Pop Culture

It’s been two whole months since we’ve mentioned the Kardashians. According to “insiders” at the New York Post, this is just one more sign that the K-Klan is losing its mojo.

An article in the paper today says the ratings for their reality show have dropped and they can’t sell magazines or their own products. And it was the Kim-and-Kris divorce that was to blame.

Forbes takes the time to pick this apart and says it ain’t so: their magazines cover sell, they’re still being paid big bucks for appearances, their shows are ratings winners, and Kim was not replaced by a dog in the Skechers ads. So there you have it. In between our “Sh*t XXX Say” videos and episodes of Toddlers & Tiaras and watching stupid GOP campaign ads, we still care about the Kardashians.

Sadly, I was having this very conversation with a fellow Mediabistro-er this week, with my colleague explaining that the fake marriage was the reason why she stopped watching the E! show. What prompted the conversation? We were talking about whether or not Khloe is a real Kardashian. Noooooooo!

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The tale of the birthing of the Beyoncé/Jay-Z baby is the story that keeps on keeping on.

In today’s latest, we have the touching new song from Jay-Z, “Glory,” where he basically talks about how happy he is to be a dad. It’s the new “Isn’t She Lovely” with crying credits going to B.I.C. a.k.a. Blue Ivy Carter (the baby). #Glory is trending on Twitter.

Over the weekend, Blue Ivy was trending on Twitter. This was even before we were 100 percent sure that was the child’s name. Some reports had the baby’s name switched around.

The only thing keeping the Carter family from total Twitter domination is Tim Tebow’s touchdown pass.

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Alec Baldwin has used his column on The Huffington Post to further explain the little incident that became the big international story — his expulsion from an American Airlines flight the other day.

After apologizing to fellow travelers who may have been “inconvenienced” by the brouhaha, he addresses the airline directly.

“I suppose a part of my frustration lay with the fact that I had flown American for over 20 years and was brand loyal, in the extreme,” Baldwin writes. He then continues to talk about the tendency for passengers these days to use their electronic devices until the last minute and the ways in which air travel has become “inelegant.”

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So yesterday, news broke all over Twitter that Alec Baldwin was booted from an American Airlines flight for playing Words With Friends after the flight attendant told passengers to shut down their devices. Today, visitors to @AlecBaldwin are greeted with a deactivated message.

Our TVNewser colleague Alex Weprin got a response via tweet (of course) from Baldwin’s publicists at Hiltzik Strategies about the disablement: “@HiltzikStrat: @alexweprin – just focused on #30Rock for now.” In a couple more words, reps told People, “It’s just on hold while he focuses on 30 Rock.”

Meanwhile, Baldwin was mobbed by photographers in New York when he landed because of the incident, which you can see in this bizarre Huffington Post slideshow that has 25 pictures of Baldwin getting into a car at the airport.

Here’s a statement from American Airlines on the issue.

Hilary Swank made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to promote her movie New Year’s Eve, talk about the eggs she just bought, and tell the world that she now knows she should do her research before going to a suspected human rights violator’s birthday party.

You’ll recall, Swank got into trouble for making an appearance at an event for Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov (Jean Claude Van Damme and Seal a.k.a. Mr. Heidi Klum were also there). The Human Rights Foundation says they tried to warn her. Swank has apologized, donated the money, and has fired a few people over the issue. Her PR firm, 42West dumped her because of it.

Last night, Swank continued to explain, with help from Leno who tossed her a few softballs and made up some excuse about celebrities being dopes and just getting on planes when they’re told to.

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George Clooney is loved the world over. He’s won Oscars. People pay to see his movies. (We hear The Descendants is pretty good.) And look at this long list of girlfriends.

But the New York Post Magazine has published a story today that says Clooney is no good to these ladies. No good at all.

“Hollywood’s ultimate bachelor, willfully committed to never committing, has left a long line of unknown women in his celebrated wake,” the story says. “For women who hope to gain fame from a high-profile relationship, dating George Clooney is a catch-22.”

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Madison Avenue department store Barney’s has turned over its fifth floor to Lady Gaga, creating a Gaga-inspired wonderland of hair bows, strange stocking stuffers, special edition books, and other items all related to the wacky world of the Lady.

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Mariah Yeater, the woman who accused Justin Bieber — of all people — of fathering her three-month-old son, has dropped her lawsuit. TMZ has already published damaging text messages that indicate Yeater may have been trying to delete correspondence that points the paternity finger at another guy. But the Biebs hasn’t dropped his intentions of taking a DNA test.

From the beginning, Bieber and his people (which includes publicist Matthew Hiltzik) denied that there was any truth to Yeater’s allegations and they planned to back it up with a paternity test. Now with the case terminated, it would seem Bieber has been vindicated. Even still, E! is reporting that Bieber plans on going ahead with the test.

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Dang!! About 40 minutes ago, Mediabistro retweeted news from the AP that Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are getting divorced and now it’s lighting up all of the Internet.

Ashton Kutcher has responded to this AP breaking news, also on Twitter, with a statement. Of course, we just finished writing a story about how Kutcher was turning over his Twitter handle to the folks at Katalyst, which immediately got us (and Glynnis MacNicol) wondering whether he or his ghost writers penned his affectionate divorce tweet.

So this is how it’s done now.

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As we mentioned in this morning’s Ticker, Ashton Kutcher has turned his Twitter account, and its more than eight million followers, over to Katalyst, the firm he co-founded with Jason Goldberg and Anthony Platt.

After getting blowback following a tweet in defense of former Penn State coach Joe Paterno, Kutcher said on his blog that he’s going to hand “the management of the feed” over to the Katalyst team. According to Kutcher, he tried deleting the tweets after he learned about the school’s child abuse scandal, but it was too late. Tweeters had already launched their attack, as they are wont to do.

It’s interesting that Kutcher should fall victim to a Twitter catastrophe since he himself has used the social media platform to launch an assault against another party.

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