1. After much speculation about where he’d land, word is that Keith Olbermann will be heading to Current TV, Al Gore’s cable channel, and Vulture has got the scoop: “According to a source at the network, Olbermann’s deal would give him a show and equity in the network. The deal is expected to be formally announced at a planned conference call Tuesday morning.”

2. TV on the Radio, who have been enjoying a year-long hiatus, just announced that their new album, which is called Nine Types of Light, is coming out on Interscope in the spring. They’re also playing a show at Radio City Music Hall on April 13.

3. Did you realize that Christopher Guest directed that controversial Tibet-related Groupon ad that ran during the Super Bowl, and that it was meant to be a joke? [via AV Club]

4. Get your first glimpse of Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. [via Deadline]

5. After waiting in vain for Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark to finally open, most papers have decided to go ahead and run their reviews today — and it ain’t pretty. Check out what critics at the New York Times, Newsday, New York Post, the Daily News, the LA Times, and the Washington Post all have to say.

1. “It is with great sadness we announce that Trish Keenan from Broadcast passed away at 9am (GMT) this morning in hospital. She died from complications with pneumonia after battling the illness for two weeks in intensive care. This is an untimely tragic loss and we will miss Trish dearly — a unique voice, an extraordinary talent and a beautiful human being. Rest in peace.” – the official statement from Warp Records

2. For those of you who were expecting some kind of massive finale, Vulture reports that Steve Carell will leave The Office about a month before the season ends. Explains one of the show’s producers: “It was about focusing the spring on the office and everybody else, and not just a character going. If the show was ending, it would be about that. But it’s not.”

3. Weight Watchers has brought on Project Runway mentor Tim Gunn as a fashion consultant for their weight loss program. “Nothing makes me happier than providing guidance and tips to help people look great as they lose weight and get healthier,” says Gunn. “The combination of the PointsPlus program and providing helpful styling tips is great because it helps people celebrate their new look and recalibrate their thinking about style, while finding an enhanced self-confidence.” [via Perez Hilton]

4. There’s a Pac-Man reality series in the works. Confused? “The idea we have is to take what Pac-Man is and bring it to life, to bring what is essentially the world’s biggest game of tag to television,” says Merv Griffin president of TV Roy Bank. [via Deadline]

5. This is almost starting to feel like a joke. The opening date of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has been delayed once again, this time to March 15th. [via THR]

Bonus link: Download full screenplay for The Social Network

On one hand, you’ve got yesterday’s report that for the first time Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark knocked Wicked from its spot as the highest-grossing show on Broadway last week. (Who cares if it was a matter of only $58? $1,588,514 is still greater than $1,588,456.) And on the other, you’ve got this week’s cover of the New Yorker by cartoonist Barry Blitt, which features multiple injured Spider-Men hanging out in a hospital ward. Click through to get a better look.

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1. Sir Elton John and David Furnish have become parents to their first child, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John. “We are overwhelmed with happiness and joy at this very special moment,” the told US Magazine. “Zachary is healthy and doing really well, and we are very proud and happy parents.”

2. In yet another major blow to the production, Natalie Mendoza, one of the lead actresses in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, who suffered a concussion during the musical’s first preview performance last month, is reportedly leaving the show. [via ArtsBeat]

3. Remember that shocking outtake reel from ALF that we showed you last week that was peppered with N-bombs? According to associate producer Steve Lamar, “You’re talking about 20 years ago when the world was not so ridiculously PC. Anyone that’s offended needs to lighten up already.” [via TMZ]

4. “He said, ‘So many people who serve time never get a fair second chance.’ He was … passionate about it. He said it’s never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail. And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.” – Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie had a conversation with President Obama about Michael Vick’s comeback

5. According to the Library of Congress, Airplane!, All the President’s Men, and The Empire Strikes Back were among the 25 films chosen for the National Film Registry, which now contains 550 movies. To be eligible, a film must be over 10 years old and have had some sort of theatrical release. [via LAT]

Bonus link: 75 Beautiful Infrascapes

1. Thanks to state and federal officials, there’s a new safety plan in effect on the set of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark that sounds an awful lot like common sense: “… one offstage crew member will attach the harness and related cables, wires or tethers to the actors, and a second stagehand will verify that the attachments are made. That second stagehand will then verbally notify a stage manager that they are safely connected. The actor will also verify that the attachment is made. Previously, there was no second stagehand to verify or communicate with the stage manager, and the actor was not required to check his harness.” [via NYT]

2. Late-night comedy scandal: Did Conan O’Brien swipe Jimmy Kimmel’s parody of Sarah Palin shooting and killing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Both shows aired very similar looking mashups two weeks apart. [via THR]

3. In her first network TV interview since Heath Ledger’s January 2008 death, Michelle Williams talked to Nightline about her grieving process. “It was a year of very magical thinking, and … in some ways I’m sad to be moving further and further away from it.” [via Radar Online]

4. Their plans are better than ours are: Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin, Jay-Z, and Beyoncé will all be in Las Vegas for New Year’s Eve at the “record-breaking” $25 million party thrown at the new Cosmopolitan Hotel. [via Jezebel]

5. Watch Ed Helms and John C. Reilly in the newly-dropped trailer for Cedar Rapids, a comedy which Vulture very aptly describes as “The Hangover, with nerds, in Iowa.”

Bonus link: BuzzFeed’s Top 50 Most Viral Posts of 2010

1.The Council of Conservative Citizens want you to boycott the new Thor movie because it considers it an “insulting multi-cultural make-over” that a black actor (Idris Elba from The Wire) has been cast as a Norse god. [via Gawker]

2. Last night Shaquille O’Neal filled in as guest conductor of the Boston Pops for a few songs (“Sleigh Ride,” “Can You Feel It” and “We Are The Champions”). His take on the experience: “Actually you know I have a whole new respect for conductors. Went through a little rehearsal today and my arms are shot right now.” [via The Early Lead]

3. There was yet another aerial accident during last night’s performance of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. According to tweets from one audience member: “Spider-Man on Broadway. Stopped short near end. Someone took nasty fall. Screaming. 911 called. No idea what happened, kicked audience out… No joke. No explanation. MJ and Spidey took what seemed to be a planned fall into the stage pit. Then we heard MJ screaming.” [via Vulture]

4. Meet 22-year-old fashion-obsessed community college student Ross Ulrich, a blogger who illegally downloaded more than 1100 files (mostly hi-res images) from the Condé Nast system, and is now facing charges from the FBI. [via Jezebel]

5. Now streaming: “Shell Games,” a track off of The People’s Key, the long-waited new album from Bright Eyes, which is due out on February 15th. [via P4K]

Bonus link: Watch the cast of Beverly Hills, 90210 say Christmas 200 times

1. ArtsBeat is reporting that the opening of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Lights will now be pushed from January 11 until sometime in February. This will allow time for the creators to make several changes, including changing the final number, rewriting the dialogue, adding new music from the composers, U2’s Bono and the Edge.

2. Watch David Letterman’s hilarious tribute to Larry King, who hosted Larry King Live for the last time last night, complete with a Larry blooper reel. [via Gawker.tv]

3. Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman are pitching a new movie! According to the LA Times, “While the plot is being kept under tight wraps — it’s a pitch, so a script has yet to be written, and Kaufman movies are famously hard to describe in a few sentences anyway — two people familiar with the project said it has been making the rounds to independent financiers in recent weeks.”

4. Yesterday Anne Hathaway surprised the kids from the PS22 Chorus with the news that they’ll be performing at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony on February 27th. Watch a video of their reaction.

5. An anonymous LA street artist has put a new work in response to MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch’s decision to paint over another artist’s mural that he had commissioned: “The wheat-pasted mural depicts the face of Deitch on the body of an Iranian ayatollah holding an extension pole with a paint roller at the end — and it’s set against Italian street artist Blu’s now-controversial anti-war imagery.” [via Culture Monster]

Bonus link: Roger Ebert’s Top 10 Films of 2010

The Spider-man musical is about to open after eight years in the making — and we can’t say we’re too thrilled about it! The project, helmed by Julie Taymor and composed by Bono and The Edge, has received an amazing amount of negative press and commentary about its delays, dropouts and grandiose nature, all of which might become forgotten history once the show opens to cries of “Genius!” and “Spectacle!” There’s no denying that the show will be a feat, and perhaps a greatly-enjoyable one. But for now, there’s still a window of time in which to wonder why it can’t seem to find a way out of critical skepticism and cynicism despite its near-guaranteed awesomeness.

The $70 million dollar project was the subject of a conflicted profile in New York magazine this week, and while reading it, we finally understood why it’s so hard to muster enthusiasm about a project that will surely be majestic in scope and innovative in form. The profile contains a few key quotes that tell you all you need in order to understand why the Broadway world isn’t rallying behind this show with optimism, but rather plaguing it with cynicism — sometimes in contradictory ways.

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1. Word is that Bono’s Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark musical will live. Look for previews come July. Maybe. [via Vulture]
2. Anna Faris, Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake are all in talks to join the cast of Warner Bros.’ live-action/CG animated Yogi Bear. Faris would play a documentary filmmaker, while Aykroyd would voice Yogi; Timberlake, Boo-Boo. [via Variety]
3. Event organizers put up a barrier to prevent non-ticketholders from getting views of U2, Beyoncé, and Jay-Z performing at an MTV Europe VMAs concert celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. [via The Daily Beast]
4. J.J. Abrams wants to direct the pilot of Undercovers, his new NBC show that channels Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity. It will be the first time he’s directed for TV since the Lost pilot. [via Reuters]
5. Check out the trailer for Brothers, a family drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, and Tobey Maguire. [via Yahoo]