Morning Meme: Conan O'Brien Goes Down In Flames, Tim Campbell Invades America, and Gay Robot Returns To "Nick Swardson"

Hollywood, we need to talk. I loved the 80’s. My coworker snicks still thinks it IS the 80s. But you’ve got to stop trying to take us back to the 80’s. We do not need a sequel to Top Gun, complete with a smaller role for Maverick. I don’t care if Jerry Bruckheimer, Tony Scott and Tom Cruise are all on board, I will not see this.

Neil Patrick Harris is slipping behind the camera for his first big screen directing job. He’s going to direct Aaron and Sarah, starring Josh Hutcherson (newly 18, we can drool now) and Emma Stone. So he’s got quality talent to help him look good. I hope he has time, since CBS just ordered two extra episodes of How I Met Your Mother, making it a super-sized 24 episode season.

Time has a story they titled Why Adults Cry So Easily in Animated Kids Movies,  but it never really answers the question. Mostly it just says that we do. Can I pass this sort of thing off as journalism for a paycheck?

The villain that Rhys Ifans is playing in the new Spider Man is … the Lizard. Why am I not excited about this?

Fox News is going to join Comedy Central in covering the Stewart-Colbert rallies live, as news. The fake news is now the real news about the fake news mocking the real news about fake news. NPR meanwhile has banned their staffers from even attending the rally on their own time.

Atascosa County Texas printed their absentee ballots with the Chilean flag instead of the Texas state flag. Nobody noticed until they started distributing them. This is what happens when you start stripping other cultures from the textbooks in Texas.

It’s been 24 hours since the federal judge stopped enforcement of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. In that time, the White House has indicated they intend to appeal, Defense Secretary Gates has indicated he doesn’t support the court decision, and the HRC is fighting with Servicemembers United. I’m fairly certain we’re about to get screwed again, from multiple directions.

At least Speaker Nancy Pelosi hopes the Obama administration doesn’t appeal the decision. She has far too many principles to have her current job.

It looks like there aren’t enough nominees for Best Animated Picture. The category has weird rules, like an earlier deadline for submissions, plus a rule that says you only get three nominees unless there are more than 15 nominees. Right now it looks like Toy Story 3 and How To Train Your Dragon get two of the slots.

Dan Savage has a rather simple response to the Washington Post’s story that Tony Perkins’ editorial was “both sides” for his anti-bullying chat. But at least we got this amazing response from Sirdeaner Walker, a devout Christian whose 11-year-old son Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover  committed suicide after anti-gay bullying.

Matt Doyle is running a Kickstarter campaign to help finance his first EP. You, too can be a part of it.

Saturday night, CNN will air a special edition of their Showbiz Tonight program (yes, that Showbiz Tonight) that will have reunions for the cast of classic movies and shows like Sixteen Candles and Will & Grace.

ABC is developing a Romeo & Juliet period series. Not a contemporary retelling, but a costumed period drama.  How can you develop a series about characters that kill themselves? A more reliable order is a winter-themed version of Wipeout, with winter obstacles. Do the Big Balls experience shrinkage?

This goodbye letter to New York City from some author who got dumped by a girl would be unremarkable, except for one line: “I miss you standing listlessly with the homosexuals in their tube tops outside dark-windowed clubs as they waited for rescue from their boredom.” What the hell?

Carol Burnett and Jane Lynch will be appearing at next month’s Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center Anniversary Gala. Burnett will be joining Lynch on Glee shortly. 

Tom Hardy is joining Batman 3 now that Mad Max got pushed back. Everyone is assuming he’s going to play the villain, but nobody’s sure.

That Love and Other Drugs poster with Anne Hathaway and a naked Jake Gyllenhall on the bed covering his mouth? That’s because the director was originally naked in that shot with them, and it turned out to be the favorite shot. So they Photoshopped him out of the image.