Pop Chart

5 minute read

LOVE IT

• A Lego Movie director created his own Oscar after the much loved film didn’t get a nod for Best Animated Feature.

• Prince William and Kate Middleton have officially joined Instagram and Twitter. Follow them at @Kensington Royal.

• Jessie J sang her hit single “Bang Bang” on BBC One’s The Graham Norton Show with her mouth closed.

• Frozen star Idina Menzel will sing the national anthem at Super Bowl XLIX.

THE DIGITS

433

The number of hours VH1 Classic will devote to a massive Saturday Night Live marathon, beginning Jan. 28, to celebrate the show’s 40th anniversary. It will start with Season 39 and work back to the very first episode.

MOCK UPS

In an effort to skewer supposedly inspirational stock imagery, filmmaker Dean Fleischer-Camp (co-creator of the YouTube hit Marcel the Shell With Shoes On) took the conceit to its extreme. See his full collection of fake posters at topposters.us.

QUICK TALK

Carrie Brownstein

The 40-year-old co-creator and star of Portlandia (Thursdays on IFC) also plays in Sleater-Kinney–“America’s best rock band,” per TIME in 2001. The punk group just released No Cities to Love, its first album in a decade.

–NOLAN FEENEY

Singing, acting, drama, comedy–and your memoir is coming out this fall. Is there anything you can’t do?

Based on statistics alone, there are so many things I can’t do. You only named four things out of a million possibilities! Really, I’m probably failing.

What’s your hidden non-talent?

I’m a horrible visual artist. I can’t draw or paint or sketch. I’m a terrible cook. I don’t have any acumen for plumbing or mathematics.

What is the most stereotypically Portland thing about you?

I can’t believe how many Gore-Tex jackets I own, or vests, or flannels, or hiking shoes. It’s just a prerequisite when you live there–someone might spring a camping trip on you in the middle of a dinner.

That sounds stressful.

Oh my God, it’s the worst. That’s a deal breaker for a friendship.

Nobody leaked the Sleater-Kinney comeback news until the group announced it. You must be good at keeping secrets.

It’s strange, I feel like we were less secretive than we should have been. We were talking to friends, and somehow our friends kept it a secret.

What’s next: surprise-releasing a whole new album, Beyoncé-style?

That’s definitely an option, but no one is Beyoncé–you just have to give her props for that.

“ON MY RADAR

• Hip-hip duo Run the Jewels

“Toward the end of the year I was really listening to them a lot.”

ROUNDUP

Characters in Chief

In the miniseries Sons of Liberty, debuting Jan. 25, the History Channel reimagines our Founding Fathers–including John Adams and George Washington–as roguish action heroes. But it’s hardly the first time a TV show or movie has toyed with presidential history.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

As the title slayer in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, he fights a Confederate Army made up of bloodsuckers and ultimately wins

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

In Pearl Harbor, Jon Voight’s FDR delivers a speech about his disability–which he strove to hide in real life–and then stands up

ULYSSES S. GRANT

In Wild Wild West, the 18th President asks two agents to destroy a giant mechanical spider. They end up becoming the Secret Service

JOHN F. KENNEDY

On MTV’s early-2000s cult classic Clone High, the 35th President is reincarnated as a brash teen who ardently pursues Cleopatra

RICHARD NIXON

In Dick, the bumbling leader opens his White House to a pair of ditzy teenage dog walkers who end up uncovering Watergate

FACE TIME

Emojis have forever changed the way we text, and now they just might change the way we create art–at least, if Yung Jake has a say. Using the website Emoji.ink, which lets anyone create illustrations using emoji, the rapper and visual artist painted intricate portraits of real-life celebrities, including Larry David (above), Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian, Jerry Seinfeld and more. The series garnered significant attention after Jake posted it on Twitter.

VERBATIM

‘Finally after all that hard work … it’s happening.’

JUSTIN BIEBER, via Twitter, after being selected as the subject of Comedy Central’s next roast on March 7. The troublemaking pop star said he has been trying to give would-be roasters “more material” for their punch lines

LEAVE IT

• ShipYour EnemiesGlitter .com, a site that lets you do just that, got so popular that the founder begged people to stop using it.

• Because of a typo, a Florida sheriff’s office received a rug reading “In Dog We Trust.” (It will be auctioned to benefit an animal-rescue group.)

• James Cameron announced that Avatar 2’s release will be delayed yet again. It’s now slated for a 2017 debut.

• Nabisco’s Red Velvet Oreos–debuting to honor Valentine’s Day–will be sold for only six to eight weeks.

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

More Must-Reads From TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com