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Saturday, Jun 11, 2011 12:01 PM UTC

Pop Torn: 10 pieces of cultural ambivalence

This week we're on the fence about: Cat lady dating videos, Kim Kardashian's honor, and Shia LaBeouf taking a stand

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Topics: Celebrity, Internet Culture, Louie, Pop Torn, Viral Video, YouTube, Zach Galifianakis, Television,

Pop Torn: 10 pieces of cultural ambivalenceHow do these things make you feel?

 This is the first week it’s really felt like summer. You know: the unbearable heat, the freezing cold of the air-conditioners in your office, the smell of Anthony Weiner cooking over an open flame. (Sorry.) In this muggy weather, it’s hard to know exactly how you feel about a certain piece of  culture news until you get a couple of days distance from it. That’s why we’re here to help.

1. Kim Kardashian’s alleged infidelity: She’s trying to sue In Touch magazine for saying she had an affair with New England Patriots’ Bret Lockett while dating her now-fiancé, Kris Humphries. Guess we’ll have to wait till the twitpics come out to know the truth.

2. Edie Falco not knowing who Kim Kardashian even is: To be fair to Kim, she probably doesn’t know who the “Nurse Jackie” star is, either.

3. Louis C.K.’s stand-up routine from 1987 surfaces: He had hair! And it was really, really awkward. We prefer the Louis of today to the one making dolphin noises.

4. The (verb) of (proper noun), creator of Mad Libs, makes me (adjective): That’s not in poor taste, by the way. That’s my memorial to Leonard Stern, who passed away at 88 as an Emmy Award-winner and great game-creator. Of course, the New York Times has a much better tribute, so read that as well.

5. Shia LaBeouf exits “Transformers” franchise: Maybe he’s a feminist now, like Megan Fox.

6. Sacha Baron Cohen as Saddam Hussein in a new “biopic”: The movie is called “The Dictator” and apparently it’s based on a book Saddam wrote called “Zabibah and the King.” What, Sacha, didn’t have enough time to come up with a mockumentary about Osama?

7. The best/worst dating video of all time: Debbie likes cats and soul mates!

Don’t worry, it’s a fake, in case you were feeling bad for laughing.

8. Zach Galifianakis sans beard is pretty hot: He pulled off this look back in 2002 as well:

He kind of looks like Peter Sarsgaard. Right??

9. “Big Fish” optioned for Broadway: Completing that perfect trajectory of short story, to Tim Burton movie, to musical that Julie Taymor will be begging people to let her direct.

10. Jack White and model Karen Elson send out invitations to their “divorce party”: Well, that’s one way to break it to the kids.

Drew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.

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The week in 10 pics

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  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

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