Fresh off of celebrating her 60th birthday, Anna Wintour has been handpicked by Barack Obama to join the national Committee on the Arts and Humanities. Already members of the illustrious 24-person committee: Sarah Jessica Parker, Forest Whitaker, Edward Norton, Yo-Yo Ma, and Teresa Heinz Kerry. According to Women's Wear Daily, Wintour "has gotten close to the Obama camp through cohosting a fund-raiser to honor Michelle Obama during her husband’s presidential campaign and featuring the First Lady on the cover of Vogue." Smooth move, Anna.

HBO and Edward Norton's production company have teamed up to produce a record of Barack Obama's historic campaign, By the People: The Election of Barack Obama, premiering November 3. What started out as a documentary of a senator turned out to be one of the biggest undertakings Norton and the filmmakers have ever experienced. The team worked on By the People for over three years, chronicling the life of the Obama family and those who gave their all for Barack to get elected. The result is a sensationally moving depiction of the campaign trail that displays the strength of Obama and those he inspired. We caught up with Norton and filmmakers Amy Rice and Alicia Sams to hear about their experience making the film and being given an all-access pass into the life of our president-to-be.

So much palaver about how our beloved president got this cute shiny new thingy from some people who get together a few times a year, in the name of a dead Swedish chemist! Congratulations, B.O.! But in all fairness, the precedent was so low, like way below-the-asthenosphere low, that it makes us wonder if perhaps this glitter-and-fairy dust party was a bit too premature? As one person on my Facebook feed so aptly put it, Obama may have jumped the shark, but he was simply treading water as the shark swam under him. Although he's being awfully humble about it. But if we're handing out Nobel prizes based on aspirations over achievements to people of average intelligence who do not want to destroy the universe, why not single out people who make a living peddling sunshine and happiness, no matter how banal? Obviously, all arrows point to Miley Cyrus.

After I caught wind of Beyoncé singing "Halo" to a little girl with leukemia on a recent Australian concert date, I wanted to learn more about the singer's humanitarian efforts. So I keyed "beyonce halo sick girl" into Google and learned that this tune -- not to be confused with Kelly Clarkson's similarly Tedderian pop arrangement -- is basically makeshift healthcare for those who are either unable to afford it or are at a loss for any tangible cure for whatever ails them. And because the only other obvious question -- Is Beyoncé is Jesus? -- is just too outlandish, this one, therefore, is a perfectly reasonable assumption. Also she sang the at Obama's inauguration months ago, so there shouldn't be any question about her politics.

● Joe Jackson has elected himself the new King of Media and demands Kanye West be banned from all award shows and show business in general; it’s what Michael would have wanted. [PopCrunch]
● Barack Obama called Kanye West a "jackass" for his Taylor Swift stunt during a (not so) off-the-record interview with CNBC on Monday. [HuffingtonPost]
● Matt Damon will play Michael Douglas’ lover in the Steven Soderbergh-directed Liberace biopic. This is not a joke. [USAToday]

It's been roughly over 200 days since Barack Obama took office, and since then, he's faced criticism from piggish buffoons and corpse-like wenches who just don't get it. Every day we watch unattractive talking heads yappity yappiting about health care and beer summits, and it's as painful to listen to them as it is to look at them. If someone's going to talk smack about our president, they'd better be attractive. In order to help Obama get better looking critics, we combed the city in search of the best looks money can buy, and we found it at the newly revamped Scores. After the jump, find out what nine strippers-turned-pundits think about our Commander-in-chief.

Sometimes the only way to squash beef is over drinks. You know that. I know that. And Obama knows that. A cold beer is perfect for quaffing racial tension in Boston because it’s culturally appropriate to drink beer in Massachusetts, the birthplace of Samuel Adams. Beer, when consumed in moderation, is also a mellow beverage that subtly dulls one’s aggression while lowering inhibitions. Obama was quite wise in choosing beer as the catalyst for resolving this conflict. But when the duel is deeper, more complex, or more violent, you need a drink that rises to the occasion. After the jump, I’ve paired several major international conflicts with the corresponding beverage to once and for all bring about their peaceful resolution.

● Neil Patrick Harris would like you to know that he and boyfriend David Burtka are not having a child through a surrogate, despite what Star magazine says. [JustJared]
● PETA is upset with President Obama because of what they call an “execution” of a harmless fly during an interview. [Reuters]
● This could be the best, worst duet since Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson’s “Say, Say, Say.” R. Kelly wants to record a duet with tropical hot mess Amy Winehouse. [PopCrunch]

Ho ho ho! 'Tis the season for lowered expectations. The last couple days for all of us have been marked by disappointments of all sorts at the hands of some dude we ushered into the Oval Office. Once the king of the high school prom, he now looks as pleasing as someone you vaguely knew in high school but now go out of your way to avoid while rifling through the clearance bins at Bath and Body Works. Yes, he's doing something about Wall Street reform, but one wonders if the man isn't spreading himself too thin, thereby leading to unfulfilled promises and disappointing consolations -- and more worryingly, a green legacy which, upon fruition, will be marked by inertia and inaction. In other words, the president's constant compromises make him akin to the new Mariah Carey single. Seriously.

On the same day that the United States' first African-American president has nominated a Hispanic woman for a Supreme Court appointment (another first if Sonia Sotomayor is elected), Women's Wear Daily muses on the melting pot that is Fashion's 7th Avenue. The article opens, "Unlike any other fashion capital, Seventh Avenue has undergone a remarkable transformation in the past decade. Where once the industry was the domain of Italian-Americans and Jewish immigrants in pursuit of the American dream, it is now a melting pot reflective of the changing demographics of the city itself." In fact, the nationalities of CFDA members read like something out of an UN roster, rather than a homogeneous hodgepodge. Take the handful of much-talked about designers that the First Lady has donned during her time in office, for instance, and the proof is apparent. Michelle Obama favorites Isabel Toledo and Narciso Rodriguez are Cuban-American, while Maria Cornejo is from Chile; meanwhile Thakoon and Jason Wu were both born in Thailand.