Salon.com > Justin Bieber http://www.salon.com Mon, 28 May 2012 15:05:50 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Klout is bad for your soul http://www.salon.com/2011/11/13/klout_is_bad_for_your_soul/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/13/klout_is_bad_for_your_soul/#comments Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10191938 You've heard of Twitter. Twitter is the contemporary canary in the coal mine of world events. A coup? An outrage? A celebrity death? Twitter gets the news out fastest, even mourning the loss of leading figures before they themselves hear they're dead (sorry about that, Gordon Lightfoot).

You may not have heard of Klout -- not yet.

But that doesn't matter. If you're on Twitter, or even Facebook, Klout has heard of you. And Klout has ranked you, with a single tidy number meant to sum up your influence and engagement in the social media sphere. Klout.com is a social media analytics company based in San Francisco. Three years ago, it began ranking Twitter users according to the splash their links and witty repartee made among their followers. Since then, it's grown to include activity across social media platforms, and has established itself as a major arbiter of influence in social media circles. Klout, in effect, has clout.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/13/klout_is_bad_for_your_soul/feed/ 19 Justin Bieber is magazine poison http://www.salon.com/2011/07/05/justin_bieber_vanity_fair_magazine_sales/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/05/justin_bieber_vanity_fair_magazine_sales/#comments Tue, 05 Jul 2011 20:06:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/07/05/justin_bieber_vanity_fair_magazine_sales Back in February, Justin Bieber caused the media news cycle to capsize when he spoke to Rolling Stone magazine about his views on abortion and universal healthcare. He was against the former and pro the latter ... something which kind of makes sense when you realize he was raised by a religious Canadian teen mom.

But while Bieber's statements caused a backlash so intense that he had to cut his hair in penance, it's unclear how many people  picked up the offending issue. Though Wenner Media has yet to release its 2011 newsstand sales, Justin's Vanity Fair cover (also in February) sold only 246,000 copies, making it the lowest-ranked issue of the Condé Nast publication in 12 years.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/05/justin_bieber_vanity_fair_magazine_sales/feed/ 13 Five pop culture items we missed http://www.salon.com/2011/06/23/pop_five_justin_bieber_macys/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/23/pop_five_justin_bieber_macys/#comments Thu, 23 Jun 2011 22:24:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/06/23/pop_five_justin_bieber_macys 1. Lost roles of the day: Nicolas Cage and Gary Oldman were up to star in the film "Dumb and Dumber." I imagine it would have been a much more disturbing movie if that had gone through.

2. Breakup of the day: George Clooney and Italian TV personality Elisabetta Canalis. Since she told the press two weeks ago she wanted to marry the movie star, I doubt it was one of those mutual separation things.

3. South African hipster band of the day: Not today, Die Antwoord! I'm really digging the Parlotones, a rock band from Johannesburg. They are currently completing the American portion of their 18-month sold-out world tour, so catch them while they are around.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/23/pop_five_justin_bieber_macys/feed/ 6 Justin Bieber wins country music award http://www.salon.com/2011/06/09/justin_bieber_cmt_award_winner/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/09/justin_bieber_cmt_award_winner/#comments Thu, 09 Jun 2011 16:10:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/06/09/justin_bieber_cmt_award_winner Justin Bieber won a CMT Music Award last night. Why not? If Gwyneth Paltrow gets to perform at the CMA awards (which is different than the CMT Music Awards, but not really), why shouldn't little Bieber get a statue? At this point, Hollywood has so infiltrated the country music scene – we can thank Nicole Kidman pairing up with Keith Urban for that one – and vice-versa (Lady Antebellum sweeping the Grammys this year, Taylor Swift, etc.), that it's difficult to claim that country music isn't already mainstream music.

Still though, is Justin Bieber country music? His award came in the form of Collaborative Video of the Year for his song 'That Should Be Me," featuring Rascal Flatts. Does it fit the specifications required of country music? Hard to say.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/09/justin_bieber_cmt_award_winner/feed/ 0 Justin Bieber wears a $25k “Family Guy” necklace http://www.salon.com/2011/05/26/justin_bieber_family_guy_necklace/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/26/justin_bieber_family_guy_necklace/#comments Thu, 26 May 2011 17:27:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/05/26/justin_bieber_family_guy_necklace Remember when everyone got upset because Justin Bieber went to Rolling Stone and said he supported universal healthcare but was pro-life? It was like we were treating the 17-year-old like an adult with opinions that deserve debating! So silly!

Because just for reference, Justin Bieber wears a necklace of Stewie Griffin from "Family Guy" around town, and that necklace costs $25,000. I would not take his opinion on the best part of Epcot Center seriously, let alone his views on abortion.

(Photo via TMZ)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/26/justin_bieber_family_guy_necklace/feed/ 7 Gaga beats Oprah on Forbes’ Celebrity 100. Is Twitter to blame? http://www.salon.com/2011/05/19/forbes_lady_gaga_power_ranking_oprah/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/19/forbes_lady_gaga_power_ranking_oprah/#comments Thu, 19 May 2011 21:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/05/19/forbes_lady_gaga_power_ranking_oprah Forbes has come out with its annual list of the most powerful celebrities, and in a total upset, Oprah has been bumped down to second place. She's now sandwiched between Justin Bieber (third on the list) and Lady Gaga, both of whom make far less money and get less airtime than the queen of daytime television, but who have mastered the social media sphere to gain millions of devoted, cultlike followers.

You almost feel bad for Oprah: Back when she was starting out, a media personality had to fight hard to win a loyal audience and a fan base. In the era of Twitter and direct celebrity-to-fan interaction, you don't need to prove yourself over a period of years, you just have to make sure that you're a trending topic out of the gate. Then again, Oprah is still the richest celebrity out there, with a net worth of $290 million, so we doubt she's doing much crying.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/19/forbes_lady_gaga_power_ranking_oprah/feed/ 3 When Justin Bieber punched a cake on the “CSI” set http://www.salon.com/2011/05/09/justin_bieber_csi_cake/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/09/justin_bieber_csi_cake/#comments Mon, 09 May 2011 11:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/05/09/justin_bieber_csi_cake In news that should surprise absolutely no one, Justin Bieber is not the greatest human being ever. "CSI's" Marg Helgenberger, who co-starred with Justin when he made his now infamous cameos on the CBS show, offered this insight on the multi-platinum bundle of joy: "I probably shouldn't say this, but he was kind of a brat," she said in an interview with the French radio show "Le Grand."

But wait, that's not fair, Marg. Do you have examples to back up your claim? She does.

"He locked one of the producers in a closet," she added. "And he put his fist through a cake that was on the craft services table."

Yes, that's right. Justin Bieber punched a craft services cake. It's fun to try to imagine the scene that preceded that incident, so that's exactly what I did.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/09/justin_bieber_csi_cake/feed/ 14 Has the Justin Bieber backlash begun Down Under? http://www.salon.com/2011/05/02/justin_bieber_qantas_australia/ http://www.salon.com/2011/05/02/justin_bieber_qantas_australia/#comments Mon, 02 May 2011 17:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/05/02/justin_bieber_qantas_australia Poor Justin Bieber can never get a break in Australia. In April 2010, Justin had to cancel a concert in Sydney after fans caught a bad case of (kill) Bieber fever and his show became a national security risk. A year later, Justin is finally able to perform down only to find himself pelted with eggs. Turns out, when they're not trying to rend you limb from limb in Australia, they are throwing food at you:

"According to reports, some fans believe it was a setup." I'm not even sure if I understand what that means, since clearly the person (or persons) who brought the eggs was not a Bieber fan, and it was a set up to prank him. Yet, at the same time, they paid a lot of money to throw stuff at him. (So in that way, sure, Justin Bieber does have a very good "setup" going.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/05/02/justin_bieber_qantas_australia/feed/ 9 Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black neck and neck for “Most Hated” song on YouTube http://www.salon.com/2011/03/29/justin_bieber_vs_rebecca_black_most_hated_youtube/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/29/justin_bieber_vs_rebecca_black_most_hated_youtube/#comments Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:56:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/03/29/justin_bieber_vs_rebecca_black_most_hated_youtube Kneel before Zod -- er -- Justin Bieber! Yesterday, the 17-year-old pop sensation broke a new record when his single "Baby" hit 500 million views on YouTube, making it the most-watched video in the site's history. (Previously, Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" was in first place, though it averaged only a puny 362 million views.)

But with great popularity comes great backlash, and Justin soon found out what happens to guys at the top: they become the target of angry trolls who have nothing better to do than press the "dislike" button on YouTube all day. So while Justin may have had the most popular song of all time in sheer number of views, he also had a record-breaking number of dislikes. Earlier this morning, it was declared that Justin Bieber's "Baby" was the most hated song on the Internet, with over a 1,158,497 people giving the song a thumbs-down. In comparison, only 581,617 people have taken time out of their day to "like" the superstar's song.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/29/justin_bieber_vs_rebecca_black_most_hated_youtube/feed/ 10 Justin Bieber and entourage punk Willow Smith http://www.salon.com/2011/03/24/justin_bieber_willow_smith_cowbell/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/24/justin_bieber_willow_smith_cowbell/#comments Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:24:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/03/24/justin_bieber_willow_smith_cowbell Scooter Braun is a smart man. The manager of Justin Bieber must have known that once he snagged one of Will Smith's kids to sing on a track (Jaden Smith also appears in Justin Bieber's new film "Never Say Never"), it would be easy to grab the other one. It's a little backdoor maneuver: although no one really knows (or cares) about Jaden's singing career, Willow "Whip my hair back and forth" Smith has a top 20 Billboard hit, a new single, and has already been on "Oprah."  So it should have come as no surprise to anyone that Scooter's inclusion of Jaden on a Bieber track would lead to Willow opening up for the pint-size rocker on European leg of his tour. She even referred to Justin as her "big brother." Well played, Scooter.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/24/justin_bieber_willow_smith_cowbell/feed/ 12 Five beloved pop songs with lyrics more derivative than “Friday” http://www.salon.com/2011/03/21/songs_worse_friday_rebecca_black_lady_gaga_ke_ha/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/21/songs_worse_friday_rebecca_black_lady_gaga_ke_ha/#comments Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:22:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/03/21/songs_worse_friday_rebecca_black_lady_gaga_ke_ha While the rest of the world was busy debating how much worse 13-year-old Rebecca Black's song "Friday" was than the current situation in Japan or Libya, Cord Jefferson from new media magazine Good was putting things in perspective. "Calling 'Friday' disastrous is akin to The New York Review of Books tearing apart The Berenstain Bears," wrote Cord, "Sure, it doesn't meet your standards. It's not for you."

Then again, a lot of pop songs don't really have the most thought-provoking lyrics. Leaving aside the fact that Rebecca didn't write "Friday" (though maybe it would have been better if she had), most of our Top 40 songs are catchy because of – not despite – their repetitiveness. Cord gives the example of Katy Perry's songs, but honestly compared to some of the crap out there, "Teenage Dream" is friggin' "Finnegans Wake." Below, five pop hits with the most stupid lyrics imaginable, and why they are worse for our culture than "Friday."

1. Ke$ha: "Blah Blah Blah"

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/21/songs_worse_friday_rebecca_black_lady_gaga_ke_ha/feed/ 67 We have no one to blame for celebrity hackers but ourselves http://www.salon.com/2011/03/18/celebrity_hackers_tmz_vanessa_hudgens/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/18/celebrity_hackers_tmz_vanessa_hudgens/#comments Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:19:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/03/18/celebrity_hackers_tmz_vanessa_hudgens When naked photos of Vanessa Hudgens began surfacing on the Internet in 2009, the "Beastly" star sued the website that posted them, MoeJackson.com, claiming the photos were obtained by "unknown methods."  Which at the time, didn't strike anyone as particularly odd: Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, and Demi Lovato have all had friends or acquaintances leak photos of the stars either nude or posing suggestively. But this week even more photos of the young actress were being shopped around the Internet -- strangely, not even TMZ was tempted to buy them -- and were taken from the same batch as the originals.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/18/celebrity_hackers_tmz_vanessa_hudgens/feed/ 27 Justin Bieber cuts hair, Internet explodes http://www.salon.com/2011/02/22/justin_bieber_hair_cut/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/22/justin_bieber_hair_cut/#comments Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:47:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/02/22/justin_bieber_hair_cut Justin Bieber cut his hair this weekend, and whether you like it or not, this is going to be the big cultural news of the day. Sure, we'd all like to discuss the closing of Barcelona's Liceu opera house or the museums reopening in Egypt, but the fact of the matter is that Justin Bieber cut his hair and somehow looks even more like a lady than he did before, and girls all over the world are looking to re-create the Sakai Incident of 1868.

Sixteen hours ago, the Bieber backlash began in earnest on the Plixi.com account of Jay DeMarcus, a member of the country trio Rascal Flatts, with whom Bieber is currently collaborating on a single:

"He looks like a cheap whore," read one comment.

"Sure that's not Hillary Swank?" said another.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/22/justin_bieber_hair_cut/feed/ 13 James Earl Jones sings Justin Bieber’s “Baby” http://www.salon.com/2011/02/17/james_earl_jones_justin_bieber/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/17/james_earl_jones_justin_bieber/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:05:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/02/17/james_earl_jones_justin_bieber Lets just call this a truce, OK? I don't want to watch any more famous actors trying to Shatner their way through pop songs like "Poker Face" (though God bless you, Christopher Walken, for the effort) any more than you want to yell at me for posting another mindless video pertaining to Justin Bieber.

But! This video of James Earl Jones on "The Gayle King Show," trying to get through the chorus of Justin Bieber's "Baby," is notable if only for the fact that the deep-voiced thespian says in an earlier clip that he has never heard one Justin Bieber song. Before "Never Say Never," I thought I hadn't either, but when you stop to think about it, not hearing Justin Bieber these days is actually harder than hearing him. Sure, maybe you only get a snippet of it on the car radio, or your kid is playing it, or Girl Talk makes a mashup of it with Katy Perry's "Firework," but that counts as "listening to Justin Bieber music."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/17/james_earl_jones_justin_bieber/feed/ 5 A “House” actress’s chilling pro-choice ad http://www.salon.com/2011/02/16/lisa_edelstein_justin_bieber_abortion/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/16/lisa_edelstein_justin_bieber_abortion/#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 20:14:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/feature/2011/02/16/lisa_edelstein_justin_bieber_abortion We see a woman clad in "Mad Men"-era finery, slowly walking from the camera down a long hallway. A voice familiar to fans of "House" narrates. "Only decades ago, women suffered through horrifying back alley abortions, or they used dangerous methods when they had no other recourse. So when the Republican Party launched an all-out assault on women's health, pushing bills to limit women's access to vital services, we had to ask," she continues, as the image cuts between the woman opening a closet containing a single wire hanger and the distressed face of actress Lisa Edelstein: "Why is the GOP trying to send women back to the back alley?"

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/16/lisa_edelstein_justin_bieber_abortion/feed/ 46 Justin Bieber, healthcare wonk http://www.salon.com/2011/02/16/bieber_healthcare/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/16/bieber_healthcare/#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/02/16/bieber_healthcare Justin Bieber is on the cover of Rolling Stone in order to upset your dad and he is talking sex and politics, despite the fact that he is utterly unfamiliar with either subject. So we learn that the adorable Canadian heartthrob is antiabortion even in the case of rape, but also unwilling to become an American citizen because of our broken healthcare system:

"You guys are evil," he says with a laugh. "Canada's the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and we don't need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you're broke because of medical bills. My bodyguard's baby was premature, and now he has to pay for it. In Canada, if your baby's premature, he stays in the hospital as long as he needs to, and then you go home."

Canada's Medicare is a publicly funded single-payer system, which American conservatives incorrectly call "socialist." (Canada also has no legal restrictions on abortion.) Many opinion polls have shown that a majority of Americans support the implementation of a single-payer system in the United States, even before Ezra Klein's favorite musician endorsed the plan.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/16/bieber_healthcare/feed/ 31 Justin Bieber talks “Lesbians who look like Justin Bieber” http://www.salon.com/2011/02/16/lesbians_justin_bieber_chelsea_lately/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/16/lesbians_justin_bieber_chelsea_lately/#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 16:20:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/02/16/lesbians_justin_bieber_chelsea_lately Justin Bieber appeared on "Chelsea Lately" Monday night to talk about his recent Grammy loss, being friends with all of Will Smith's kids (except the one from "Just the Two of Us"... where did that guy go?), and getting hugged by Lady Gaga in her meat dress. Also? He knows there's a site out there dedicated to lesbians who have his haircut.

(Video starts at 3:30 mark.)

Said Justin about the site: "It's funny."

If you haven't seen it yet, Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber  is a pretty self-explanatory blog, though in all fairness it isn't just women who love women that end up looking like the Biebs. I, for instance, also have Justin Bieber hair. And as we found out last night, so does everyone on "Glee."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/16/lesbians_justin_bieber_chelsea_lately/feed/ 12 The sexualization of Justin Bieber http://www.salon.com/2011/02/14/justin_bieber_shirtless_never_say_never/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/14/justin_bieber_shirtless_never_say_never/#comments Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:15:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/02/14/justin_bieber_shirtless_never_say_never By most people's standards, I am not "old." In some demographics, I still might be even considered a young adult, someone whom MTV can count on to watch "Skins," because none of those kids could possibly belong to me, not even if I was a "Teen Mom" (another show MTV has convinced me I need to see every week).

Still, I'm no longer in high school, or college, or whatever life stage Zac Efron is in now. And after I walked out of an early Friday screening of Justin Bieber's 3-D film, "Never Say Never," I felt like Chris Hanson would burst out from behind the curtain and tell me to take a seat. Do you know there is a three-minute segment in this movie -- filmed entirely in slow-mo -- where Justin Bieber stands in front of a white canvas getting doused with a bucket of cold water, just so he can sloooowly shake the droplets from his famous $750 haircut? Oh yeah, and his shirt gets wet too. You can see everything. Well, everything that there is to see on a 16-year-old pop star's torso, anyway. But it was still too much.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/14/justin_bieber_shirtless_never_say_never/feed/ 17 Angry Bieber fans hack Esperanza Spalding’s Wikipedia page http://www.salon.com/2011/02/14/bieber_fans_wikipedia_esperanza_spalding_quesadilla/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/14/bieber_fans_wikipedia_esperanza_spalding_quesadilla/#comments Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:57:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/02/14/bieber_fans_wikipedia_esperanza_spalding_quesadilla Last night's Grammys had a lot of interesting moments, yeah? Lady Gaga was "hatched" out of an egg and wore an omelette on her head, Country Music Awards fans had a déjà vu moment when Lady Antebellum swept up awards for best song and best record (among others), and Train's "Hey Soul Sister" will be remembered as the first big win of the night. But none of that will be remembered in the history books. Instead, the 2011 Grammys will be known as the year that 16-year-old Justin Bieber did not win the best new artist award, despite legions of fans and a publicity machine that made sure that his 3-D film ("Never Say Never") was released on the same weekend as the ceremonies.

Instead, the award went to Esperanza Spalding, a relatively unknown jazz singer with really wacky hair. Frankly, we would have applauded anyone who won over Bieber. But Justin Bieber's fan base is known for its rabid, cult-like devotion to its pubescent god, and immediately took to Esperanza's Wikipedia page to do some dirty work.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/14/bieber_fans_wikipedia_esperanza_spalding_quesadilla/feed/ 29 Justin Bieber fans’ murderous new rage http://www.salon.com/2011/01/04/justin_bieber_selena_gomez_rage/ http://www.salon.com/2011/01/04/justin_bieber_selena_gomez_rage/#comments Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:25:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life//feature/2011/01/04/justin_bieber_selena_gomez_rage Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice, and they will cut your goddamn heart if you get between them and Justin Bieber.

When Life & Style magazine published photos Monday of the blow-dried Canadian tween sensation canoodling in St. Lucia with "Wizards of Waverly Place" star Selena Gomez, the prepubescent Internet promptly rioted in outrage. "I'll kill you I swear on GOD!!!" tweeted one irate Bieber fan, while another was less subtle, calling her a "Whore cancer whore" and threatening, "stay away from Justin pedophile, retard wait i'm gonna kill ya in the night underneath your smelly bed." I think my favorite is from the kid who goes by Mrs. Bieber, who threatens " SELENA GOMEZ I KILL YOU I PROMISE" shortly after admitting that "Jaden [Smith] is better." [Note to Jaden: Keep your girlfriends on the low.]

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