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• The leads in the Game of Thrones cast–including Peter Dinklage and Emilia Clarke, below–have signed on through a likely seventh season.

• Starbucks announced it will start delivering coffee and food in select markets next year.

• Actor Jason Biggs asked his 490,000 Twitter followers to help him find his lost dog, Gina; they were reunited within a day.

• Paul Reubens confirmed that a new Pee-wee Herman movie is in the works. “It’s going to be amazing,” he promised.

QUICK TALK

Gillian Jacobs

The 32-year-old actress is best known for a cult-hit network sitcom (Community), but she’s about to be everywhere–including Yahoo (Community’s new home) and HBO (for a Girls arc). But first: a lead role in Life Partners, a movie about co-dependent best friends that hits video-on-demand services Nov. 6.

–NOLAN FEENEY

Your Life Partners love interest is played by Adam Brody, who is now married to your co-star Leighton Meester. Was that weird on set?

At no point did Leighton or Adam make it awkward–I’m just a nervous Nellie. We’re also actors, so we’re used to this weird job in which we kiss people who are not our significant others.

What can you reveal about your upcoming role on Girls?

I don’t want to get in trouble with Lena [Dunham], so how about this: there’s an episode where I wear a full set of pajamas as day wear.

Sounds tough.

It’s the most comfortable costume I’ve ever worn.

With all of your upcoming projects and the success of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, is this the Year of the Gillians?

Wait, is she Gillian [with a hard G] or Gillian [with a soft G]? Because that’s the great American debate.

She’s [hard G] Gillian, like you.

She is?!

Yeah!

Oh, my God, I’m so excited to know she’s a hard-G Gillian. There aren’t very many of us.

“ON MY RADAR

• The Comeback

“I’m such a cheerleader for that show. It’s scarily, sadly accurate.”

VERBATIM

‘I have every right to show I have a better body than Putin.’

CHELSEA HANDLER, comedian, protesting after Instagram deleted her topless photo, meant to parody the Russian President’s horseback pose

THE DIGITS

20 ft.

6 in.

Length (6 m) of the driver that Texas golfer Michael Furrh used to send a ball 63 yd. (58 m) in the air; the king-size implement now holds a new Guinness World Record for longest usable golf club

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

To capture the feeling of longing for home, the late American photographer Larry Sultan spent roughly two years hiring migrant day laborers to shoot on the outskirts of California suburbs– as here, in 2008’s Antioch Creek–that reminded him of his own childhood wanderings. Selections from the series, titled Homeland, are on display at Los Angeles County Museum of Art from Nov. 9 through March 22.

ROUNDUP

Weirdest College Classes

The University of Pennsylvania recently announced Wasting Time on the Internet, a new course that will require students “to stare at the screen for three hours, only interacting through chat rooms, bots, social media and listservs,” according to an official description. And as you might imagine, the Internet has wasted plenty of time poking fun at it. But Penn isn’t the first college to experiment with unconventional classes. Here, a look a six others:

POLITICIZING BEYONCÉ

This Rutgers gender-studies class, introduced in 2010, aims to assess U.S. “class, racial, gender, and sexual politics through the music and career of Beyoncé.”

ZOMBIES IN POPULAR MEDIA

This Columbia College Chicago course uses zombie movies and comics to explore societal issues like how people relate to and trust one another in times of need.

JOY OF GARBAGE

This Santa Clara University class explores the science of decomposition, the eco-consequences of trash and more. Field trips include landfills and sewage-treatment plants.

THE SCIENCE OF HARRY POTTER

This Frostburg State University science course answers physics questions with a nod to Hogwarts. For example: Could genetic engineering create a three-headed dog?

MAPLE SYRUP: THE REAL THING

This Alfred University seminar explores the history and mechanics of maple syrup production. And yes, it also involves making and eating some sweet treats.

UNDERWATER BASKET-WEAVING

The old idiom for an easy elective is now an actual class–albeit a recreational, not-for-credit one–offered at schools like Reed and University of California, San Diego.

LEAVE IT

• Fireball, the popular cinnamon-flavored whiskey, was recalled in several countries for containing a chemical sometimes used in antifreeze.

• A 26-year-old woman successfully crowdfunded her Halloween Uber ride; as a result of surge pricing, she claimed, the 20-minute trip cost $362.

• All of Taylor Swift’s albums have been removed from the streaming service Spotify, per her label’s request.

• Papa John’s newest menu item is a pizza topped with Fritos and chili. “I can’t believe I waited 30 years” to do it, the chain’s founder said.

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