Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch Blog | PopWatch

Tags: Google, Google Doodle, Internetland, Things That Are Awesome!, Things That Are Classy, Why Am I Crying?

Today’s Google Doodle isn’t for those prone to tearing up at those dang Google+ commercials. Recently, Google ran a contest inviting students of all ages to create their own Doodle around the theme, “My Best Day Ever….” The winner would get their design on Google’s homepage, as well as a $30,000 college scholarship, in addition to other prizes.

Twelfth-grader Sabrina Brady beat out 130,000 other candidates with her winning drawing depicting her reunion with her father coming home after an 18-month deployment in Iraq. In addition to her Google fame, Brady and other finalists’ work will appear in a special exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City running through July 14.

That is so much better than your artwork hanging on your parents’ fridge.

May 23 2013 10:16 AM ET

The Benedict Cumberbatch shower scene you DIDN'T see in 'Star Trek Into Darkness' -- VIDEO

Tags: Benedict Cumberbatch, Conan, Conan O'Brien, Internetland, J. J. Abrams, Sexytimes, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, Movies

If you’re a Cumberbitch, I won’t mince words: Go below the jump, my friends.

If you had to look up the (made-up) word “Cumberbitch,” I’ll provide some context: Star Trek Into Darkness maestros J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof have been taking some heat for a scene in their new movie, which features a gratuitous shot of star Alice Eve in her underwear. (Gratuitous female nudity in an action movie? Well, I never!)

But as Abrams pointed out on Conan last night, the scene in question came after an earlier shot of gratuitous Chris Pine shirtlessness — meaning that if anything, he and the Enterprise crew are equal-opportunity objectifiers. Abrams subsequently revealed something that may have made Tumblr explode: Star Trek villain Benedict Cumberbatch also had a shirtless scene that ended up being cut from the movie. And then the director showed a snippet of the scene in question — which finds Cumberbatch glowering in a “shower of evil.”

May 20 2013 04:25 PM ET

The Internet comes to life for Patton Oswalt in Webby Awards promo -- VIDEO

Tags: Current Affairs, Internetland, Patton Oswalt, Webby Awards, TV

The Internet is everywhere and Patton Oswalt can’t do anything to escape it.

In a new promo for the Webby Awards, host Oswalt starts seeing things through meme-ready Internet eyes, with real-life cats becoming LOLCats, people posing with built-in Instagram filters and catchphrases of YouTube stars past (“Is this real life?”) all invading his thoughts. “You saps! The Internet is taking over and you can’t even see it,” Oswalt declares. Then “Gangnam Style” starts playing and things really take a turn for the weird. Will Oswalt be able to fend off the zombie Internet robots or will he become one himself? Twist: What if he already is one?! Stay tuned.

The Webby Awards, celebrating the best of the web, will be available to stream on May 22. You can check out the full list of winners, and watch the Funny or Die trailer below: READ FULL STORY »

May 20 2013 03:55 PM ET

Yahoo buys Tumblr: Should users of the meme machine be worried?

Tags: Internetland, This Could Be Interesting..., Tumblr Watch, Yahoo

Citizens of the Internet, we’ve reached a milestone: This may be the first major web acquisition announced via GIF.

Today, Yahoo and Tumblr officially revealed that the former is buying the latter for a cool $1.1 billion. (Guess all those Game of Thrones memes are worth more than just a chuckle.) As the biggest acquisition Yahoo has made since ex-Googler Marissa Mayer became its CEO last summer, this has the potential to massively change both companies forever. Since the announcement, though, both Mayer and Tumblr founder David Karp have largely refrained from trumpeting what the future may hold. Instead, they’ve spent most of the day asking Tumblr users not to panic — and reassuring them that the site will retain its idiosyncratic identity.

May 16 2013 09:45 AM ET

Diddy goes to 'Downton Abbey'... in Funny or Die short -- VIDEO

Tags: Downton Abbey, Funny Or Die, Have You Seen This?, Internetland, Sean Diddy Combs, Things That Are British, Music, TV

Ah, this explains everything. When Sean “Diddy” Combs announced yesterday that he was joining the cast of Downton Abbey as a series regular, he was actually promoting a new Funny or Die short that digitally adds the hip-hop mogul to existing Downton footage. (You can insert him anywhere!)

The jokes are predictable — Diddy keeps calling the show Downtown Abbey; at one point, he fights off Thomas’s advances; there’s a decent amount of swearing — but funny all the same. And you’ve got to admire the chutzpah of a guy who never misses an opportunity for product placement, even in a spoof video.

May 15 2013 01:05 PM ET

Can Clarissa explain why her Kickstarter failed?

Tags: Internetland, Kickstarter, Melissa Joan Hart, Nickelodeon, Nostalgia, Things That Are Sad, TV

Image Credit: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

Teenage witch Sabrina Spellman can solve almost any problem with good, old-fashioned pluck and a wave of her magic pointer finger… but she can’t make millions of dollars appear out of thin air.

On Monday, Melissa Joan Hart — the ’90s star best known for playing both Sabrina and sassy Clarissa Darling on two eponymous sitcoms — officially ended her attempt to fund a movie called Darci’s Walk of Shame via Kickstarter. Hart wanted to raise $2 million over the course of about a month; by the end of the campaign, she had rustled up only $51,605 from 315 backers.

Yipes. It’s one thing to fall short of a fundraising goal — but it’s quite another to raise just 2.5 percent of that goal. Given the smashing success of the Veronica Mars movie and Zach Braff’s Garden State followup — two other nostalgia-fueled projects that quickly raised and exceeded their own $2 million goals on Kickstarter — why did Darci’s Walk of Shame fail so spectacularly?

May 14 2013 03:54 PM ET

Nerd alert: Bing adds Klingon translator in honor of 'Star Trek Into Darkness'

Tags: Geekery, I'm Just a Geek, Internetland, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, Things That Are Awesome!, Movies

attentIon, gheetlhS! bolDly SIbI’ bing HoSDo’Hey pagh SearchH QuQ pa’ pong tlhIngan chel qutluch patlh Sovmo’ mughwI’ tool.

Translation: Attention, geeks! Bing has boldly gone where no search engine has gone before by adding Klingon to its official translator tool.

The addition comes in honor of Star Trek Into Darkness, which hits theaters this week. Phrases can be rendered either phonetically with Latin letters or in the Klingon’s own alphabet, a.k.a. the Klingon Language Institute’s pIqaD. The translator also makes it easy to morph any webpage into a Klingon-friendly site; here’s how EW.com would look if it were staffed solely by the residents of Qo’noS. And starting tomorrow, Bing’s homepage will house a bevy of Star Trek-related goodies as well — including interactive images and videos. READ FULL STORY »

May 13 2013 02:46 PM ET

How much could one banana cost? $10, according to 'Arrested Development' -- and Seamless

Tags: Arrested Development, Food & Drink, Internetland, Television, Things That Are Awesome!, TV

The bad news: Unless you live in one of a handful of major urban areas, you won’t get a chance to visit the Bluth family’s iconic Original Frozen Banana Stand this spring.

The good news: You can, however, ogle the stand’s eclectic menu no matter where you live, thanks to the food delivery wizards at Seamless.com. READ FULL STORY »

May 10 2013 02:46 PM ET

'Ryan Gosling Won't Eat His Cereal' creator talks inspiration: 'So I was watching 'Drive' and eating cereal one day...'

Tags: Have You Seen This?, Internetland, Ryan Gosling, Things That Are Awesome!, Movies

Image Credit: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage

Hey girl: Even if you think you’ve hit Ryan Gosling Meme exhaustion (the cure? Watch Drive, then you’re good to go again) you’re going to want to check out what the entire Internet has been obsessing about for the past 24 hours: Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal Vines. The Vines (which, for the Internet clueless, are six-second looping videos) are exactly what they sound like: Just a spoonful of cereal slowing inching towards Gosling’s beautiful – but also sometimes tortured, angry, bloodied, hurt – face on a television screen.

Below, check out one of our favorites and then read EW’s email Q&A with creator Ryan McHenry. READ FULL STORY »

May 6 2013 01:58 PM ET

Would you pay for YouTube?