Pop Chart

5 minute read

LOVE IT

• Lorde sent cupcakes to a contestant who faced unusually harsh criticism on X-Factor New Zealand.

• Apple will reportedly launch a web-based TV service this fall (with channels under ABC, CBS and Fox).

• Kathy Griffin said she quit E!’s Fashion Police because she didn’t want to “contribute to a culture of unattainable perfectionism.”

• Tom Hanks helped a group of Girl Scouts sell cookies by offering to take photos with passersby who bought boxes.

VERBATIM

‘I hate your music more than Bill Cosby hates my comedy.’

HANNIBAL BURESS, the comedian who helped catalyze the recent Cosby scandal, at Comedy Central’s roast of Justin Bieber

DIGITS

$28,000

Price of the diamond-studded cheese slicer stolen earlier this month from the Amsterdam Cheese Museum; it’s reportedly the most expensive item of its kind

UNTOLD STORY

Unlike most 19th century photographers, R.J. Arnold chose to shoot people of all races. His work, on view at L.A.’s Paramount Pictures Studios from May 1–3 (and above), centers on subjects in old California.

QUICK TALK

Kate Winslet

In The Divergent Series: Insurgent, out March 20, Winslet, 39, plays Jeanine Matthews, a corrupt leader hell-bent on eliminating those who don’t fit perfectly into her society’s five factions.

–NOLAN FEENEY

You’ve called your character the female Hitler. That’s a pretty intense label.

But you can see why! I watched Insurgent the other night, and I really sat there thinking to myself, “Oh my god, she is Hitler.” It is harsh, but it’s the truth. Her behavior is diabolical.

More diabolical than Hanna Schmitz, the actual Nazi you played in The Reader?

It’s very easy for me to judge a character who is fake. I can easily say, “Jeanine is a despicable, disgusting woman, and if I met her, I would trample her to the ground and pull her eyes out!” But I find myself feeling incredibly protective of [the characters based on real people]. You’d never find me saying anything disparaging about Hanna Schmitz, although of course the storyline she occupies is not a very nice one.

In recent years, young-adult franchises have cast a surprising number of accomplished actors: you in Divergent, Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Hunger Games. How do you explain the appeal?

After the success of The Hunger Games and how entertaining that has been for my kids and their friends, it’s a really wonderful thing to provide them with more. And I really did love these books. Harry Potter harnessed the imagination of so many young-adult minds, and it’s the same with the Divergent series.

So you must be the coolest mom ever now.

One hundred percent. Seriously. [My kids] want me to get to school a little bit before pickup time. They like it if I’m killing time in the playground.

“ON MY RADAR

• Children’s TV shows

“I love Peppa Pig. I’m a huge fan of Teletubbies. I can’t get enough Baby Jake.”

HIVE MIND

The Internet may have changed the way college students learn and work together, but their physical classrooms have remained largely the same. Not so at the Heatherwick Studio–designed Learning Hub at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, which opened March 10. The building’s 12 towers feature indoor gardens, natural lighting and 56 cornerless “tutorial rooms” designed to enhance collaboration between students and professors (tech and otherwise).

ROUNDUP

Second Acts

How old is too old to become an action-movie hero? Although the genre is dominated by 30-somethings named Chris–Pratt, Pine, Evans, Hemsworth–54-year-old Sean Penn is making his move with Pierre Morel’s The Gunman, which opens March 20. But Penn is just the latest in a long line of actors who have attempted late-in-life switches from acclaimed dramas to action. Here’s a look at how some fared, from worst to best:

KEVIN COSTNER

At 59, the Oscar-winning actor delved into shoot-’em-ups with Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and 3 Days to Kill. Both efforts tanked with critics and audiences, pulling in underwhelming box-office returns.

COLIN FIRTH

A romantic-comedy mainstay, the 54-year-old Brit took a chance on Kingsman: The Secret Service and earned plaudits (and sizable box-office returns) in the process.

HELEN MIRREN

In 2010, the then 65-year-old Mirren starred opposite action staples Bruce Willis and John Malkovich in Red. The film netted $200 million at the global box office and eventually spawned a sequel.

DANNY TREJO

A bit player in violent films for two decades, Trejo, at 66, was hailed as a full-fledged action star in Robert Rodriguez’s 2010 gore fest Machete and its sequel, Machete Kills.

LIAM NEESON

Until recently, the 62-year-old actor was best known for his performance in Schindler’s List. All that changed with Taken (released in 2009) and its sequels, which have grossed $900 million at the global box office.

LEAVE IT

• So many Breaking Bad fans were throwing pizza at Walter White’s real-life Albuquerque home–re-creating a famous scene from the show–that creator Vince Gilligan asked them in a podcast to stop.

• Ohio police are on the hunt for a serial pooper who has defecated on at least 19 cars in three years.

• Ikea cracked down on in-store hide-and-seek games after 32,000 people signed up for one in the Netherlands.

• KFC debuted a deep-fried burrito stuffed with fried chicken, cheese, bacon and bourbon barbecue sauce–and it’s available only in New Zealand.

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

More Must-Reads from TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com