“I think when the stars are aligned, the time is right, and all five of us have our heads on straight and know the direction we’re going as a band, it’ll eventually happen. If not, I know we’ll be best friends forever.”

Chris Kirkpatrick, aka “The One With No Career Since 2002″, talking about the potential of an *NSYNC reunion.

My Neopets are chirping out of control at the mere thought of it.

Where The Wild Things Are was the top movie of the weekend.  I know this because the Internet tells me so, but I also know this because I took my kids to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (stupid!) yesterday and there was a huge overflow of pre-teen brat-monsters that filed in at the last minute because Where The Wild Things Are was sold out.  Incidentally, — and if you are Facebook friends with me, you already know this — tickets for two adults, two kids, two small popcorns and a bag of M&Ms was 60 bucks.  Sixty.  Dollars.

Anyway, it was surprising that WTWTA pulled in $32.4M and the other big, premiere movie, Jamie Foxx’s Law Abiding Citizen only posted sales of $21.2M.

Here’s the weekend stats, and you’ll notice that Drew Barrymore’s Whip It has already careened off the top ten list.  Crash!

Sherrif’s deputies dropped by the Heene house on Saturday and carried away several boxes and a computer– by hand, not in a balloon.

You all know the story by now: Falcon Heene’s brother, Three Wolves One Moon Heene, supposedly told his parents that Falcon had climbed inside a bag of giant floating jiffy pop. His parents called the cops, which led to a three hour chase involving lots of police, several news helicopters, and the national guard. When the balloon came down,  everyone expected to find a little boy waiting inside like a crappy temporary tattoo in a box of crackerjacks. But there was nothing, because Falcon had been hiding in the attic over his garage the entire time.

Maybe it was the way the kid stood there looking shocked and bored rather than guilty after he was “recovered”. Maybe it was the fact that the hole he was hiding in looked impossible for a 6 year old to climb into unassisted. Maybe it was the overt, forced emotion on the part of the parents, or the dad’s haircut that just screams “Don’t believe a single fucking word I say,” but, I’m not surprised that charges have been filed.

Sheriff Jim Alderden – who won’t say who would be charged – told reporters: “We were looking at Class 3 misdemeanor, which hardly seems serious enough given the circumstances. We are talking to the district attorney, federal officials to see if perhaps there aren’t additional federal charges that are appropriate in this circumstance.”

Asked if it was hoax, Alderden said, “We have made progress and you guys can read between the lines about what we found.”

The recommended charges would include conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and false reporting to authorities.

And it turns out the cops weren’t just being gullible– smart people who are good with math worked it out and confirmed that the device would have been capable of supporting the kid’s weight.

I promise I’ll get back to covering the nail biting events in the Anna Nicoke Smith drug use debate in a moment, but this is important.

If you’re reading this, it means you live in a place that has internet access, which means you’ve also seen the above poster.

The now ubiquitous image was “created” (read: re-colored in Photoshop) by artist Shepard Fairey during the 2008 campaign, and quickly spawned countless parodies. My favorite is this Amy Winehouse inspired one.

However, the image, which has made Fairey a lot of money,  is based on a photograph owned by the Associated Press– a photograph that Fairey didn’t have permission to use. The artist and the Ap (sounds like the title of a left wing children’s book) have been tangling in court for a year over “fair use” issues.

This is important to you because you could get into a lot of trouble if you scribble on a picture of a famous person, post it on the internet, and then that picture becomes really popular. (Sasha could get sued for her Zack Efron Avocado.)

But now the powers that be say that Fairey’s case has “fallen apart” because he lied, or in the artist’s words “was confused about,” exactly which AP photo he based his work on.

Fairey himself admitted that he didn’t use The Associated Press photo of Obama seated next to actor George Clooney he originally said his work was based on — which he claimed would have been covered under “fair use,” the legal claim that copyrighted work can be used without having to pay for it.

Instead he used … a solo picture of the future president… underlined with the caption “HOPE.” Fairey said that he tried to cover up his error by submitting false images and deleting others.

The distinction is critical because fair use can sometimes be determined by how much of an original image or work was altered in the creation of a new work.  Fair use cases also may consider the market value of the copyrighted material and the intended use of the newly created work.

So, both photos were taken at the same event, by the same photographer. The difference is that one of them was zoomed in on Obama, and the other was not.

So, if  Fairey had used the wider-angle picture of Obama sitting next to Clooney, the artist would have a “fair use” leg to stand on?

We use a lot of photos and videos on this site, and I’m personally terrified of my broke ass getting sued by some giant corporation because I didn’t credit something properly. Please don’t tell me that the “crop” command is the difference between freedom of expression and copyright infringement.

It’s 2009 and I’ve written two pieces in one week about blackface.  What is wrong with this picture?  And I ask that question in both a colloquial and literal manner.

The newest offender is French Vogue.  This month’s issue contains a 14-page spread of model Lara Stone appearing in blackface.  There is no reference to it in the text of the magazine.  Is this art?  Were they aiming for an ethnic look?  Why didn’t they just hire a black model?  I don’t have the answers and I don’t understand why this is still happening today.

Of course, I also just read about an interracial couple who was denied a marriage license in Louisiana yesterday.  Reason for denial?  To prevent any future children from having to suffer society’s prejudices.  Reminder:  It’s 2009.  Outrageous.

It’s possible that you were one of the hundreds of thousands of people who followed the unfolding saga yesterday of Balloon Boy.  It all started out when the media was reporting that a boy climbed into the basket of a hot air balloon, untethered it, and floated off into the sky.

As facts were clarified, it ended up being a helium balloon.  I felt so bad for this drifting six year old until I saw that this aircraft was basically a package of Jiffy Pop floating around.  There is no way that something that equates to being a Mylar beret would be able to lift a first grader.

Then it was revealed that this ironically-named child, Falcon — when my mother first heard a news reporter refer to him as “Falcon”, she just thought he was making a tasteless joke — belonged to a crazy family that was on an episode of Wife Swap.  I had never seen the show but actually did watch a rerun a couple weeks ago and it was of this family.  They sleep in their clothes so they are prepared to jump out of bed and chase storms at any time.  They. Are. Nuts.

The cynic in me started thinking hoax.  Falcon was eventually found safe and sound in the garage.  When CNN asked Falcon if he heard his parents calling for him, he looked at his dad and replied, “You guys said that … we did this for the show.”  Aw, shizzle.

Back in July, Limp Bizkit’s frontman Fred Durst was scheduled to be married.  He called it off at the last minute, claiming “cold feet”.  Then he went crawling back to his jilted girlfriend, she took him back and they tied the knot.  Listen, if your man heads for the hills at the thought of your wedding day, do not marry him!  You cannot enter into a (hopefully!) lifelong union feeling hesitant.  Carrie Bradshaw, are you listening?

Anyway, Fred married Esther Nazarov in July and last month made his Twitter announcement that they “fell apart” and their relationship could not be fixed.  Yesterday, Durst filed for divorce in Los Angeles, thus legally calling for an end to a ninety-day union that just didn’t have the strength to go on.

I’d wish Esther good luck and a huge settlement, but since Durst hasn’t sold an album since George W. Bush’s first year of presidency, I’m not feeling too optimistic.