Some days, there’s a cohesive theme to the afternoon links. Other days, like today, it’s difficult to find any overarching meaning within the knots of the giant ball of Internet we call “life.” N-words and doughnuts. Funky Winkerbean and pregnancy after 40. Ah, the rich texture of the world. How can we begin to understand it? It’s too complex! Everything is happening all at once! There is immediacy, confusion, and catfishing to be contended with! Why bother with the riddle? Why not take 10 hours of your life to wrangle 500 balloons into a puffy Iron Man costume instead? Two years ago, balloon artist Jeff Wright created a Buzz Lightyear outfit, but his feat was overlooked for a year until Toy Story 3’s director, Lee Unkrich, tweeted about it. If the most important thing about the Internet is immediacy, we have no choice but to celebrate Inflatable Man today. In these uncertain times, tomorrow is no guarantee. Float away, Jeff. Float into the mystery with your suit of balloons.
- Huge person Hafthor Julius Bjornsson has been cast as Game of Thrones’ The Mountain for its third season.
- Don’t break in. Stand outside with a boombox. Don’t you know anything?
- Fifty ways to shade your casting director: the actors who passed on Fifty Shades, and the “chemistry read” that sealed Hunnam and Johnson as the film’s stars.
- Gwen Stefani is reportedly expecting her third baby with Gavin Rossdale.
- Lady Gaga is in talks to pull double duty on SNL. Great way to get the most mileage out of your googly eyes.
- Michelle Williams will make her Broadway debut as Sally Bowles in Cabaret.
- Angela Chase was almost played by Alicia Silverstone. Also, I want to go back and live Claire Danes’s childhood. There was a trapeze in the kitchen!
- Headline of the day: Krispy Kreme Announces ’N Sync’s Chris Kirkpatrick As Celebrity Judge For The Krispy Kreme Film Festival Red Carpet Gala.
- Now management companies are getting catfished by their own employees. Nev, what have you done?
- Speaking of trickery, someone made a fake YouTube account for Justin Bieber and posted a song with an N-bomb in the lyrics.
- Eight minutes of Vines.
- Get your PhD in AMC.
- The sad parable of Funky Winkerbean.
- The wet runways of monsoon fashion.