Pop Chart

LOVE IT

• Fox’s reboot of the space-time docu-series Cosmos (Sundays at 9 p.m. E.T.), which TIME’s James Poniewozik calls “eye-popping, engaging and passionate about the wonder of science.”

• Colin Jost’s endearingly awkward debut as a Weekend Update co-anchor on SNL. He’s no Seth Meyers, but we’ll take it.

• A group of scientists in Japan is trying to build a robot smart enough to pass the University of Tokyo’s entrance exam.

• The poster for the comics documentary Stripped, Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson’s first new work in 18 years.

HAIKU REVIEW

The songs may be fluff

But the beats are infectious.

Why can’t this Kiss last?

–SAM LANSKY ON KYLIE MINOGUE’S KISS ME ONCE (OUT MARCH 18)

MALL MADNESS

Fashion isn’t usually a chore–unless, it turns out, it’s part of Karl Lagerfeld’s women’s ready-to-wear collection at Paris Fashion Week. For the designer’s March 4 show, he turned the Grand Palais into a grocery store with shelves full of Chanel-branded items. In lieu of strutting down a catwalk, models strolled through aisles, picking up everyday items along the way.

QUICK TALK

Emily VanCamp

Watch out, evildoers: ABC’s payback soap Revenge returns from its winter hiatus on March 9–and its 27-year-old leading lady will soon appear as a secret agent in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (out April 4). Here, she talks to TIME.

–LILY ROTHMAN

Have you ever taken revenge on someone?

Um …

You must get that a lot.

Yes. And honestly, I don’t ever have an answer to that. Even if I had, would anyone actually admit to it? It’s not the type of thing you want to announce publicly.

So you’re saying the plot is still under way.

No, I live vicariously through my character. I’m not particularly into the whole idea of revenge.

Has uttering lines like “You’re a sad, sad woman”–at onscreen nemesis Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe)–at least upped your own insult game?

That’s the stuff I’m the worst at. The cattiness is just something I’ve never understood between women. I find it so appalling. As it’s coming out of my mouth, I feel more and more disgusting. I really hate that kind of back-and-forth. All of the female catty weirdness is just not my thing at all.

How did you prep for your role in Captain America? There’s a lot of Marvel mythology to learn.

[The studio] gave me a huge bible of all the Captain America comic books, all in one. At first it was a little daunting.

Was there a quiz?

That would be so awkward! A Marvel quiz? No.

“ON MY RADAR

• The band Half Moon Run

“Everyone on the Revenge set is kind of obsessed.”

• AMC’s The Walking Dead

“I love zombies, but I also think it’s a brilliantly made show.”

GOAL-ORIENTED

Brazil will play host to the World Cup this summer, so it’s only fitting that one of the country’s other claims to fame–Carnival, in Rio de Janeiro–would get into the soccer spirit. Although these performers, from the Imperatriz Leopoldinense samba school, look like they’re dancing on a field, they’re actually being shot from below. That “field” is the wall of a float from which they’re suspended, and they’re doing parkour-like moves to keep the illusion alive as the float travels down Rio’s Sambadrome parade runway on March 4.

THE DIGITS

3.3 million

Number of retweets that Ellen DeGeneres’ star-studded Oscars selfie had logged–at press time–since the March 2 ceremony. It’s the most popular posting in Twitter history, besting President Obama’s post-re-election “Four more years.”

ROUNDUP

Prime-Time Politicians

Michelle Obama will have some big shoes to fill when she guest-stars on the season finale of NBC’s Parks and Recreation later this year: one of the show’s other big gets was Joe Biden, who appeared in 2012. Here’s a look at some of history’s most memorable prime-time political cameos.

First Lady Nancy Reagan brought her antidrug campaign to Diff’rent Strokes and got a “Watchu talkin’ about, Mrs. Reagan?!” from Arnold.

MARCH 19, 1983

Former President Gerald Ford greeted Dynasty mainstay Blake Carrington during a party scene.

DEC. 21, 1983

Then Senator John Kerry was mistaken for a local newsman on Cheers.

APRIL 30, 1992

Rudy Giuliani, who had just been elected mayor of New York, helped put a frozen-yogurt store out of business on Seinfeld.

NOV. 4, 1993

As Jack Donaghy’s ex-girlfriend on 30 Rock, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a scene defending the movie Mars Attacks!

APRIL 28, 2011

Chris Christie guested as himself in a news-interview segment on The Michael J. Fox Show.

NOV. 7, 2013

LEAVE IT

• R. Kelly reveals there are 57 unreleased chapters of his Trapped in the Closet music-video saga. Which raises the question, Why?

• BroApp, the new texting service that auto-sends messages to guys’ girlfriends to make it seem like the guys are paying attention.

• Dubious startup BiteLabs tried to “prompt widespread discussion about bioethics” by offering to grow meat from celebrity muscle tissue and make it into artisanal salami.

• Matthew McConaughey gave a rambling Oscars acceptance speech in which the Best Actor winner admitted that his greatest hero is … himself.

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