Morning Meme: Brad Pitt Impatient For Equality, Manchester Pride Is "Shameless" and Christopher Walken is Zeus

As news begins to circulate that Johnny Depp is close to a deal for Pirates of the Caribbean 5, financial details have begun leaking about what the series has done for Depp. His take, thanks to his cut of the profits of the wildly successful franchise, is estimated at $350 million so far. No wonder he owns an island.

The new craze for vacation packages has the concierge confiscating your electronics as you check into a room with no television. You spend the week doing puzzles, board games and exercising. It sounds both lovely and terrifying. I'm not sure I could do it.

Google is going to rebrand Blogger and Picassa into more "Google-centric" names as they begin their push into social media with Google+.

At least three U.S. networks are bidding to bring the Chloe Sevigny Hit or Miss Sky production stateside. She'll play a pre-op hitwoman in what sounds like a very original idea.

Several pet stores in the West Village have placed a ban on drunk people buying puppies. Evidently rich Manhattanites will stumble into pet stores after happy hour, buy a $3000 puppy, and take it home and nearly kill it before they sober up.

USA has picked up Common Law to series. The premise is a buddy cop movie, except the leads are dysfunctional members of an elite squad, so they spend part of each episode in couples' therapy. And yes, they're both dudes.

In the new comedy, Gods Behaving Badly, the casting is nearly perfect: Edie Falco is Artemis, Phylicia Rashad is Demeter, John Turturro is Hades, Sharon Stone is Aphrodite, Oliver Platt is Apollo, Nelsen Ellis is Dionysus, Rosie Perez is Persephone and Christopher Walken is Zeus. Doesn't this sound more like a play than a movie?

It appears that Mariah Carey is recovered enough from childbirth to participate in The X Factor USA after all. Currently scuttlebutt is that she'll mentor the contestants off and on throughout the whole season.

First came the news that Comedy Central was going to roast Charlie Sheen this fall. Now we find out that there's a script for a new Major League, and all the big stars are on board. Well, except Wesley Snipes.

Twitter is again raising money, and based on the investments, the company now has a value of $7 billion. I still haven't figured out how they pay their bills, much less turn a profit. Why can't I manage my finances like that?

Despite the cease-and-desist orders that Tom Petty is sending out, Rep. Michele Bachmann continues to play "American Girl" at her rallies. And legally, she can keep doing it as long as the venues have the proper licenses.

I don't like the idea of sad monkeys.

The California Assembly has passed a bill requiring schools to teach GLBT contributions in history classes, and also codifies sexual orientation and gender identity into existing protected class laws. Governor Brown is expected to sign.

Brad Pitt released a statement on New York marriage equality yesterday, which is really almost a piece of art, starting with "It is encouraging that New York has joined the movement to grant equal marriage rights to its citizens. But it is each American's Constitutional right to marry the person they love, no matter what state they inhabit."

Cat tongues are creepy.

Captain America: The First Avenger will drop "Captain America" from the title in Russia, Ukraine, and South Korea in order to make the film more marketable. It isn't expected to be released in China.

Predictably, the Catholic bishops are against civil unions in Rhode Island. With absolutely no sense of irony, part of the statement reads "Instead, they directly violate principles of justice."

Adam Sandler is set to voice Dracula, raising his daughter while running a resort for famous monsters in Sony's new animated film.

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