1. Vulture reports that super star composers T Bone Burnett and Danny Elfman will join forces to score Gary Ross’s highly-anticipated film adaptation of The Hunger Games. They say that you can expect the soundtrack to be “sophisticated, cerebral, soulful, and rebellious,” which would normally elicit an eye roll from us, but considering their resumes, we’ll make an exception.

2. Fans of Neil Gaiman should not expect HBO’s adaptation of American Gods to follow the book exactly. Says Gaiman: “The plan right now is that the first season would essentially be the first book, with divergences. You don’t want the people who’ve read the book to be able to go, ‘I know everything that’s going to be happening.’ Well, no. You know a lot more than anybody who is starting from here, but we will do things that will surprise you, too.” [via Zap2It]

3. Ai Weiwei’s mom says that Chinese authorities are now seeking nearly $2 million in fines and unpaid taxes from her son, who was recently imprisoned over the issue for three months. Ai’s disputing that number, and demanding that his accountant, who is still being detained, be released in order to help him deal with the situation. [via The Daily Beast]

4. Lil Wayne says that he plans to retire when he hits his 30s — which is only a few years away. “I’m bowing out still on top, I’ll make you all want me when I retire,” he told XXL magazine. “I honestly think [my career] is unfair to my kids. Honestly this is the real truth. So about 30, 31, 32, I got to get ready [to retire].” We’ll believe it when we see it. [via NME]

5. For some reason, this makes us extremely pleased: According to new findings from Ancestry.com, Kate Middleton (or rather, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge) and Jane Austen are eleventh cousins, six times removed. [via People]

Bonus link: Screen Rant’s 20 Favorite Movie Robots

1. We were happy to see that Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s hilarious musical The Book of Mormon killed it at the Tonys last night, taking home nine awards, but our favorite part of the night had to be host Neil Patrick Harris’ opening number. Watch it here.

2. JJ Abrams’ mysterious monster movie Super 8 dominated the box office in its opening weekend, making $37 million — which, while not exactly chump change, has to be a lot less than what they were hoping for. X-Men: First Class came in second, earning $25 million, while The Hangover Part II rounded out the top three with $18.5 million (bringing its cumulative earnings to a whopping $216.5 million). [via Vulture]

3. Famed E Street Band saxophonist Clarence “The Big Man” Clemons — who most recently performed on two songs on Lady Gaga’s Born This Way album — suffered a stroke on Sunday. Unfortunately, there’s no word yet on how severe it was. [via Rolling Stone]

4. This could be interesting: The Coen Brothers told a crowd at the opening of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s new facility, the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, that they’re working on a project that will have quite a bit of live music in it, comparing it to Noah Baumbach’s 2007 film Margot At The Wedding. [via indieWIRE]

5. If you didn’t watch Lil Wayne’s highly anticipated MTV Unplugged performance then you missed many magical moments, most notably seeing him cover Tupac’s “Hail Mary” and the premiere of Tha Carter IV track “Nightmares of the Bottom.” Check out the full episode here.

Bonus interactive infographic: A History of Modern Music

1. If you’ve spent the last few years anxiously awaiting Coldplay’s followup to Viva La Vida, you’ll be glad to hear they’ve finally released a new single. Listen to “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall” here.

2. Gil Scott-Heron‘s funeral took place yesterday at Harlem’s Riverside Church, and ended with a performance by Kanye West of “Lost In The World,” which contains a sample from Heron’s poem “Comment #1.” [via NME]

3. Some people are saying that three “mysterious videos” that have been posted to YouTube by a user called “TheFireRises” may offer our first glimpse at Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises — or they were just made by a fan with too much time on his hands. Adding fuel to the rumor mill: Warner Bros. is refusing to comment. [via EW]

4. We regret to inform that you Lil Wayne’s Carter IV, which was originally supposed to drop on May 16th, has been delayed yet again. The new release date is August 29th, so it’s probably wise to look elsewhere for your song of the summer. [via Vulture]

5. Scarlett Johansson and Sean Penn — whose relationship reminded us way too much of Lost in Translation in the first place — are no longer dating. [via People]

Bonus link: School Does Really Lame Job of Pretending Lady Gaga Came to Visit

Summer always demands a fresh and diverse batch of music: pop hits to blast out your window on a beautiful day, dance music for long, sweaty nights of partying, and hazy, psychedelic stuff for hot, idle afternoons. Luckily, the next few months are packed with exciting releases in all three categories, with new records by everyone from Cults to Beyoncé to “Weird Al” Yankovic. Our 15 most anticipated albums of June through August are after the jump. Add yours in the comments.

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Look out, Willow Smith — there are some brand new little-girl hip-hop stars out there. Meet 10-year-old Nia and her sisters, nine-year-old Nya and five-year-old Kamaria. They call themselves Watoto from the Nile, and they have a “Letter to Lil Wayne.” In a song that also praises positive role models like Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Public Enemy, they call out Weezy for his misogyny and drug use. It’s a great — and adorable — reminder that, while artists have the right to express themselves however they see fit, they also have a responsibility to the kids who look up to them. Here’s hoping we see more of the Watoto sisters soon.

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Well, here’s one way to try and save print media: Rolling Stone is opening it very own eatery. Rolling Stone Los Angeles will be “the first Rolling Stone Restaurant & Lounge” — which we assume means that if it’s successful, we should expect more to pop up. Should the Hard Rock Café be shaking in its studded boots?

Honestly, we’re not sure the world needs a music magazine-themed dining experience. But since it’s happening whether we like it or not, we thought we’d provide the new executive chef with ideas for some dishes inspired by some of Rolling Stone‘s recent covers.

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Earlier this week we read a fascinating account of the auctioning off of Edward Gorey’s fur collection over on the Paris Review. It seems that the author — who over the years acquired a whopping 21 fur coats — had a change of heart in the ’80s, and decided to lock them all up in a storage facility. When he died in 2000, he left his entire estate to the care and welfare of animals, which in turn, led to the aforementioned sale. The story got us thinking about other famous men who’ve incorporated fur into their wardrobes. After doing a little digging, we were surprised to find that the majority of celebrities who we came up with were either old school rock stars or modern-day rappers — and Justin Bieber. Click through to check out the photos, and be sure to let us know in the comments: Do you think it’s ever OK to wear real fur?

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[Editor's note: Flavorwire is counting down our most popular features of 2010. This post comes in at position number 8. It was originally published September 2, 2010.] If you’ve read a magazine in the past few years, you’ve probably encountered the fiction writer’s lament: America, they say, no longer has room for literature. Google is apparently rotting our brains. Flashing screens everywhere feed us a constant glut of infomercials, video games, Snooki’s hair poof — what literary figure can compete with that? But the decline of the printed word has seen the concurrent rise of a different kind of wordsmith: the rapper. The work of hip-hop artists might be collected on mixtapes instead of in weighty tomes, but in both games, lyrical dexterity and a nimble wit are key. To put this all in perspective, we’ve determined the 20th century literary doppelgangers of 10 top rappers.

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Your presents from Flavorpill come in mp3 form this year. That’s right — we have a heap of gift-wrapped new tracks to start your holiday off right, from Beach Fossils to Lil Wayne to Toro Y Moi. Right Click and Save As to get them one by one or scroll to the bottom of the post to download the whole mix. And for those of you looking to avoid another Bing Crosby Christmas, make sure you’ve got last week’s tape, our compilation of the year’s best new holiday tracks.

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1. Lou Reed has directed Susan Boyle’s music video for her cover of his song “Perfect Day” — the same track that he was wrongfully accused of refusing to allow her to perform on America’s Got Talent. [via Vulture]
2. Hugh Jackman was asked to host this year’s Academy Awards, but he said no because he’s too busy preparing the Wolverine sequel. May we suggest Tina Fey instead? [via Deadline]
3. A newly-released Lil Wayne joined Drake on stage in Las Vegas over the weekend for a performance of “Miss Me.” (video) [via P4K]
4. Planters’ animated mascot Mr. Peanut is getting both a new vintage-inspired look (complete with a gray flannel suit) and a new voice courtesy of Robert Downey, Jr. [via NYT]
5. An upcoming Christie’s auction of the art of Playboy includes 80 photographs, more than a dozen contemporary works, and 24 cartoons, most of which have appeared in the publication. [via Yahoo!]

Bonus link: This Is Tom Cruise Jumping Off the Tallest Skyscraper In the World