Yes, these were picked up off the ground along 100 yards of Polk near the Toyota Center, including a cool one from the City of Houston about parking.

The flyers are for parties, parties and more parties, with appearances by Diddy, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Gary Payton, Jay-Z, Casey Anthony, Cassie, Henry Kissinger, Common, 2 Chainz, Art Garfunkel, Jeezy, T.I., Nas, Rick Ross, Rashard Lewis, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant and many more.

No word on if the city has hired a special team to clean all of these off the streets of Houston come Monday morning, or if any of these parties are worth shaving your legs for. I mean, to drink a warm beer 50 yards from where 2 Chainz might be, that's rarefied air.

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This year the biggest Christmas gifts are once again set to be tablets, smart phones, booze, Fleshlights, engagement rings and anything else that will be obsolete by next summer.

Sure, you could shell out big bucks for something with an Apple logo on it, but why not adopt a manatee?

Yes, the Save the Manatee Club -- an international nonprofit manatee conservation organization based out of Florida -- is offering up manatees for adoption.

No, you cannot take the manatees home. The money you donate goes to the conservation and education efforts for the manatees. But you do get to visit them if you would like.

"When the thought really counts, giving a holiday gift that matters is as easy as adopting a manatee," says the holiday press release.

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Helloooooooo Joan!

This past Sunday, naughty cell phone pictures of both Mad Men's redheaded bombshell Christina Hendricks and television personality Olivia Munn leaked onto the Internet. No, they weren't together in the photos -- Dear God -- these were separate leaks.

Two of the most lusted after female celebs, Hendricks for ya know those, and Munn for her bubbly public persona and ability to wear a bikini, they almost immediately decried the criminal invasions of privacy, with Hendricks saying that the most graphic picture was in fact not her. But crack 'net researchers -- dudes with a lot of time on their, er, hands -- unofficially verified that that in fact was her bountiful rack.

At least Hendricks owned up to the other pics. It's kind of hard to say it's not her in the other ones, unless a Hendricks twin is running around the world wild. Munn has denied the photos in her case are actually her, though one of the bikini shots is from a popular Maxim shoot.

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13 years too late, as it turns out.

After much soul searching and agonizing (and in no way an attempt to drum up publicity in advance of his new movie), George Lucas has decided to retire from big budget movies:

George Lucas's cinematic tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails, opens in theaters on Friday, and it might be the last opportunity for fans to see a more commercial Lucas production.

After spending nearly $100 million on the biopic about African-American World War II pilots starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard and David Oyelowo, Lucas tells The New York Times that he's ready to call it quits. From blockbusters, anyway.

Far be it from me to minimize the cinematic contributions of the man who created the Star Wars universe, co-created the character of Indiana Jones and gave the world a much-needed big-screen version of Howard the Duck, but it isn't as if Lucas has been churning out movies like Ridley Scott. His last directorial gig was 2005's Revenge of the Sith. Pre-Red Tails, his last executive producer credit was 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And his last non-Star Wars/Indiana Jones-related project? Radioland Murders, from 1994.

Starring Dream On's Brian Benben, but you probably already knew that.

So while it's nice for Lucas to decide he wants to branch out into smaller films, he -- like Dorothy Gale -- has had the power in him to do it all along. Why? Because according to Forbes, dude has a net worth of $3.2 billion, and the decision to revisit the same two properties over and over (and over and over) again was his and his alone.

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Don't even bother.

We had some friends over Saturday night, those with children brought theirs, because when you're my age and you want to interact with your age cohort, it's easier to just throw all the rugrats into a room filled with toys and books and let them Battle Royale it out rather than try to coordinate sitter schedules.

As they're wont to do, the men and women separated to discuss things most important to their respective genders. The ladies talked about schools, mutual friends and jobs. The men mostly stuck with subjects in their comfort zone, namely movies and TV. Specifically, we talked about the best way to engineer in our offspring a love for the formative and influential entertainment of our own youth. I believe specific references were made to Star Wars (original trilogy, bien sûr), Looney Tunes, and The Six Million Dollar Man (though I'm probably imagining that one). As the conversation progressed, I realized the discussion was pointless.

Which isn't to say your kids won't develop an affection for the same things you love, just that it'll never be the same for them as it is for you, and you shouldn't try to make it otherwise.

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Who doesn't love a woman with an Uzi? Oh, right: the Palestinians.

Steve Soderbergh, the director of Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Traffic and The Limey, has always had an experimental streak. This has come out particularly in recent years, with a remake of Solaris, something called The Girlfriend Experience and the (to put it mildly) lackluster disaster epic Contagion. At least I can credit the guy for not making a *fourth* Ocean's movie (yet).

But it's his latest effort, Haywire, coming out next week, that has me honestly intrigued. It stars Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas and Michael Douglas, but it's the movie's rookie lead that I'm really interested in. That would be MMA star Gina Carano.

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A quick survey of my friends' status updates on Facebook Sunday night confirmed what I'd suspected for weeks: 200% of them were watching something called Downton Abbey.

Season 2 just debuted on Masterpiece Classic on PBS, you see, and people responded with an enthusiasm usually reserved for when some members of the royal family embark upon another loveless cosmetic marriage.

No less a smart-ass than Patton Oswalt was live Tweeting the proceedings, which at first I took for him to be "taking the piss" (as I believe they say in Perfidious Albion), but it turns out he's a pretty big fan himself:

Reading those, two things come to mind. The first? I have no idea what any of that means. And second, they got to him, too.

Who's "they?" Take your pick: series creator/writer Julian Fellowes? Production company Carnival Films? Television network ITV? A nefarious cabal comprising all three? More importantly, what do they have in common? They're all British. And as we all know, the British hate America.

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"Down on Jump St..." oh, the hell with this.

The end of the year is always a nice time for going to the theater. Studios are desperate to cram anything they want for "awards consideration" into the final two weeks of December, leading to a larger than usual number of thoughtful, well-made films available for your holiday viewing pleasure.

Yeah, well, Christmas is over, suckers. A brand spanking new year sprawls before us, just like that person you passed out with at your neighbor's NYE party without bothering to get their name. And looks about as appealing.

Sure, there are some promising films on the horizon (The Dark Knight Rises, Lincoln...Resident Evil: Retribution), but like Van Helsing said, we'll have to pass through the bitter water before we reach the sweet.

Steve Van Helsing. Used to play hockey with him.

I'm not saying 2012 is looking any more pungent than your typical year, on the other hand, it was impossible to limit my list of least anticipated to only ten this time around.

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And they said it wouldn't last. Oh, wait...

Sometimes the jokes just write themselves.

Russell Brand stands to land $20 million or more from his divorce from wife Katy Perry, reports said Monday.

The British actor and comedian told New York magazine last year that he and Perry did not sign a prenuptial agreement. And since the two were married in California, he would, according to state law, be entitled to a 50/50 split of the couple's earnings, even after just 14 months of marriage.

According to Forbes, Perry is worth at least $44 million, but some reports suggest it could be more.

I ain't saying he's a gold digga
But he ain't marryin' no broke...chicas.

2011 was a tough year for married famous people, and this tragic trend looks to continue well into the coming Mayan apocalypse. Can anything avert this terrible tragedy?

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Behold the doom of mankind.

Yesterday the Library of Congress announced the 25 films selected by the U.S. National Film Preservation Board for inclusion in the National Film Registry. One of which, judging by online reaction, was a bit of a surprise:

The Oscar-winning "Forrest Gump," Walt Disney's 1942 classic animated film "Bambi," Charlie Chaplin's first feature-length comedy "The Kid" and a 1912 silent comedy "A Cure for Pokeritis" (starring cinema's earliest comedy superstar, John Bunny) are among the 25 movies that have been selected to be preserved as cultural, artistic and historical treasures in the National Registry of the Library of Congress. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington made the selections.

With this year's selections, there are 575 films in the registry. Movies are selected to the National Film Registry because they are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" important. "These films are selected because of their enduring significance to American culture," Billington said in a statement. "Our film heritage must be protected because these cinematic treasures document our history and culture and reflect our hopes and dreams."

Bambi yet no Bambi vs. Godzilla? An outrage, says I.

Films must be at least ten years old to be eligible, and are nominated by the public. Questions of historical and aesthetic importance are decided by the Film Preservation Board, meaning the inclusion of Gump leaves plenty of blame to be shared around. My concerns about the film's inclusion are of a more...practical nature.

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