Info Meme

Bryan Singer, who directed the two good X-Men films, is coming back to direct X-Men: First Class, which is evidently an origin story about Professor Xavier’s first students. Obviously, all the original actors except Patrick Stewart are going to be way too old to play themselves in this, so I suppose we’re looking at an all-new cast of hot actors. Singer’s always had excellent taste in hot men. Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, and Angel are who need cast, according to Wikipedia. Ideas?

The cast of the U.S. version of Shameless is starting to take shape. We already knew William H. Macy was Frank, but now we find out Emily Rossum will pick up the Fiona role, Allison Janney (goddess) will play a role that sounds like Sheila, maybe, and Justin Chatwin will be Steve, originated by hunky James McAvoy. The cast is stellar, other than Chatwin, who’s biggest credit seems to be Goku in the disastrous Dragonball Evolution, so this may still work.

Ryan Murphy is promising more music when Glee returns in April. The out creator says that while the fall episodes had 5-6 musical numbers each, the back nine episodes will be aiming for 8-10 each.

In the best movie news I’ve heard all day (I know, it’s early), Disney has stopped development on Wild Hogs 2: Bachelor Ride and killed the whole project. Rumor has it, the third high profile movie halt at the studio is about getting back to films that fit the Disney image. 

In news that’s got to be tough on the ego, the remaining episodes of CW’s The Beautiful Life have been dumped online, hoping to get cult-following status and a cable pickup. No one really finds that likely.

D’oh! Happy belated anniversary to The Simpsons, who aired their first thirty-minute stand alone episode, December 17, 1989 with the Christmas episode.

The beginning of this story about 2009’s funniest news corrections and retractions starts slow, but once you get down into the list, it’s pretty funny (Brits – your papers feature prominently). One of the favorites is from the Los Angeles Times:

Bear sighting: An item in the National Briefing in Sunday’s Section A said a bear wandered into a grocery story in Hayward, Wis., on Friday and headed for the beer cooler. It was Thursday.

I stumbled across another list, but this one isn’t from BuzzFeed. This is the 11 Most Disappointing Shows of the 2000s. Some are predictable, like Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, or Quintuplets, but a couple were somewhat surprising, like HBO’s Carnivale, which I enjoyed.

George Michael is in the news again, but he’s not talking about drugs, cruising for sex, or how he feels about Sir Elton John. Instead he’s dropping f-bombs on live radio, BBC 2 on Chris Evan’s show to be exact. George apologized immediately, saying he didn’t know he was live.

Here’s a fun list that lets you stereotype people by their favorite author. While it’s never polite to stereotype, it can be fun in a silly sort of way. And they may have a point on Ayn Rand, Stephanie Meyer, J.K. Rowlings, Jane Austen, and a few more.

From New Zealand, we have the story of the woman flashing her boobs at passing motorists, and one became so distracted he ran over her, bouncing her off the bonnet. It sounds like a nursery rhyme when you say it like that.

Some Grinch in Australia says Santa Clause is promoting childhood obesity by eating cookies, and appearing all jolly. Plus he’s got to be crawling with germs from all those children sitting on his lap.

Save the planet, kill a motorist? Lots of municipalities have been investing in LED traffic lights – they last forever, use less energy, they’re brighter. What they’re not is warm, so when snow builds up on the lights, the heat from the bulb doesn’t melt it off, and nobody can see who has a green light.

Last minute gift idea for that blogger in your life? How about this custom Nintendo Wii slathered in 2500 grams of 22 carat gold, and with the buttons replaced with 19.5 carats of flawless diamonds. It can be mine, err, yours, for $484,818. Don't I deserve it?

Photo Meme

Several rags have picked this story up, but by being lazy, I can get you the sum of their analysis: Spain Rocks! On the street, men's underwear brand Unno stuck a hot man in a box to promote their package-enhancing underwear. It enhances a bulge so much that it's cracked the glass in a couple os strategic places.

The model seems, uhmm, friendly, and the little girls doesn't appear to be scarred for life.

The other morning we mentioned that Sports illustrated had put Stephen Colbert in a thin layer of lycra on their cover to highlight his sponsorship of the U.S. Speedskating Team. They've now posted the outtakes of the photoshoot, and it looks like Stephen mixed his sports. Lots more pics at their site.

Are those boxing trunks?

A few days ago we shared Boston.com's Year in Photos Part 1. Now they've got Part 2 as well as Part 3 up, and it's beautiful, including this.

Stars spinning over the red chimney stack at Cape Cornwall. Photo: Matt Cardy/Getty Images.

There's a promotional campaign going on in the Ukraine for something I can't imagine, but they have these giant children inserted into cityscapes, and it's pretty disquieting. There's a ton of them.

The series is called Totzilla 

Video Meme

This short film, by Alex Perdue, shows what a creeepy concept Santa Claus actually is, if we just stopped to think about this voyeuristic supernatural being who sneaks into our homes in the dead of night.

Considering the fact that Mattel has licensed Battleship and Candyland to be movies, I'm not entirely sure that this spoof on future toy movies is all that farfetched.

Also from Atom Films, who I just discovered is a fellow subsidiary of MTV Networks, we get the Claymation spoof of Harry Potter and the Unemployment Office, where Harry and the wizards must learn to make it in the world after Hogwarts gets swindled in the Madoff-type scandal. Draco Malfoy does say one bad word in the middle, so use caution at work/church/school.

Happy Tree Friends is a series almost as old as the internet, with the cute, lovable forest creatures that live slightly odd lives. That's really underselling it, but I'm torn between not giving it away, and feeling guilty about not warning you.

In your daily aww! refuses to embed properly. I recommend the whistling puppy.

We have two movie trailers (I had a third, but tricking you into watching Shrek Forever After during the holidays is just cruel) this morning. The first is a teaser trailer from The Runaways starring that Twilight girl that always acts stoned in interviews. Onscreen, what she does I can't call that acting.

Second we have Clash of the Titans, and frankly, I am extremely disappointed in the amount of beefcake shown.  The original gave us a lot of Harry Hamlin back when he was smokin' hot. I don't see anything worth drooling over in this one, more like a Saturday night SyFy Channel Original.

And finally, the mothership at MTV premiered Rhianna's new video for "Hard" yesterday over at the MTV mothership. There's just so much about this song and video that mean you're going to hear and see it in every gay bar for the next six months.

1. It has a perfect beat for grinding and...other things.
2. She chants "So Hard" for the chorus - I can see shirtless gay boys on a dance floor, arms in the air doing the same.
3. Her soldier dancers lose most of their uniforms as the video progresses, and she has marvelous taste.
4. When she straddles the turrent on the pink tank, while chanting "So hard!" over and over, while wearing a flak helmet with Mickey Mouse ears, well, I don't know what the helmet is about, the the tank is pretty freakin' obvious.