TRL Going Out With a Bang

Salon offers up a mid-year list

(NEWSER) - Now that we're more than halfway through 2011, the Salon staff compiled the best books, movies, music, and TV of the year so far. Among its recommendations:

• Film: Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life is quite good—but Lee Chang-dong's Poetry, about a 66-year-old woman who may have Alzheimer's, is a masterpiece. Another surprising inclusion: Matthew McConaughey-vehicle The Lincoln Lawyer, directed by Brad Furman.
• Books: You'd never know The Pale King, David Foster Wallace's third and last novel, was actually unfinished at the time of his death and pieced together by his longtime editor. Also worth checking out: novelist Andre Dubus III's memoir, Townie.

Advertisers shunned show that depicted teens having sex, taking drugs

(NEWSER) - MTV has pulled the plug on controversial sexed-up teen drama Skins after just one season. The much-talked-about US adaptation of the British hit, deserted by advertisers under pressure from the Parents Television Council , never attracted a huge audience, although it outperformed MTV's other scripted show, The Hard Times of R.J. Berger, which has been renewed, Entertainment Weekly notes. More»

Meghan Daum: To be really popular, you have to be really unpopular

(NEWSER) - With Friday, 13-year-old Rebecca Black has a top 20 song on iTunes and a video that’s reached 35 million views—but what she’s most noted for is widespread derision. “We don't hate you because you're famous. You're famous because we hate you,” reads one of the printable tweets. But that’s what fame is in the age of the Internet, writes Meghan Daum in the Los Angeles Times : "To do anything in a public arena is to invite an insta-response that will echo just as loudly with harsh critics as with fans." More»

Critic: Controversy detracts from bigger problem: 'lack of quality'

(NEWSER) - First things first: The MTV teen drama Skins doesn't dabble in child pornography, writes Jace Lacob in the Daily Beast. The scene in question featuring a teen boy's naked butt isn't even "remotely sexually suggestive," he writes, and thus doesn't meet the criteria for breaking indecency rules. (See for yourself—the video clip is provided with Lacob's column on DB.) In fact, the whole brouhaha smells like a publicity stunt and detracts us from the real problem with the show: "An appalling lack of quality." More»

'Jersey Shore' star's arrest puts town back on the map

(NEWSER) - "Snooki arrested!" screamed the headlines around the world, and the mayor of the town where the Jersey Shore star faces a disorderly conduct charge couldn't be happier, reports the New York Post . "We're getting wonderful publicity!" says Ken Hershey. "We couldn't pay a half-million dollars for this!" Details of the incident are still emerging: In the Post's account, a drunk Snooki, aka Nicole Polizzi, was heard saying, "Do you know who I am? I'm fucking Snooki! You can't do this!" as Seaside Heights, NJ, police took her into custody. More»