Patton Oswalt's heavy metal band, the Infected Skulls, probably fits into its own special subgenre.

There are only three episodes left in the final season of "Dexter," and the walls are closing in on the Morgan family.

In this final episodes preview video from Showtime, Dexter tells Deb about his plan to flee to Argentina with Hannah. But he has one person left to take care of before he can: Oliver Saxon, aka The Brain Surgeon. And it doesn't look like he'll go down easily. Will Dexter's family get stuck in the crossfire?

It all comes to an end on Sunday, Sept. 22 on Showtime.

"Dexter" airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime.

Justin Bieber was pulled over and cited for running a stop sign and driving without a valid license on Wednesday morning in Calabasas, California.

I sent my daughters back to school this morning and, in doing so, I could not help but feel as if Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift should be following closely behind -- so obvious is it that these three little girls need to be schooled in the art of being "women of influence." Certainly, the education they have been receiving up to this point has been wholly lacking.

No doubt, the visual assault Miley Cyrus laid on the audience coupled with Lady Gaga's stripper act and Taylor Swift's public bullying of the poor gent that inspired her song and video made a mockery of themselves, but what it also did was cause parents to question the soundness of those at MTV in charge of the VMAs. Truth be told, these tasteless performances didn't just crop up suddenly and take MTV's VMA team by surprise. They were rehearsed and, thus, known about all along, which makes MTV approving of such defiant, ridiculous, and disgusting behavior. What is it that we, parents, are suppose to do with that disheartening realization?

Given my own daughters exhibited such bad behavior at school today, I would fully expect the principal to toss their butts home for a lengthy period of detention -- not to return again until they fully realized the ramifications of such poor decisions. I would also gather that both I and my daughters would have to agree to a course of future action and expected behavior in order for any of them to return to their classrooms again. The entire situation would be taken very seriously by both the school and the Board of Education and so should it be by the VMAs and MTV.

Having all lashed out at Kanye West when he showed his own serious lack of judgment years prior, you would think that his sheer presence at the VMAs would have been a clear reminder of the need to behave with consideration and class, especially being fully aware of the multitude of children watching this show. Apparently, Taylor Swift has a short memory. I can't come up with any excuse for Miley Cyrus or Lady Gaga. Maybe Kanye West can help me out here. At the minimum, ol' Kanye should feel somewhat vindicated after watching Taylor make such a fool out of herself during her acceptance speech.

Ironically, in their overwhelming desire to be original, there was nothing original in any of their performances. The entertainment industry has always included women who have stripped and/or behaved badly...except most are relegated to off hours and find themselves on poles or in the streets. And again, laws and "accountability" apply. Unfortunately, I would hasten to guess neither will be the case here. More likely, money and ratings will trump morality and societal welfare, even in the face of the many families and children who were left stunned and appalled for days after the show.

Based upon what happened this year, MTV needs to assure its audience that they will no longer allow "children" to run around crazed on stage with little supervision and no common sense or regard for anyone but themselves. Back it up with legal documents and ramifications to the participants if they need to so that the few don't overshadow the majority or hinder the good time expected by all. Frankly, the horror that spread all over Will Smith's face and the faces of his loved ones couldn't have been more reflective of the horror every other family was feeling as they watched from their couches at home.

MTV needs to be the grown-ups going forward if the VMAs are to continue to exist in the spirit they were launched. Otherwise, these awards will become nothing more than a joke...and such a poorly produced one, that even Jimmy Fallon couldn't save it! And that's saying a lot, don't you think?

Nude photos allegedly of former Disney star Demi Lovato have leaked online, and negotiations for more racy pics are apparently ongoing.

Celebslam has published a teaser for the supposed pictures of the 21-year-old singer while the website continues to haggle with the seller, who claims to have 20 photos of Lovato. The seller told Celebslam he has "nude/sexual photos of Demi Lovato" for sale and claimed that the woman who can be seen in the middle row of photographs, kissing the woman who looks like Lovato, allegedly had a fling with the actress "for some time on and off."

The seller also told the website that Lovato is bisexual and explained that after the singer started dating Wilmer Valderrama, his friend called off the fling with Lovato because "she didn't like being played," and she sent him the photos.

Last week, RadarOnline was the first to report that these alleged nude images of Lovato were being shopped around, but the website was unable to verify that the images were authentic and chose not to publish them.

The seller claims that Lovato can easily be identified by her tattoos in the photos where her face is not shown.

NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman joins Marc Lamont Hill to talk about everything from his friendship with Kim Jong-un to the state of the NBA to his new line of vodka.

When it comes to uproar about Miley Cyrus's VMA performance Sunday night, one thing we can all agree on is this: Cyrus definitely started all the tongue-wagging. Literally. All week, the blogosphere has been polluted with posts about what Cyrus's performance does and doesn't mean, who it does and doesn't demean, and who is and isn't to blame. It's not even Friday yet and I'm already exhausted. On the plus side, I learned a new word: twerking. On the minus side, my retinas were damaged in the process.

As a proud feminist and an even prouder mother of a 12-year-old daughter, allow me to weigh in on this already bloated topic so we can put this matter behind us. Below are my answers to the various questions that have been posed in the aftermath of this sad spectacle.

No, Cyrus's performance doesn't count as an act of feminist independence. Doing a sexually suggestive dance while scantily clad doesn't serve to break new ground for women. Rather, it only reinforces the roles that women have long struggled to break out of. The fact that Cyrus did a new sexually suggestive dance -- twerking -- while scantily clad does not advance the ball; it confirms how far we have to go.

Yes, Cyrus's performance was degrading.
Whatever that was that Cyrus was doing was both degrading to herself personally and women generally. But it wasn't any more (or at least not appreciably more) degrading than much of the lyrics and imagery prevalent in popular music today. Take, for example, Robin Thicke's wildly popular video for "Blurred Lines." he women in that video may not have been twerking, but the roles they were put in and the acts they were engaged in were no less sexualized. (Riding a dog? Really?) If it takes Cyrus twerking on national television to spark a dialogue about how women are being presented in pop music, then I guess it's worth the eye bleach it's going to take to strip away the residue left from that six minutes' worth of imagery. But if we are so busy clucking our tongues about Cyrus's tongue that we miss the chance to have the bigger discussion, then the trauma to my retinas was in vain.

Yes, pop culture has an influence on kids.
I don't know anyone who as a kid was not influenced to some degree by popular culture. Does that mean kids copy everything they see on television or embrace every point of view presented in song lyrics? Of course not. But just as dropping the "f" bomb is much more prevalent today than it was 20 (or even 10) years ago, pop culture does move the line of social acceptability, for better or for worse (and it's almost always for the worse). That means parents have a duty to screen the popular culture to which their kids are exposed and to be selective about what makes the cut. In other words, parents need to parent.

Yes, parents are partly to blame.
The fact that the VMAs included something that was shocking and/or inappropriate can hardly come as a surprise. Britney Spears and Madonna's kiss on that very same show 10 years ago caused a huge uproar. And Janet Jackson's "surprise" nip slip in her 2004 Super Bowl halftime performance met with similar outrage. In light of these events, what happened Sunday night was completely predictable. In fact, it would have been more of a surprise if nothing shocking had happened on Sunday night's show. So, parents, if you let your kids tune in to this ceremony expecting something along the lines of" The Donny and Marie Show" of yesteryear, that's your fault. And even if your kids saw the Cyrus clip on "Good Morning America" the next day, I still blame you. When Cyrus acts a fool on "Sesame Street," then I'll share your outrage.

No, the options for role models aren't limited to a pop star or a princess. Some have proffered the opinion that they want their daughters to look to Kate Middleton rather than Miley Cyrus as their role model. When it comes to potential role models for girls, it's not a closed universe. I think we can all agree that Cyrus is off the list. But as far as I'm concerned, Kate Middleton hasn't yet earned the right to be on it. When it comes to role models for my daughter, I want her to choose someone that is known for what she accomplishes, not who she marries. Kate Middleton is lovely, but if she hadn't married a prince, no one would be talking about her at all.

No, popular music is not all bad.
Although there is plenty of garbage out there, there is also some harmless pop music and even some good stuff, too. So, if you're a parent, baby, baby, baby, please, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. A total ban on popular music is not the answer. Tune in to what your kids are listening to, and then discuss the songs with them. Use this as a chance to help them further develop their critical thinking and rhetorical skills. If you find a song or "artist" to be offensive, inappropriate or just plain annoying, explain your opinion to your kids, then give them a chance to tell you theirs.

Yes, we can all recover from this.
And by "we" I mean everyone -- including Miley Cyrus. We would do well to remember that at 20 years old, Cyrus has not even completed her second year of adulthood. (Fun fact: her dance partner Robin Thicke -- who presumably rehearsed the act with Cyrus in advance -- is 36 years old.) Yes, Cyrus made a fool of herself; but I don't know a single 20-year-old who hasn't. Everyone makes mistakes. And once a mistake is made, what matters is how it is handled. Ideally, you learn what you can and move on.

Yes, good can come from this.
As a parent, don't get hung up on whether all of this uproar was exactly what Cyrus and the masterminds behind the VMAs had hoped to engineer in the first place. (Of course it was.) If your kids were unfortunate enough to have witnessed Cyrus's embarrassing spectacle, view it as a teachable moment. Talk to them about what you find objectionable or regrettable about the performance. But don't present this as some sort of irreversible mistake from which Cyrus can never redeem herself. If Cyrus keeps making stupid decisions, that's another matter -- but that too is something you and your kids can talk about.

If you hang out on social networks, chances are you've seen the video of Ashton (ahem, Chris) Kutcher accepting the Teen Choice Award earlier this August.

If you haven't seen it, I suggest you take four minutes to watch. It's a great little speech and it makes me happy when things like this go viral. I mean, I would love for my kids to hear this message from someone they admire. And it doesn't hurt that I agree with him. The epitome of sexy is being really smart, thoughtful and generous.

It's much better than, say, gyrating on a stage in front of millions in a nude bikini. Not that we should be that surprised by Ms. Cyrus's performance. Seriously. We couldn't have been that surprised. Anyone who claims otherwise either hasn't been around very long, or hasn't been paying attention.

We told her that acting like that would get her attention, and she listened. So, who's fault is that performance, really?

Sunday night's show-all catastrophe simply continued a long-standing trend of young girls that show up to scream "I'm grown up now!" It's interesting that the VMA's is usually their platform of choice. I don't need to write a whole list, you know who they are, but my memories fall to Britney Spears ripping off her suit, Madonna kissing Britney and, of course, Rose McGowan's non-dress.

Now, please keep in mind, I'm no prude. I think sexuality is important, healthy and keeps us vital. But we're not seeing sexuality on parade here, we're seeing the objectification of human beings. Usually young, pretty ones.

And I'm sick of it. It's enough now.

I can't watch another young girl in a moment saturated with desperation as she screams "Look at me! Look at me! Please tell me I matter! Tell me you see me!" by ripping her clothes off and pretending to masturbate.

I'm sick of this masochistic man-in-a-suit-with-parading-naked-women "scene." I believe it's causing much more damage than we realize. And as a mother of both a boy and a girl, I don't want this stereotype shoved on either one of them.

Note that I'm not saying I want us to avoid sexuality or being sexy. I'm saying that I want us to stop teaching young children that objectification of others is not only acceptable, but expected.

It feels awful to objectify another human being, as our young men are told to do through "artistic expression" like this. Stand there in a suit and make her show you every single part of her. It's all yours. She is here just for you to enjoy.

Then, say to her, "you know you want it," when you can't possibly know what that means. Yes, make it her fault that you feel this way. It's what a "real" man does. You want to be a "real" man, don't you?

What a destructive message to send to our young men.

Then there is the horrific understanding that one is being objectified. How painful is the emptiness that comes with the realization that your body, looks, voice, fill-in-the-blank, is only there for others' enjoyment. To be instructed that this is the truth through image after image, song after song.

You, yourself, (you "hottest bitch") have no intrinsic value.

You exist solely for the purpose of pleasing others. Your needs, your wants, all of you, are of no importance.

That's why Robin Thicke gets to sing about taking a "good girl" and "liberating" her while wearing a suit, but every woman in his vicinity has to be naked. Women are here to serve the sexual needs and fantasies of men, but the women themselves don't matter.

Any young, attractive woman will do. Just keep her naked.

I'm not sure how we turn this around, but I think it starts with sexy men like Chris, or Ashton, or whatever we call him now, saying most of this is "crap." Obviously it starts with us talking to our children about performances like this and asking them how it makes them feel.

But we also have to take a good hard look in the mirror and accept our own part in this. We've allowed this indoctrination of objectification to continue by supporting the artists, and their children, who take this on and perpetuate it.

Now is the time. It's enough.

I'm with Mr. Kutcher (phew, finally figured that one out); Sexy is being really smart, thoughtful and generous.

The rest of it is crap, and we need to start treating it like crap.

And to Miley Cyrus, I'm sorry. I'm sorry we sent you the message for so long that you actually bought it.

It is truly my hope that we'll start working to move beyond it. And soon.

Mexican singer Alejandro Fernández has released a new album called “Confidencias” ("Secrets") , but the 42-year-old star insists he has nothing to open up about concerning his sexuality.

During a press conference in Mexico to release his new record on Tuesday, “El Potrillo” addressed long-standing gay rumors.

“I am very clear on my sexuality. I like women and a lot,” the singer told several outlets, including Univision’s Entertainment day show “El Gordo y la Flaca.”

(Watch The Video In Spanish Above)

The crooner wasn’t done there -- he also addressed rumors of alleged plastic surgeries. Fernández said that since he began working on “Confidencias” he has been minding his diet, exercising, partying less, and dyeing his hair but nothing more. Before finishing, he felt the need to clarify that his “vanity doesn’t take away from his masculinity.”

I tuned into the 2013 VMAs with eager anticipating, a feeling in my gut that Miley Cyrus would somehow manage to steal the spotlight and start a conversation. She didn't disappoint. Emerging from a giant teddy bear, trademark tongue wagging, Cyrus put on perhaps the most shameless display of uninhibited female sexuality seen on a televised awards show to date as she turned "We Can't Stop" into an all-out stage party.

After stripping off her already revealing outerwear and defiling everything in sight with a giant glove, the Twitterverse had a collective meltdown. The rate of tweets broke all records for the awards show, with Cyrus even outpacing the tweet rate for the Superbowl.

For her frank display, Miley has been branded everything from a racist to, according to some particularly ugly commentary from MSNBC, a "deeply disturbed" individual. While the racism claims relating to cultural appropriation are too misguided to warrant serious discussion here, this notion of female sexuality as a pathological problem to be tamed is frightening.

To mainstream consumer culture, female sex is supposed to be a pretty spectacle situated comfortably within the male gaze, a la Katy Perry. Even when transgressing typical societal norms, the display will also be excused assuming total male control of the situation, such as Robin Thicke's racy video for the rape-flirting "Blurred Lines." What sex isn't supposed to be is apology-free fun for women. This is the golden rule Cyrus defied with obvious glee.

Bizarre hair, spastic twerk-inspired club dancing, and ugly sexual gesturing with a giant glove were the order of Miley's performance. She even managed to subvert the misogyny of Thicke's "Blurred Lines" by stealing a verse from him, croaking out his controversial line, "I know you want it." Miley was on a mission to express her own sexuality, whether or not it was considered juvenile and dirty.

While the media throws their hands in the air and pine for the decency of America, everyday Americans seem to be responding differently. There's a curiosity about her openness because it's such a bizarre sight in the current cultural landscape. Cyrus' new single "Wrecking Ball" is currently outselling both "Applause" by Lady Gaga and, more notably, "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke on iTunes.

Cyrus may not be the role model parents love. But Taylor Swift seems to elicit little criticism for her never-ending cattiness. And Thicke's subtle foray into rape culture have netted him the biggest hit of his career. Even Justin Timberlake has gotten in on female body ownership without so much as a blink.

Shouldn't we take a little comfort that in the midst of some genuinely disturbing trends around female sexuality, Cyrus is denying the sleek, sexual coming out routine defined by men and using the experience for her own pleasure?

Miley Cyrus promised us at 17 that she wasn't going to be tamed. Thankfully, she was right. America is better for having her around, tackiness and bad twerking be damned.

The most-tweeted about TV episode ever had nothing to do with a Red Wedding, but red coats were involved because it was an episode of ABC Family's "Pretty Little Liars."

According to ABC Family by way of SocialGuide, the "Pretty Little Liars" summer finale was the No. 1 "most tweeted" series episode in TV history. The telecast -- which made some shocking revelations about A -- had nearly 1.9 million tweets by 637,000 contributors, ABC Family said in a press release. The finale episode generated 70,000 tweets per minute during the show's final seconds.

The "Pretty Little Liars" summer finale featured a big reveal (SPOILER WARNING): Ezra (Ian Harding) is "A."

“ABC Family's 'Pretty Little Liars' is a 'pretty' big social media juggernaut. During the summer finale last night, we saw 38 unique topics trend in the US and worldwide, with 'Ezra Is A' still trending nearly 12 hours later. 'Pretty Little Liars' kept the conversation going, and fans engaged throughout the hour-long episode. We also saw immediate traction for ‘Ravenswood’, the ‘PLL’ spin-off series that was promoted during the episode, setting it up as a future social media powerhouse of its own," Jenn Deering Davis, co-founder of Union Metrics, said in a statement.

Harding said his Twitter replies were mainly positive. "Most people were like, ‘Oh my God, you broke my heart, but I need to keep watching!’ I was like, ‘Sorry?’ There’s only so much I can do with me not writing the series. … The reactions were intense; I saw a few videos that I thought were hysterical," he told HollywoodLife.

For fans holding out hope that it was all a fake-out, well, don't hold your breath. "I assure you that there is something going on here with Ezra," "Pretty Little Liars" executive producer Oliver Goldstick told TVLine. "There is something very real going on here. I can’t give you too much information, but I can tell you it plays out quite beautifully in Season 4B. And Aria’s in danger -- well, they all are, but Aria in particular."

"Pretty Little Liars" returns with a Halloween episode, "Grave New World," in October. Read the official description below and check out some Twitter stats from the "Pretty Little Liars" summer finale in the infographic below.

In the special Halloween episode of “Pretty Little Liars,” entitled “Grave New World,” airing Tuesday, October 22nd (8:00 – 9:00 PM ET/PT), Aria, Emily, Hanna and Spencer crash the Ravenswood Founders Day Celebration after finding a clue in “A’s” new lair that Ali may indeed be alive. Dressed in their finest Edwardian wear, the ladies hit the creepy cemetery party to find Ali before “A” can. But if Ali is truly alive, could the PLLs be leading “A” straight to their friend without knowing it? With Ezra lurking in the shadows, “A” may be closer than the girls realize.

NEW YORK — Maggie Edinger, 26, is in a cozy relationship. It's predictable and relaxing. She's in that phase, she said, "where you start wearing sweatpants and completing each other's sentences."

And that's just her relationship with "Law & Order," plus spin-offs. She remains on the hunt for an actual boyfriend.

Edinger, who's pursuing a business degree in New York while working in public relations, is a binge TV watcher extraordinaire. She looks at nothing but L&O, despite having dipped in and out of the franchise in real time over the years.

For some like Edinger, binging on TV shows and movies feels a whole lot like dating. While Edinger is happy and content in her crime-fighting bubble, others know they should break up but can't imagine committing to new loves, especially those that might have too many seasons to fit into a weekend fling. I'm talking to you "Dexter" and "Breaking Bad."

Then there's the bitterness. Over spoilers. Or lack of, um, climax.

"I knocked off `The Sopranos' in a weekend but c'mon, give me an ending," laments 48-year-old Larry DeGaris in Indianapolis. "I was a late adopter and I got burned on that. I don't have to like the ending. Just give me an ending. Wrap it up."

Tony Soprano and family, for the record, left our world – amid mass dissatisfaction – in a diner booth with "Don't Stop Believing" playing out as the screen abruptly went black.

"Really the analogy is sex. You want to reach a climax," laughed DeGaris, who teaches marketing at the University of Indianapolis and is between girlfriends at the moment.

"In marketing we use relationships as metaphor," he said. "It's actually a good one. I have a relationship with this show. Where are we going with it?"

Olivia Piacentini, 25, is in Pittsburgh, studying to become a physician's assistant. She spends hours on her schoolwork and has no time for a man. But as a TV binger, she gets around.

"There are times it's there for me when people aren't," giggled Piacentini of her matchmaker, Netflix.

Her first love?

"It was Grey's Anatomy. I had already watched it once and then going through school, I'm like, `Wow, now I actually understand what they're saying on the show.'"

When she caught up with all nine seasons, she started over again. She serial dates Season 4.

"It does kind of feel like a relationship where maybe you don't want it to end and move on to something new," Piacentini said by telephone. "Maybe it's a bad relationship sometimes because you know you should move on but you don't. You stick with what's comfortable and then everybody else is talking about a new show and they think it's great but you're not sure if you want to jump onto something new."

Among her unfulfilled suitors: "Walking Dead," "Orange is the New Black" and "New Girl."

"I know that I should move on. I know that I'd enjoy them," Piacentini said.

Todd Yellin, vice president of product innovation at Netflix, pushes content suggestions at folks like Piacentini for a living in the form of customer suggestions using algorithms not unlike those used by dating sites.

"We are trying to create matches, just like they are. And we also want to create love, just like they do," said Yellin, in the San Francisco Bay Area. "That's our version of marriage, when they get really hooked on a great TV show on Netflix."

Yellin sees two types of power watchers among the company's more than 36 million members in 40 countries: "The monogamous and the polygamous."

The latter can juggle their dance cards and be happy. He explains the former in these terms: "There are definitely folks who say, `I'm not watching another show until I've watched `Breaking Bad' from beginning to end,' but then even in their monogamy they like to be titillated and spread it out sometimes. They say, `I don't want to do it three times in a night. I want to do it once a night.'"

Bingers in stalking mode, where one show is watched all at once, amount to less than 1 percent of the company's customer base, he said. An episode or two a day is more common and feels more like a stable relationship to Netflix, Yellin said.

"We're not looking for a one night stand. We're looking for a longer-term relationship," he said.

Dr. Laura Berman, a sex and relationship therapist in Chicago, binged for the first time recently while stuck in an airport for six hours. "I lost my virginity to `House of Cards,'" she said.

Berman sees similarities with dating behavior that point to the pleasure centers of the brain.

"I don't know whether there's been evidence of this," she said, "but when you're in a brand new relationship, with a real human, that is, they have documented that the dopamine centers of the brain, those sort of addiction centers of the brain, are actually firing like crazy, which is why you feel almost addicted to your new love and why when you break up, especially during that phase, it's so unbelievably heartbreaking and feels like withdrawal almost."

Andrew Park, 24 and single in Los Angeles, won't be breaking up any time soon with "Golden Girls" and "Sex in the City."

He said he waits until he can watch multiple seasons of a show on streaming sites for long, fulfilling stretches that last several days and nights. He buys box sets to make it even easier to hook up with old flames.

"I start at the beginning and watch episodes back-to-back, but when I near the finish I pop in the first DVD and start over," Park said. "I can't bear to watch the last episodes," he said of those two reliable favorites.

"It's comforting to hear the voices of my favorite girls."

___

Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie

On the off chance you were one of the few Americans paying attention to the news in these waning days of summer, you may be forgiven for concluding that, in America, this was the week of the chicken. Seriously, chicken was everywhere. Allow us to explain:

This week, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals came up with a new reason to discourage you from eating meat: If you're pregnant, eating chicken (they say) could give an unborn son a small penis. FYI: This could be important if your son ever decides to run for mayor of New York City. (Really! Just like getting your unborn child into the right kindergarten. When it comes to these kinds of things, it's best to plan ahead.)

If that weren't enough, it turns out that fast-food chain McDonald's may have made chicken too expensive to keep on its menu -- simply by putting chicken on its menu in the first place. "Birds only have two wings," says a spokesman for the National Chicken Council, speaking about how McDonald's may have inadvertently priced itself out of competition by driving up the cost of chicken by increasing access and demand. (Wait a minute: Chicken have only two wings? Does Monsanto know this?!)

And, this week, experts dared to challenge the wisdom of the great Julia Child by telling us that we should stop washing raw chicken. We're just pushing things around -- things like salmonella and Campylobacter, getting whatever Campylobacter is all over everything that isn't a chicken. That's bad -- so bad, in fact, that it inspired the creation of what may be a new art form, the Germ-Vision Animation. Germ-Vision wants to look really, really scary. Post 2013-VMAs, however, there's a new threshold of "scary" to be met. (See? Even we can't get away from talking about Miley Cyrus and those inescapable pictures of the her chicken-like rubber-clad butt.)

So much chicken. Can any politician resist jumping on a bandwagon? Clearly not Colorado Republican State Senator Vicki Marble, who this week brought a legislative hearing on poverty to a dumbfounded standstill when she went off on a lunatic tangent that blamed poverty in Colorado on -- what else? -- chicken. "There's certain problems in the black race," said the (white) senator, referring to life expectancy of blacks and how it relates to what she thinks they eat all day. Not that there's anything wrong with the diets of black Americans, of course. On the contrary: "I've never had better barbecue and better chicken and ate better in my life than when you go down South," the senator said. "I mean, I love it. Everybody loves it."

But not everybody loves what Sen. Marble said. "I would ask that you suspend your perceptions and judgments about African-Americans about poverty," said state Rep. Rhonda Fields, in stunned response. "What we're trying to do is to come up with meaningful solutions. It's not about eating chicken."

Well, that should be obvious. Of course, to Sen. Marble, it's anything but. She even couldn't resist a bit of bragging by adding that, through the sheer awesomeness of her white-woman willpower, she has somehow resisted ever eating at a Colorado café in a black neighborhood called "Type 2 Chicken." We hope you're all sufficiently impressed.

Is this a trend? Will there soon be other conservatives blaming all of our perceived social ills on ... foodstuffs? Or do conservatives have so much to worry about in America that, eventually, they'll have to find things besides chicken to blame all of our problems on? What do YOU think?

Besides chicken, how will conservatives play the blame game next?

Follow Lester & Charlie on Facebook

Jenny Slate and Gabe Liedman are back with a new "Bestie X Bestie," their series about being best friends.

In this episode, Gabe and Jenny talk that awkward party-ending moment in "The Exorcist" and what it would have looked like if Simba and Nala had gotten busy in "The Lion King."

NOTE: "The Lion King" is now officially ruined for you.

Via Splitsider

William Levy is hot, in fact he was voted the "Sexiest Man Alive" by People en Español in 2012.

Today the Cuban actor is celebrating 33 years gracing the World with his macho good looks and it seems he's only getting better with age. Not only did the star amaze American audiences with his moves on "Dancing With The Stars" last year but recently he also showed fans his big heart when he shared the lesson he'd learned during a visit to a Children's Hospital in Mexico.

Levy is clearly more than just a pretty face but it doesn't mean we can't admire the actor's outer beauty as well. Take a look at William's hottest pictures below.

Good news for Valerie Harper: The cancer-stricken star told Meredith Vieira on the "Today" show Thursday morning that she was close to remission.

The 74-year-old former "Mary Tyler Moore" actress -- who devastated fans when she revealed she had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, in March -- appears to have defied the odds when it comes to beating her cancer.

"I'd say that we're getting pretty close to a remission. It defies the odds," Harper's doctor, neuro-oncologist Dr. Jeremy Rudnick, said on the "Today" show.

But Dr. Rudnick made clear that Harper was not "cured" of the disease, and that she was still terminal. "It's not a matter of if (the cancer becomes resistant to therapy)," he said. "It's a matter of when."

In March, Harper told People magazine that she was optimistic about life moving forward. "I don't think of dying. I think of being here now," she said.

You can follow just how Harper confronted her cancer diagnosis with the hour-long documentary on Sept. 10 on NBC. And if reports are true, you'll also be able to see Harper on a more regular basis on the small screen: She reportedly has joined the cast of "Dancing with the Stars" for Season 17.

Lady Gaga steps out of her hotel rocking a leather ensemble on Thursday (August 29) in London, England.

Blake Lively treats Ryan Reynolds' dog Baxter to some playtime at a local park on Monday (August 26) in Bedford, NY.

Miley Cyrus' performance on the MTV Video Music Awards this week brought to mind a quote by English philosopher Roger Scruton, "Beauty is vanishing from our world because we live as if it does not matter." From her wardrobe, to her props, and dancing (can we even call it that?), Miley's exhibitionism was as tragic for its raunchiness as it was for its complete lack of sensuality and beauty.

Of course, for all the television coverage and tut-tutting from the chattering class this week, there still remains an overwhelming sentiment that Miley's is a personal story of a young girl's rise to fame and the now familiar ritual shedding of the Disney personae. There's a societal rejection of the idea that this matters to a culture at large (she's a desperate flash in the pan) and more specifically to our girls, especially those who grew up watching her as the relatively wholesome, Hannah Montana.

"She is NOT Hannah Montana!" That's what Whoopi Goldberg repeatedly told me on a recent episode of The View I co-hosted when we sparred over a poll that ranked Miley Cyrus number one on a list of celebrities parents most disapproved of.

Yes, Whoopi is right. Miley is not her sitcom character; and yes, she is getting older and has a right to her own life and her own professional decisions. But we cannot pretend as parents or as a culture that it doesn't matter. Nor can even good and engaged parents rest on platitudes like "she's not my kid's role model -- I am" or "That's why my kids don't watch the Disney channel" or any of the other things we tell ourselves to comfort our parental unease. The fact is, culture matters. And in this day and age, it's also ubiquitous and indifferent to so many of our parental controls. Increasingly, our children, and especially our girls, are being bombarded with ugliness and vulgarity. There is so little they can rely on to inspire, enlighten and bring out their best and most virtuous self. And it's not just music and starlets-gone-bad; movies and books geared toward pre-teens and teens are darker, more violent, and determined to shock.

The gatekeepers of youth culture -- adults, who produce, write and publish the things our kids read, watch and listen to -- reassure us, it's all ok. It is realism and they are just reflecting the tough, dark world so many of today's kids confront. But what ever happened to uplifting our children and reminding them that there are things like beauty and virtue that transcend even the worst of human conditions?

Miley, Britney, Selena, and Lindsay matter because whether parents care to acknowledge the power of pop culture or not, our girls are being repeatedly told that emancipation from girlhood involves shedding their clothes and being objectified. This is a far cry from what America's brave suffragists envisioned for their daughters. This week, Miley moved the ball deeper down the cultural cesspool. In that dreadful performance we witnessed the cannibalization of what is most beautiful about our gender.

Rachel Campos-Duffy is an author, pundit, and mother of six. She is a spokesperson for the LIBRE Initiative, an organization that promotes economic liberty, empowerment and opportunity for Hispanics.

Carrie Bradshaw may have been known for her avant-garde fashion sense, but the "Sex and the City" heroine was almost always behind the times when it came to technology.

From wondering "Can he see me?" when Aidan signs on AOL Instant Messenger to her affinity for payphones, we present a mashup of her most memorable digital blunders.

Video produced by Amber Genuske.