1. This year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will feature a new balloon designed by Tim Burton; according to the character’s crazy origin story, he was created “from the leftover balloons used in children’s parties at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London” and is “forbidden from playing with other children because of his jagged teeth and crazy-quilt stitching.” [via ArtsBeat]

2. Sarah Silverman is putting together a comedy fundraiser in Ricky Perry’s home state of Texas that will be titled, “Live From N*****head: Stripping The Paint Off Of Good Ol’ Fashioned Racism,” and plans on donating all proceeds to the NAACP. [via EW]

3. Michael Bay has signed on to executive produce Outsiders, an hour-long drama for The CW that follows a “quirky [male] sociology professor” who teams up with a young female detective to “solve crimes involving youths and subcultures in Los Angeles.” And, we’re guessing, things that go boom. [via Vulture]

4. Hot on the heels of last night’s Season 4 finale, MTV already has your first look at Season 5 of Jersey Shore, which sees the cast returning to Seaside Heights and their beloved club, Karma. [via Perez]

5. If you can’t wait for it to hit shelves, here are some details from Walter Isaacson’s highly-anticipated Steve Jobs biography, including the fact that Jobs initially refused potentially life-saving surgery on his pancreatic cancer because he felt it was too invasive. [via Huffington Post]

Bonus Buzz: Vampire Moths Discovered In Siberia

Recently we read yet another article about the word “like” as used by those darn kids today. We feel like we’ve been reading incarnations of this article since we became aware of the phenomenon, a verbal tic that, like it or not, has been more or less embraced by youths and even adults since the ’60s. However you characterize it — a “filler” word, a nonsense qualifier, or, as we used to insist to our parents, a way of tempering whatever you’re talking about — it’s like, pretty much here to stay.

For proof, we’ve put together a brief history of the most prominent appearances of the “like” craze in pop culture, from a 1920s New Yorker cartoon to Clueless. Indeed, almost as soon as the word rose to prominence, the pop cultural references began to be self-aware, if not flat-out self-mocking. Shaggy’s surfer-dude lingo is already half-ironic, and of course by the time Zappa got his hands on “Valspeak” in the early ’80s it was already something to be cruelly satirized. However, this hasn’t staunched the flow, and teenagers continue to use the word willy nilly, no matter how their teachers wail. Click through to see some of our favorite ‘like’ abusers in pop culture, and let us know how you feel about the word in the comments.

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1. Do Silicon Valley tech geeks have as much reality TV potential as the gorilla juice heads who inhabit the Jersey Shore? A casting call for a new show — which is rumored to be for MTV as well — suggests that someone out there thinks so. [via AolTV]

2. The Emily Haines-led Canadian band Metric is teaming up with Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore to score David Cronenberg’s film adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel Cosmopolis, which tells the story of a 28-year-old multi-billionaire asset manager who will be played by Robert Pattinson. [via The Playlist]

3. Here’s a closer look at iPhone 4S’ new voice interface, Siri — including the really important stuff, like what happens when you tell her that you love her. [via Gizmodo]

4. We regret to inform you that Tom Hanks’ younger son Chet Hanks (a.k.a. Chet Haze) is back with another rap video. If you’re feeling brave, you can watch it here.

5. Beyoncé’s publicist says that the rumors that the pop star is faking her pregnancy — most recently sparked when her stomach “appeared to fold when she sat down” during an appearance on an Australian talk show — are “stupid, ridiculous and false.” [via Rolling Stone]

Bonus Buzz: Heterosexual Guys Who Like Glee

Do you know a kid? Does that kid need a Halloween costume? Are you cool with casually exploiting said kid for your own trick-or-treat amusement? Take a break from the princess and superhero aisles at your local holiday superstore and consider these silly costumes that are meant to make grownups chuckle. True, these outfits might go right over the wearers’ kiddie heads, but who wouldn’t love finding a tiny Mr. T or a baby Bob Ross at their doorstep? We wish we could give these youngsters’ parents high fives. Enjoy some adorably mini versions of grown-up pop culture figures after the jump.

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Here at Flavorpill, we often sing the praises of such genuinely excellent TV shows as Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, 30 Rock, and everything David Simon has ever done. But, as much as we love that stuff, we can’t deny that we have our fair share of guilty pleasures. No, we’re not talking about cult series with small, vocal followings (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who) or shows whose main audience is little kids or raunchy sitcoms that somehow manage to double as biting social critique. For our purposes, a guilty pleasure only qualifies if we (or others whose taste we trust) know it’s bad but enjoy watching it anyway. We’ve listed our all-time top 10 after the jump; clear your conscience by confessing your own in the comments.

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Like most states these days, New Jersey is pretty much broke. So it surprised us to learn that the state — which comes off pretty poorly on Jersey Shore – is actually funding the show. The Associated Press reports that the state’s Economic Development Association decided yesterday to allocate $420,000 of taxpayer money to help cover the reality series’s production costs. Although some Jersey politicians are angry that their constituents will be underwriting “fake tanning” and Governor Chris Christie’s spokesperson is griping about the show’s “New Yorker cast,” the decision supposedly makes economic sense to the mayor of Seaside Heights, who says that local businesses benefit from having Snooki and co. in town for filming. So, here’s what doesn’t add up: We understand that the funding is supposed to serve as an enticement for Jersey Shore to stay in the state. But the who point of the show is that it’s about people who hang out at the Jersey Shore. Even if they do take off for Miami or Italy when it’s too cold to party in Jersey, it’s not like MTV is going to pick up and move the cast to Myrtle Beach permanently. [via TV Squad]

For most of the decade, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been embarrassing Italy in the eyes of Americans (along with the rest of the world). Now, America has returned the favor by sending the Jersey Shore crew to Florence, to humiliate us in the eyes of the Italians. While they’re in Europe, we’ll be checking in with Snooki, The Situation, et al, regularly, in a series we’re calling “How Did the Jersey Shore Cast Embarrass Us in Italy This Week?” After a much-needed week off from our Mystery Science Theater 3000-esque coverage of the show, we return for our fourth installment — in which The Situation gives himself a head injury, Ron and Sam break up again, and Deena explains Italian fashion — is after the jump.

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For most of the decade, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been embarrassing Italy in the eyes of Americans (along with the rest of the world). Now, America has returned the favor by sending the Jersey Shore crew to Florence, to humiliate us in the eyes of the Italians. While they’re in Europe, we’ll be checking in with Snooki, The Situation, et al, regularly, in a series we’re calling “How Did the Jersey Shore Cast Embarrass Us in Italy This Week?” The third installment — in which Ronnie, Sammi, and The Situation annoy us even more than usual, and Deena steals Mike’s girl — is after the jump.

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1. Abercrombie & Fitch wants The Situation to stop wearing its clothes — and is offering up a “substantial payment” to make sure that it happens. From the company’s official statement: “We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans.” [via Speakeasy]

2. Following outcry from fans and objections by the singer’s estate, Kiss has been dropped from the bill of an upcoming Michael Jackson tribute concert because Gene Simmons has previously said in interviews that he believes the pop star was a child molester. [via Rolling Stone]

3. After Universal unceremoniously ditched the project last month, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are looking for new ways to distribute their adaptation of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series — including Netflix — but don’t look for anything to happen until next year. [via THR]

4. Beloved film critic (and Flavorpill favorite) Roger Ebert has posted the opening pages of his forthcoming memoir on his website. Life Itself hits shelves on September 13. [via PopCandy]

5. Bono — who bought $210 million worth of shares in Facebook back in 2009 — is about to make $1 billion on his investment thanks to this week’s $65 billion valuation of the social networking site. Hopefully he won’t spend all of that cash on giant claws… [via NME]

Bonus Buzz: Juggalo Justin Bieber

For most of the decade, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been embarrassing Italy in the eyes of Americans (along with the rest of the world). Now, America has returned the favor by sending the Jersey Shore crew to Florence, to humiliate us in the eyes of the Italians. While they’re in Europe, we’ll be checking in with Snooki, The Situation, et al, regularly, in a series we’re calling “How Did the Jersey Shore Cast Embarrass Us in Italy This Week?” The second installment — in which the cast relocates the Vatican and Sammi doesn’t know what raspberries are — is after the jump.

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