Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch Blog | PopWatch

Tags: Angelina Jolie, Divergent, Emma Stone, I'm Just a Geek, Jennifer Lawrence, Lady Gaga, Lena Dunham, Oprah Winfrey, Shailene Woodley, Books, Movies

Image Credit: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Divergent superfans, this one is for you. At the beginning of setting up this dystopian adventure, readers learn that all the people living in this world are sorted into five different factions when they come of age. An aptitude test helps place them, but the final decision is theirs (sounds wonderfully familiar, right?). While Beatrice, Caleb and all the rest had a tough decision to make, we got to thinking about where some Hollywood celebs would find themselves if they suddenly woke up in this world. Here are our best guesses for Jennifer Lawrence (Honest!), Lady Gaga (Brave!) and more.

Abnegation (the Selfless)

Angelina Jolie: Sure, she’s got her detractors, but she’s still one of Hollwood’s most famous do-gooders. The actress has traveled to Cambodia, Sierra Leone and many, many other places to speak and help with her main cause: refugees. She’s even a Goodwill Ambassador who has none other than Hillary Clinton as an admirer. READ FULL STORY »

Apr 24 2013 05:38 PM ET

The Force is with 'The Empire Strikes Back Uncut,' a new fan remake -- VIDEO

Tags: Geekery, I'm Just a Geek, Internetland, Star Wars, YouTube, Movies

Not so long ago, on an Internet not too far away — in fact, it’s right there, in front of your face — a 20-something computer programmer named Casey Pugh stitched together a Star Wars remake created entirely by fans. He divided the movie into 473 15-second segments, then asked volunteer filmmakers to reshoot any three segments. As EW wrote in 2011, the resulting film is “a giddy mosaic of crude — and some not-so-crude — animation, dads dressed as aluminum-foil droids, family dogs standing in for Chewbacca, and one Michael Bay-style orgy of explosions starring a badass C-3PO driving a stick-shift muscle car.”

And now Pugh’s working on the inevitable sequel: The Empire Strikes Back Uncut, a film that promises to incorporate “kid actors…animated Dagobahs…[and] some of the most inventive props we’ve seen.” Though you’ll find a teaser trailer for the follow-up below, the movie isn’t quite done yet; you can still claim a piece of the puzzle by visiting Uncut‘s website before May 1. (What, May the Fourth seemed too on-the-nose?) May the Force be with you, young Lucas wannabes!

Apr 10 2013 06:13 PM ET

'Star Wars' meets 'Faster, Pussycat!' in revamped action figures commissioned by Patton Oswalt

Tags: Geekery, George Lucas, Have You Seen This?, I'm Just a Geek, Patton Oswalt, Star Wars, Toys, Movies

Ah, so this is why neologists invented the word “geekgasm.” Action figure customizer Jamie Follis — known online as “Sillof” — has won legions of fans for his creative reimaginings of toys, which have cast the Avengers as Victorian-era heroes and the Justice League as steampunk creations.

Among those fans is comedian/geek hero Patton Oswalt, who partially based his character in Young Adult on Follis. After years of admiring his work, Oswalt recently gave Follis a new challenge: Transform the denizens of Star Wars into characters inspired by the works of pulp-master Russ Meyer, the director behind buxom ’60s campfests like Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! There was just one additional catch — since Meyer’s films were nearly all female-centric, Oswalt wanted the characters to be gender-flipped as well.

Mar 26 2013 04:19 PM ET

Emma Watson to receive MTV Trailblazer Award. 5 reasons she's our favorite.

Tags: Emma Watson, I'm Just a Geek, MTV Movie Awards, Things That Are Awesome!, Things That Are Classy, Movies

Image Credit: Christopher Polk/Getty Images

An award for her hard work? Hermione Granger would be proud.

Emma Watson will receive the second-ever MTV Trailblazer Award at the MTV Movie Awards in a few weeks, the network announced today. (Emma Stone won the title last year.) MTV said in a statement that Watson “endeared herself to fans as one of the most beloved and iconic characters of her generation. She’s been a constant presence in the lives of our audience for more than a decade and is continuing to challenge her craft with upcoming roles as radically diverse as her enormous talent.”

We agree – and thought up five more reasons why she’s our favorite. READ FULL STORY »

Mar 21 2013 01:05 PM ET

Twitter celebrates 7th birthday with a 'greatest hits' highlight reel -- VIDEO

Tags: I'm Just a Geek, Internetland, Nostalgia, Twitter, Twitter Conversations We Love

On March 21, 2006, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sent the microblogging site’s very first tweet: “just setting up my twttr.” (The “i” and the “e” would come in time.)

Seven years later, it’s tough to imagine a world without hashtags, @-replies, and the Fail Whale — not to mention the major news events in which Twitter has played a vital role, from the Arab Spring to the downfall of Congressman Anthony Weiner. The site charts several of those highlights in this charming anniversary video, which starts with Twitter’s humble beginnings as a sketch on a legal pad and ends with the future, a.k.a. Vine. US Airways Flight 1549, Barack Obama, and even Oprah (“HI TWITTERS”) pop up along the way as well.

Mar 20 2013 09:33 PM ET

Geeky tearjerker story of the day, courtesy of Wil Wheaton

by Emily Rome

Tags: CapeTown: TV, Geekery, I'm Just a Geek, tearjerkers, The Big Bang Theory, Wil Wheaton, TV

Image Credit: Michael Tullberg/Getty Images

If there was any doubt that the toolish Wil Wheaton character on The Big Bang Theory is a very fictionalized version of the real Wil Wheaton, well, read on, and that doubt won’t last much longer than anyone caught in the path of a phaser set to kill.

On The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper ranks Wil Wheaton as his sixth all-time enemy — his contempt for the Star Trek: The Next Generation actor dates back to a 1995 convention that Sheldon traveled to via 10-hour bus ride to meet his childhood hero, only to discover upon arrival that Wil Wheaton hadn’t shown up.

The real-life Wheaton wrote a post on his Facebook page Tuesday about a full weekend of meeting fans that was decidedly different from Sheldon’s no-show story. The post starts out as a rather familiar and typical story about the joy a life-long geek-turned-famous finds in paying it forward at conventions, meeting fans who stand in line for hours to get his autograph and to share their appreciation for his work, much as he did at conventions growing up. Wheaton explains that last weekend at MegaCon in Orlando, Fla., he met “dozens of people who told me that they were scientists, engineers, doctors, or programmers because they were inspired by Wesley Crusher.”

But his story turns worthy of a PopWatch post with the word “tearjerker” in the headline when Wheaton begins to recount one meeting with a fan “that stands out, that moved me so much, I’ve been struggling to find the right words to recount it.” He ends the post — about meeting a fan who recovered from illness and years later was well enough to come to his signing– by saying “I’m still overwhelmed when I think about what that means, and how I was part of it.” PopWatchers, grab a box of tissues and read an excerpt from his story below, then click over to Wheaton’s Facebook page for the full recounting: READ FULL STORY »

Mar 20 2013 03:57 PM ET

Attention Rory: The Gilmore-iest love advice from Lorelai Gilmore now that Alexis Bledel is engaged

Tags: Gilmore Girls, I'm Just a Geek, Things That Are Awesome!, Those Crazy Kids!, TV

Image Credit: Markk Liddell/The CW

Oy with the poodles already: One of our Gilmore Girls is getting married!

Alexis Bledel is engaged to marry her Mad Men co-star Vincent Kartheiser, EW has confirmed. While Bledel most recently spent a few episodes last season on Mad Men engaging in a brief and torrid affair with Pete Campbell, her happier Rory Gilmore days were filled with love triangles, books, and a ton of meals at Luke’s Diner. We got to reminiscing and we wondered what Lorelai – a woman of way more than a few words – would have to say to her daughter now that she’s engaged. P.S. We already know what Luke would wish for her: “If not a prince, someone who’s gonna be good for her….She can have adventures and be free, she’s smart. The whole world’s waiting for her.” All together now: Awwww.

Below, the very best Gilmore Girls love advice, straight from the coolest mom ever. READ FULL STORY »

Mar 20 2013 09:43 AM ET

'Game of Thrones': Which actor's take on the theme song is your favorite? VIDEO

Tags: Game of Thrones, HBO, I'm Just a Geek, Ridiculata, Things That Are Awesome!, Viral Video!!!, Music, TV

Singing along to the Game of Thrones theme song: It’s not just for Stark kids anymore!

MTV Geek asked 10 members of the fantasy drama’s cast to perform their own rendition of the tune at the show’s season 3 premiere party earlier this week. The actors obliged, albeit with slightly varying levels of enthusiasm. (Minor quibbles: There was no rapping, and nobody sang the song’s true, NSFW lyrics.)

Sophie Turner’s version is probably my favorite, though I could be swayed — whose “na na, na na na na”s do you like best? And which cast member’s out-of-character appearance blows your mind the most? (Carice van Houten, I’m looking at you.)

Mar 19 2013 09:00 AM ET

'True Blood': Is it Sookie/Bill or Sookie/Eric? -- VOTE