lemonwade

It was a bad week for the dueling divas of pop: Rihanna performed at a pre-Super Bowl event in Miami dressed in half a Santa suit, and Bey-Bey had another meeting with the floor, onstage in Florianopolis, Brazil.

“I recently saw Sophia Loren at a red-carpet event. It was amazing. She’s such an icon and a legend. And then it dawned on me that Italians have gone from Leonardo da Vinci to Sophia Loren to Snooki. What the fuck is that about?” That’s comedian Susie Essman, on the “Jersey Shore” phenomenon.

Critics have mocked the kitsch canvases of Pal Sarkozy, 82, a former advertising designer. But thanks to his famous son (President of France) and daughter-in-law (First Lady of France Carla Bruni, the subject of the painting here), his huge paintings will grace the select Espace Pierre Cardin in a one-man show.

With its stark yet oddly romantic images of American factories, intersections and trailer parks, curator William Jenkins’s 1975 exhibition rewrote the rules of landscape photography. Does the show — which included Stephen Shore’s Presidio, Texas photo shown here — have the same impact today?

Starz hit new TV series, “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” has cast the spotlight on Kubrick’s 1960 epic film “Spartacus.” If you think you know everything about the flick, you don’t, not really, until you watch this entertaining interview with Peter Ustinov, who gives a hugely memorable performance as Lentulus Batiatus in the movie.

I wasn’t surprised that a movie starring Channing Tatum was the one to finally knock off “Avatar” at the box office. I noticed Channing’s star quality years ago, when he was a model: I was the first person to put him on the cover of a national magazine (he’s the guy on the right, in a Romance cover timed to Valentine’s Day). And is he gay? I kiss and tease; I don’t kiss and tell.

I didn’t really care about the Letterman/Leno ad, or the Tim Tebow ad, and Carrie Underwood’s National Anthem rendition wasn’t a patch on Whitney Houston’s in her glory days. Apart from the Saints win in the football part of the evening (fantastic!), I only had eyes, as usual, for Betty White.