It didn’t take long after the photos went up for commenters to give Shields a piece of their minds. One visitor of his blog wrote, “As a survivor (note SURVIVOR, not victim) of domestic violence, these photos glamorize domestic abuse. There is nothing funny or ‘edgy’ about receiving a black eye from your spouse/love/significant other.” Another said that the images “glorify the beauty of a woman with a black eye, and then ignore the fact that millions of women are abused domestically each year. They paint a picture of how beautiful a vulnerable, hurt woman looks, and then tell us that we’re crazy for ever assuming she could be hurt.” Echoing that sentiment, Rita Smith, executive director for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, told E! last week that “I’m quite sure there are plenty of women who have been abused by these kinds of household appliances and children as well being hit with electrical cords … If he had stopped with the image of the bruise, [the pics] could conceivably be used as a way to raise awareness about the impact of violence. But the other things do make it look appealing, as if she might be enjoying the process and I don’t think that’s helpful.”

Shields, meanwhile, has defended the photos, explaining to the Daily Mail, “In no way did we even think about promoting domestic violence.” But after admitting “a lot of people have been sending me death threats,” he’s stated that “We do have people talking, so I will auction off three photos for $100,000 each and I will give every penny to charity if they sell. So if you are anti-domestic abuse spread the word about it. Threatening to kill me is not going to help anything.” (It’s also ridiculously ironic, Internet pinheads.) All proceeds from the black eye portraits will go to Glamour magazine’s “Tell Somebody” campaign. Shields is also auctioning off two other signed editions from the shoot, and will donate 30 percent of the proceeds from their sale to the campaign as well.

The cast members of “Glee” are no strangers to controversial photo shoots. Last year, they stripped down to their skivvies for a GQ spread that seemed inspired by the editorial thrust of Barely Legal,  and went “wild” — and flashed underpants — for the cover of Rolling Stone. And Shields knows his way around button-pushing subject matter himself. His photos often feature stunning men and women in various states of undress  and wielding weaponry. He’s shot a cow with the words “Eat Me” on her side. And last year, he did a blood splattered shoot with Lindsay Lohan that featured the actress lingerie-clad — and staring down the barrel of a gun.

Rita Smith told E! last week that “There is nothing glamorous about violence.” And it makes sense that the image of a seemingly battered woman would provoke a strong and potentially pained response. Real abuse happens every day, and it’s not sexy or beautiful. But art is not that simple, and imaginary violence can in fact be incredibly glamorous. A Hitchcock or John Woo movie has an elegant grotesqueness to it. The vamps of “True Blood” and the gangsters of “The Sopranos” fascinate us with their lurid exploits. Likewise Shields, with his daggers and gore, has a distinctive penchant for the dark side. Frankly, I don’t find his work all that interesting, but I can certainly appreciate that he’s working in a particular vernacular.

Had the photos of Morris appeared in a mainstream magazine, or as part of a Fox “Glee” promotion, they’d have an entirely different connotation. Magazines have their own editorial voices, and exist to both peddle their advertisers’ products and reflect the thoughts and ideas of their readers. It would therefore be peculiar if either Old Spice or the average Esquire reader would want to be aspirationally associated with the image of a badly bruised woman. But an individual photographer, solely pursuing his own vision, has every right to dream up whatever scenarios strike his fancy. This Shields guy is into blood and pain and “Star Wars” characters. That’s his thing.

Art isn’t always easy or safe or unthreatening. It’s not all catchy covers of Katy Perry songs in prime time. And even if it’s great that the Morris photos will now be used to help women in crisis, they weren’t created to “raise awareness” or be “helpful.”  Sometimes art is tough as hell. Sometimes it makes us angry, or reminds us of things that hurt. Sometimes it mixes up the sacred and the profane, the beautiful and the horrible. You can love it or hate it, but if you think its job is to not upset you, you’re missing the point. Sometimes, its job is simply to hit you right in the face.

3. “Friday” of the day: Grantland has compiled an oral history of “Friday Night Lights’” successes — and failures — throughout the years.

4. Fashionista of the day: Kanye West, who certainly knows a thing or two when it comes to coordinating your bling, may be designing a womenswear line for Fashion Week this fall.

5. Conceptual art of the day: This is what happens when you dump a lot of paint in the middle of a busy street, as demonstrated by Berlin bikers last year.

Yay for art, but who the hell is going to clean this mess up?

These changes shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. “Glee” could never really figure out what to do with Chord’s character — the blond bass-mouth who looked like a more wholesome Culkin brother — but Criss stole the show last season as the confident, preppy Blaine. His covers of “Teenage Dream” and “Hey, Soul Sister” brought new life to the overplayed Katy Perry and Train songs.

The fact that New Direction’s rival team the Warblers released their own album earlier this year can be credited almost entirely to Criss’ catchy reimaginings of Top 40 songs.

Meanwhile Shum was a shoo-in for a series regular the moment Ryan Murphy gave his character a last name. (The first season he was mostly referred to as “Asian Mike,” or “the other Asian.”) Still, it must sting a little for Overstreet to have lost his position in the “Glee” cast to an actor who has no singing ability to speak of. Shum’s breakout performances on the show have all been incredible dance numbers, like his routine from “Singing in the Rain” with Matthew Morrison.

Ashley Fink, who plays the only other non-singer in the club, Lauren Zizes, will remain a guest star, and her presence on the show may even be diminished. Wonder if her absence will make Puck go back to his bad-boy ways.

1. Justin Bieber and Tiffani Thiessen have a creepy crush on each other: As evidenced by the shirts the two wore to Canada’s MuchMusic Video Awards, bearing each other’s faces. Bieber was born one year after “Saved by the Bell” went off the air.

2. James Blunt’s blunder: Put a photo of himself on Facebook in front of a historical building near Auschwitz, then claimed it was his “hotel in Poland.“

3. Bikini killer: Kathleen Hanna went off on a rant against Lady Gaga and Katy Perry during a CNN interview this week: “It’s exactly every male fantasy of fake lesbian porn. It’s pathetic.” Also she hates Jason Mraz and called the new James Blunt song “the worst thing that has ever been created on the face of the Earth.” Wait till she checks out his Facebook page!

4. Megan Fox loses support: We’ve already covered why the actress was fired from “Transformers,” but now her biggest supporter, Shia LaBeouf, has even admitted that it was the Hitler comment, not her “woman empowerment stuff,” that caused director Michael Bay to can her.

5. Pixar’s first poster for its latest film, “Brave”:

The description makes the movie sound like a Scottish fairytale told by your fairly drunk uncle. You know what, I don’t care. Sign me up for two tickets, please.

6. “Jackass” star escaped Ryan Dunn’s fate: You could have put money on the reckless Steve Glover (aka Steve-O) being the first one of the “Jackass” kids to die tragically. But he is now sober, thanks to the support of Johnny Knoxville and the rest of the cast, and is talking openly about his drug use for the first time in interviews.

7. “The Muppets” get official trailer: I would say there are officially too many trailers for this movie, but when it comes to the Muppets, there is no such thing as too many anything.

8. Summer journalism, at its finest: Maura Kelly’s piece for Slate “Why Are Air Conditioners So Heavy?” is neck and neck with the New York Time’s style profile last week on Far Rockaway’s hip “Rocapulco” scene. (Please don’t call it that.)

9. The real cost of the royal wedding: The demand for the morning after pill tripled in Northamptonshire the weekend after Kate married William. America’s rates of emergency contraceptive stayed approximately the same.

10. Most surprising rehab celeb story: “Glee’s” Cory Monteith, opens up to Parade magazine this week about hitting rock bottom at age 19.  “I stole a significant amount of money from a family member,” said the actor who plays Finn on the Fox show, “I’m lucky on so many counts — I’m lucky to be alive.”

What could be Murphy’s motivation behind the additions? Clearly he wants to keep a unified tone to the show, or else writers would have been added already, especially midway through Season 2, which Deadline Hollywood points out “was particularly hectic for Murphy with the first ever Glee tour and the release of his movie ‘Eat, Pray, Love.’” But apparently the group was too busy writing their show to hire new writers, which kind of makes sense when you realize how big of a control freak Ryan Murphy really is. He publicly freaks out at bands who won’t be on the show and has almost single-handedly (if a little bit heavy-handedly as well) spearheaded an anti-bullying movement for gay teens alongside Lady Gaga and Dan Savage. The guy just doesn’t have much time in his day to read your spec script, OK?

But the end of this season may have moved Murphy to take a breather; after all, “Glee” drew more criticism and backseat driving from fans during the second season than it did during the first, with everyone offering ways to “fix” the show. It must have been an exercise in humility for Murphy — who was used to the unwavering devotion of the Gleek community — to find that people just weren’t enjoying the contrived stories and somewhat clunky plots that propelled his cast to break out in song from episode to episode the way they used to.

But this round of hiring also inspires a new confidence in Murphy, that he knows what kind of show he wants. “Glee” has always aimed for a tone that combined some of Joss Whedon and Christopher Guest (Whedon has guest-directed, and several of Guest’s regulars have made their way into the show), and hiring two writers from those camps proves that Murphy isn’t too proud to take a lesson from the masters. And what can Aguirre-Sacasa signal except rebirth?  Murphy is a little like “Glee’s” Rachel Berry in that respect: They are both proud, extremely driven and slowly coming to grips with the fact that they can’t do it alone.