Pop Chart

LOVE IT

• Shaquille O’Neal is set to star in TruTV’s first scripted sitcom, Shaq Inc., which is loosely based on his business empire.

• Colin Firth said he’s open to filming a Bridget Jones 3: “I think we might be ready for that moment!”

• Yankee Candle has launched a line of Girl Scout Cookie scents, including Thin Mints, Trefoils and Coconut Caramel Stripes.

• A group of tourists in Philadelphia imitated Rocky by running up the art-museum steps–and found actor Sylvester Stallone at the top.

VERBATIM

‘You know what? If my abs drove them to the music … it’s all worth it.’

NICK JONAS, singer and former tween star, explaining why he stripped down during several photo shoots to promote his new solo album and its hit single “Jealous”

SUITE LIFE

What would Eloise at the Plaza do in modern-day New York? Try yoga (above), join drum circles and visit food trucks. For more on the 60-year-old kiddie icon’s hipster makeover, check out Ella, a parody book from actor Mallory Kasdan and illustrator Marcos Chin.

THE DIGITS

$3 million

The amount that Bigfoot Project Investments is attempting to raise during its planned IPO. The startup’s biggest goal, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is to “capture the creature known as Bigfoot.”

QUICK TALK

Taraji P. Henson

The 44-year-old actor is stealing scenes–and Emmy buzz–as Cookie, the fiery matriarch of a hip-hop dynasty on Lee Daniels’ Empire (Wednesdays on Fox).

–NOLAN FEENEY

Empire’s viewership has risen steadily since its premiere, which is virtually unprecedented. Why do you think that is?

It’s making people think, making people upset, making people talk. It feels like cable, but you get to watch it for free!

What are people upset about?

Barack Obama.

You mean the scene in which one of Cookie’s sons calls Obama a sellout during a drunken rant?

It was to prove a point about how reckless young kids are nowadays. Some of them are out of control! They don’t understand hard work, what it took for that man to get in office. But people get so offended. It’s art, baby!

You almost turned down Empire. Why?

When I read the script, Terrence Howard wasn’t cast [as Cookie’s ex-husband]. If it couldn’t be Terrence Howard, I didn’t want to do it. Thank God they listened to me!

Sounds like a Cookie move.

That’s what Lee Daniels said. “She just Cookied me!”

Cookie drops some of the shadiest insults on network TV–calling her nemesis “booboo kitty,” for example.

Oh, honey, there’s so much shade to come.

I bet. How much of what you say is improvised?

“Booboo kitty” was mine. “Shut up, Dora!” was mine. I didn’t even think they would let me use it. I just ad-libbed it for the scene.

So there’s a lot of you in Cookie.

You can’t out-Cookie me. I know who this woman is. Terrence said it best: “Taraji will take what the writers write and then dip it in some extra-special gravy sauce.”

“ON MY RADAR

• House of Cards

“I just caught up. I’m waiting for the third season.”

• Joey Bada$$

“I’m always concerned about what the young hip-hop kids have to say.”

LIFTOFF

For Apple’s future Cupertino, Calif., campus–unveiled by the late Steve Jobs in 2011–architecture firm Foster + Partners needed to create a design as slick and forward-thinking as the tech company’s products. The effort paid off: partner Cristina Segni, who worked on the design, made the Architects’ Journal’s Woman Architect of the Year 2015 short list, which honors achievement “in a sector where women still face an alarming degree of discrimination.”

ROUNDUP

eBay’s ‘Greatest’

Hits The world’s biggest barbecue pit–so huge, it can cook 4 tons of meat at a time–is currently available for a cool $350,000 on eBay. Dubbed the Undisputable Cuz, it stretches 75 ft. (23 m) and is ventilated by seven smokestacks. As of press time, no bids had been registered. But as the auction site’s history shows, far weirder things have fetched far more unexpected sums of money.

2000

2004

A grilled-cheese sandwich that purportedly bore a portrait of the Virgin Mary sold for

$28,000.

2005

Ad space on a 21-year-old web developer’s forehead–in the form of a temporary tattoo–sold for $37,375.

2011

Princess Beatrice’s royal-wedding fascinator, which some likened to a toilet seat, sold for $131,648. Proceeds went to charity.

2011

Clippings of Justin Bieber’s hair–gathered by Ellen DeGeneres–sold for $40,668. Proceeds went to charity.

2011

A latex Casey Anthony mask, originally made for a parody video, sold for $999,900. It was billed as “possibly the most frightening mask on the planet.”

2013

A handmade suit of guinea-pig armor sold for $1,150.

2015

LEAVE IT

• Producer Diplo reignited a feud with Taylor Swift, calling her fans “the worst people in the world.”

• To celebrate Valentine’s Day, a San Francisco zoo is letting people “adopt” a cockroach or scorpion in the name of an ex.

• We’ll have to wait until summer 2016 to see the all-female Ghostbusters reboot, starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and more.

• New startup Picattoo is offering to turn people’s favorite Instagrams into temporary tattoos. (The service costs $14.99 per dozen.)

FOR TIME’S COMPLETE TV, FILM AND MUSIC COVERAGE, VISIT time.com/entertainment