Saudi Arabia Vs. Mariah Carey’s Shoulders

Mariah Carey gets photoshopped by Saudi censors

Saudi Arabia has a notoriously strict censorship policy, so it’s no surprise that the reliably scantily clad Mariah Carey has been a target for censors, but no amount of plunging cleavage or bare thigh is deserving of the unintentionally hilarious photoshopping that’s been done to her album covers. Cat fur to her neck? Oh yes. Click the link for photos. [E! Online]

Maybe it’s because he’s been called the Great American Novelist, but Jonathan Franzen got no love from London when he was there last weekend for a party celebrating the launch of his new book, Freedom (which, incidentally, has been called the Great American Novel in a few reviews). Some party crashers made off with Franzen’s glasses, leaving behind a $100,000 ransom note, but were apprehended by a HarperCollins staffperson who chased them down. [Gawker]

Someone at MTV appears to think that the American public has been deprived, because they’ve decided to revive Punk’d, the celebrity prank show hosted by Ashton Kutcher until he retired it in 2007. It’s rumored that they’re replacing one annoying, omnipresent and floppy-haired celebrity with another: Justin Bieber. I am so worried that this will result in the Biebs wooing older woman and posting creepy pictures of her on his twitter. [NY Mag]

You know you’re highbrow when Dame Helen Mirren approves. And apparently the titled lady is very fond of Nintendo’s Wii Fit, which she uses to keep herself in such spectacular shape that the 60-year-old actress posed topless for New York Magazine this summer. So grab your remotes, everyone, and remember, pinkies out! [Popeater]
Caught canoodling at a bar in New Orleans: rapper 50 Cent and scathing comic Chelsea Handler. No one is joking, everyone is nonplussed. The best part? Apparently they’d been flirting via twitter for months. [Jezebel]

At least unreasonable demands on models’ bodies don’t discriminate by gender? That’s the only upside I can see to the case of the recent sacking of Abercrombie & Fitch model Florian Van Bael, who was kicked off a photoshoot after ingesting a croissant off-schedule. [Daily Mail]

Watch Conan O’Brien writhe seductively on a wet and soapy desk. I mean, um, check out the promotional trailer for his new TV show on TBS. [Nerve]
Ellen DeGeneres and Sarah Silverman are two of the latest celebrities to make videos for sex columnist Dan Savage’s It Gets Better Campaign. The campaign aims to reach out to LGBTQ youth and let them that just because high school sucks doesn’t mean things will suck forever, and that help is available. After the recent spate of suicides by gay teens resulting from bullying, these things need to be said. [Entertainment Weekly]