This picture of John Barrowman smiling at a scorpion brought to you by my love of odd celebrity pictures.

We’ve found out that the CW’s heretofore unimpressive Green Arrow-based series Arrow will also be featuring DC superheroine the Huntress in some first season episodes, and we’ve found out that the show’s creators have plans (however tentative) to include a female version of Speedy, Green Arrow’s sidekick. But it was the announcement of John Barrowman joining the cast of the show that first renewed our interest in the adaptation. Unlike Jessica De Gouw and Huntress, however, we still have no idea who Barrowman is going to be, and he’s not helping.

Seventy-five years ago, Amelia Earhart set off in a plane to circumnavigate the globe and was never heard from again. Her story lived on in infamy and continues to boggle mind to this day but the search to find her eventually ended. That is, until now. The Discovery Channel is funding the continued search for Earhart in conjunction with support from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the US State Department. We wholeheartedly approve of this measure. 

No, this is not an excuse to post a picture of the back of David Tennant‘s neck. Whovians across the interwebs have been gathering more and more evidence — a lot of it via Twitter — that Madame de Pompadour herself, Sophia Myles, is returning to Doctor Who for a guest spot of some sort. For example, Myles has been talking about being in Spain and having luggage problems since the weekend. And where is the cast and crew of Doctor Who right now? Spain! Case closed … Okay, not quite. But there’s more.

You remember when Dawn got herself a vampire boyfriend on Buffy the Vampire Slayer? This is sorta like that. Find out how actress Michelle Trachtenberg almost found herself playing a character in the worldwide phenomena, Twilight, and whether or not she’s sad or happy about that particular miss. 

You’ve heard of “Sophie’s Choice,” right? Well I think we’re going to have to start a new geek phrase – “McKellen’s Choice.” Sir Ian McKellen, actor with an impressive resume but best known to fans as Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings and Magneto from X-Men, recently revealed that at one point, it was one role or the other, not both.

Remember when Javier Bardem was set to play gunslinger Roland Deschain in a film and television adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series? And then when it was completely canceled because of budget issues? Then it was back on. Then it was coming to HBO. Take a deep breath, director Ron Howard is now saying it’s not happening anytime soon.

So, they’re going to remake The Evil Dead. That was hard enough to deal with, but once its original star, Mr. Bruce Campbell, gave us his blessing that assurance that this was going to be a lovingly-made project, it was easier to accept. And now, we know that Campbell will not be reprising his role as Ash. And this opens up a lot of questions about who is the right man to fill those very special shoes. Some people have tried to come up with contenders, but I think this is a lot more delicate than some are thinking this will be.

Back in 2006, the guys we know and love from SpongeBob SquarePants — Tom Kenny and Stephen DeStefano — were asked to put together a pilot for DC Comics‘ weirdest Justice League member, Plastic Man, for Cartoon Network. Needless to say, it was not picked up, you can watch it here now! He’s part Dr. Richard Impossible from Venture Bros., part Horace Slughorn from Harry Potter, part The Incredibles!

(Newsarama)

By now, you’ve surely seen the “Kitten Hug Squeed ‘Round the World.” You felt the love. You felt the cute. You wanted to hug the first person or animal you saw. But I’ll bet you didn’t wonder if it was really a hug or just some accidentally adorable, instinctive coincidence. Because why would you want to ruin that for yourself? Well, National Geographic wanted to ruin it for themselves by asking scientists if it was a real hug. That dastardly, downerific bummerfest. Well, guess what? They asked an animal behavior expert about it and behold — it was probably a hug! Take that, you sad little buzzkill factory!

Just kidding: We love National Geographic. And here is the explanation to their perfectly logical query.

Completely logical, easy-to-follow explanation of how Link’s descendants can ultimately be saved from themselves. And Ganondorf. Who might be repeatedly resurrected and then killed by other descendants of Link who will also be called Link. Who knows! It will all be resolved in 1.21 millennia! But not by Shigeru Miyamoto!

(Kotaku)