● Madonna is so over M.I.A.'s "adolescent" and "irrelevant" hijacking of the half-time show. "I understand it’s punk rock and everything, but to me there was such a feeling of love and good energy, and positivity, it seemed negative," she explained this morning on Ryan Seacrest's radio show. "What was the point?" [TMZ]

The daily influx of Ryan Gosling news/photos/Internet junk has died down lately. Let’s check in on him, shall we? The actor is in Bangkok, Thailand where he is learning Muay Thai fighting for a role that has him reuniting with Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn. How is learning to kick ass going?

● "I hope somebody makes a movie about Obama’s life soon because I could play him," says Drake, who was, as you might recall, a child actor up in Canada. He's even been preparing: "I watch all the addresses. Any time I see him on TV, I don’t change the channel. I definitely pay attention and listen to the inflections of his voice. If you ask anyone who knows me, I’m pretty good at impression." [RS]

With the speed of a lumbering engine powered by critical hubris and self-importance, the 84th Academy Awards nominations dropped into our newsfeeds this morning with predictable result. Did you know that people liked The Descendants this year, The Artist as well? Brad Pitt and George Clooney scored the requisite Hollywood heartthrob acting votes (they will lose to the no-name French guy who doesn't talk), while Meryl Streep got her due for sticking around. Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese were also nominated, just like they always are. It's another Oscar ceremony, y'all!

Shailene Woodley on 'The Descendants,' eating clay to fight radiation, and her group of super humans.

Sony Pictures and Smokehouse partners George Clooney and Grant Heslov are teaming up to bring the tale of Tom and Dicky Smothers, comedians from the 1960’s, to the big screen.

● Harvey Weinstein says that, assuming My Week With Marilyn does well in theaters, he would like to adapt the movie to Broadway where he thinks Katy Perry would just kill it as the screen icon. For some reason. [E!]

Most of the chatter surrounding The Descendants has been about George Clooney’s committed performance as Matt King, a middle-aged man caught deep in the throes of crisis. But it’s Robert Forster, as his hard-nosed, sad-eyed, father-in-law who steals the show. Forster, who’s been acting since the late ‘60s, found his lagging career resurrected in 1998 when Quentin Tarantino gave him the role of a lifetime in Jackie Brown. Forster’s performance earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination, and introduced to him a new generation of filmmakers. We recently spoke to Forster about The Descendants, George Clooney, and his fateful encounter with Quentin Tarantino.   

This is amazing: whoever writes the captions for the Celebrity Photos of the Week feature for The Globe and Mail apparently has a not-so-secret liberal agenda.

● Charlie Sheen's suit with the producers of Two and a Half Men over the work he did before he went crazy is drawing to a close, with Sheen set to walk away with $25 million in the next two weeks and upwards up $100 million in the long run. [TMZ] ● The real victim of this Salahi/Journey scandal? The White House crasher's doberman pinscher, Rio, who actually died. Tareq led the backyard procession yesterday, laying the poor dog to rest in peace with its favorite blanket. [TMZ] ● Tracy Morgan played it safe and made neither jokes nor homophobic statements while proposing to his model girlfriend, Megan Wallover. [NYDN]