The London Olympics came to a close Sunday night and, as promised, the final ceremony was composed of an epic montage of British music acts representing their country. The 2012 committee trotted out a crazy-eclectic lineup, epitomized by the fact that boy band of the moment One Direction gave way to rock legends The Who and Queen, with Freddie Mercury represented via video screen. (John Lennon showed up prerecorded as well). Also on hand: George Michael, Russell Brand, Monty Python's Eric Idle, Annie Lennox, Tinie Tempah, Fatboy Slim, Taio Cruz, Jessie J, Liam Gallagher, the reunified Spice Girls, and the mayor of London and Prime Minister of the U.K. awkwardly dancing to the reunified Spice Girls. Below is a quick YouTube highlight reel. Enjoy quickly!
It's the final day of Grantland's B.S. Report takeover, and today we bring you the nascent Reality TV Friday podcast. First we check in with our Real World–ers, who get off their island and hit St. Thomas's clubs; then we check in on the logo-centric drama of the Real Housewives of New York; and we can never go long without talking about the debaucherous Bachelor Pad. Plus, we're already beginning to feel some Olympics nostalgia as we wax about the wonder of Team USA's Instagram accounts and Kobe Bryant's Facebook page.
By Rembert Browne at
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A website exists on the Internet called Rap Genius, and its primary function is to explain the lyrics to hip-hop songs. While the scope of the site has grown in recent months, from blogging, to giving artists verified accounts, to irresponsibly corrupting potentially illiterate, troubled 16-year-old rappers and then laughing about it and putting it on the Internet for all to see, its greatest gift to society is simply being a place that has all the lyrics, organized in a sophisticated manner.
In extremely related news, the 2012 Olympics are taking place.
Welcome back to our series Rembert Explains the ’80s. Every so often, we'll e-mail 25-year-old Rembert Browne a video from the 1980s that he hasn't seen. Rembert will write down his thoughts as he's watching it, then we'll post those thoughts here. This week's installment was selected by American Hollywood Prospectus editor Mark Lisanti: Mary Lou Retton — 1984 Olympics. If you have an idea for a future episode of Rembert Explains the '80s, e-mail us at hollywood@grantland.com.
On Tuesday night, USA gymnast Jordyn Wieber revealed her true motivation for sustaining the years of grueling training, social isolation, bodily harm, mental anguish, and crushing anxiety that it takes to become a world class Olympic athlete. Hours after achieving her ultimate goal by triumphing in team gymnastics, Wieber Tweeted: "Now that we are OLYMPIC champions... Can we please meet @justinbieber??" Wieber has long hinted at her ulterior motive, telling NBC in May that while she's "not sure what it's going to take to meet Justin Bieber ... an Olympic all-around title would definitely help." Ah, of course. Standing on top of that podium, clutching that gold, representing your country and making it so, so proud — all sweet and fulfilling moments, to be sure. But, it turns out, there is truly no greater motivation for accomplishing an insanely difficult feat — a feat so rarefied only a handful of people throughout the course of history will ever experience its glory — than the possibility that achieving it will let you maybe meet Justin Bieber.
We're mere hours away from tonight's 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, and so I want you to consider this next question in full: Are you mentally prepared for the madness? Four years since Beijing blew everyone's mind, proud Brit director Danny Boyle will try to translate his Slumdog Millionaire-y magic into kicking off the world's greatest clash of transcendent athletics and pure will and thrill of victory and triumph of defeat and all that stuff. So as to elevate the pizzazz, Boyle and his team have been keeping the details of the ceremony under wraps. But thanks to Deadline, we do now have some idea about what we'll soon be seeing. If you actually think you might become so excited by whatever goes down tonight that you'll spill your U.K. cultural-immersion tea-and-scone setup all over yourself at the first sight of something weird, you should probably check out this breakdown.
The London Games kick off this week, and we here at the Hollywood Prospectus blog thought we'd take a break from not talking about sports to fully indulging in OLYMPIC FEVER!, particularly the part where corporations make money off of OLYMPIC FEVER! Here are a few of the often strange, frequently cynical, and occasionally amazing Olympic endorsements from the YouTube vaults.
Ben Johnson for Valio Milk (1988)
Sean Fennessey: Here's an important commercial for Valio, a Finnish milk producer (?) that enlisted soon-to-be disgraced track-and-field star Ben Johnson for this 1988 creep-fest. Things to observe: evil Scandinavian devil child; that hat; Johnson's insinuating smile; pouring, rippling waves of Kubrickian milk; authentic twangy guitar; demon child's graceless sprinting form; one of the five most important sweatshirts of the '80s. Don't forget, y'all: MIILK ENERGY.
