvel comic book Alias to the show. But that's just me.) Still, that's no reason for exclusion so, in short order, we just updated that gallery to correct our oversight.

This is a testament to you, dear readers. Whether you think we do or not, we listen. To everything you say.