Outside the Beltway

Today’s the 20th anniversary of Wayne’s World

We can feel that we “know” athletes, entertainers, politicians, and others that we’ve followed, rooted for, or whatnot over a period of time and feel a genuine sense of loss when they’re gone.

Whitney Houston, once one of the biggest stars in American popular culture, has died.

Was Clint Eastwood’s Chrysler ad a political message, or just a well done commercial?

This week we learned that even breast cancer can become politicized. Is there anything that can’t at this point?

One wonders why any Republican politician would want to be associated with this image.

Virtually everything Stephen Colbert is doing was legal before Citizens United.

The DC government’s incompetence knows no bounds.

Stephen Colbert’s super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, has raised a little over a million dollars.

Shockingly, Paula Deen, the morbidly obese woman who fries Twinkies on television, has diabetes.

Tim Tebow has been at the center of a culture war battle, but he seems to have a more balanced view of the whole thing.

Cee Lo Green caused on New Year’s Eve by changing the lyrics of Imagine from “And no religion, too” to “And all religions true.”

The trailer for the next Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises,” is out.

The constantly changing face of Superman, the iconic comic book superhero, over the 73 years since he debuted in Action Comics #1.

Fareed Zakaria thinks we’re wasting too much time playing Angry Birds.

Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” for 2011 is much different than their “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” for 2003.

William Shatner loves deep-fried turkey, but over many Thanksgivings and Christmases he’s made mistakes, burned himself, and nearly burned down his house. In this dramatic retelling, Bill shows us how dangerous turkey fryers can be.

A trailer for Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox using dialogue from Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds

Rick Perry’s “oops” moment may have closed the door on his presidential ambitions but it has opened the window for a promising career as a comic.

Paul Hsieh dubs this, “by far the best 2-cello version of “Welcome to the Jungle” that I’ve ever heard.”

Rick Santorum says Saturday Night Live is bullying” him  for “standing up for the traditional family.”

Herman Cain sings an ode to pizza to the tune of “Imagine.”

Breaking news: There’s a gay man in Hollywood.

Robert Downey, Jr. goes out on a limb for Mel Gibson, returning a favor.

Hank Williams Jr. has offered an apology for calling the Obama administration “the enemy” and comparing the president to Hitler:

Country music legend Hank Williams, Jr. is not a fan of the current administration.

Dirk Benedict, who played Lt. Starbuck in the classic Battlestar Galactica, with Katee Sackhoff, who played Kara “Starbuck” Thrace in the modern Battlestar Galactica, in a Starbucks coffee shop.

Every episode of every live action Star Trek series is now free for streaming from Amazon.

The treasurer behind “Rick Parry with an ‘A’ for America” has left to work with Rick Perry

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Watching the news and reading the op-eds makes it clear: America is doomed.

Marvel has created an alternate universe in which Spiderman is a half-black, half-Latino teenager. Some people are angry.

Kurt Vonnegut on teaching a computer to write a story.

Fascinating exchange from the late 1970s.

More people are chasing careers in film than there are careers in film. And not just in front of the camera.

It’s often said that 1950s sex symbol Marilyn Monroe was a size 12. It just isn’t so.