Yesterday, this writer got a little bent out of shape over the sorry state of the news in this country and the focus on meaningless and trashy stories. However, not even 24 hours later, my faith in the Fourth Estate has been completely healed thanks to the work of the Daily News. Today, the New York tabloid hit pay dirt with an incredibly hard-hitting front page story. What was it? Well, it turns out that Beyoncé, the world famous singer, had read a previous Daily News front story also about Beyoncé. News!

Talk about a victory dance. Yesterday First Lady Michelle Obama visited Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, D.C. as part of her ‘Let’s move’ campaign and unveiled some pretty bold dance moves as music from singing superstar Beyonce played.

For the third year in a row, DJ Earworm has created a mashup of the top 25 songs of the year, as determined by Billboard, in his 2010 United States of Pop (Don’t Stop the Pop). Featured: Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Enrique Iglesias (really? He was back this year?), the Black Eyed Peas, Rihanna, Eminem, and — wait, no Bieber?!? I can’t imagine a 2010 mashup without the Baby hook that I still maintain ripped off “Runaround Sue” (oh look! Proof!).

The much whispered-about Anderson Cooper 360º live studio experiment aired last night, a talk show/game show/breaking news hybrid featuring a variety of personalities and topics. On hand were pundits, comedians, and political experts to discuss a grab bag of issues in a collegial atmosphere. It’s not, as Anderson Cooper said minutes into the show, a new Oprah, but with this news/talk hybrid, CNN may be onto something.

On Sunday afternoon CNN reported MTV had banned the new Lady Gaga/Beyonce video “Telephone” – and so many other outlets (like us) reported on the CNN report.

But MTV didn’t ban the video, and today CNN made the correction.

So, this was probably inevitable. Sandy Rios, Fox news contributor and president of the Culture Campaign (the name alone should send some warning signals) told Megyn Kelly that she thinks Lady Gaga’s latest (jaw-droppingly awesome) video “Telephone” featuring Beyonce should be banned from MTV. Three guesses why.

The release of the official music video for the Beyonce/Sasha Fierce’s tag-team with Lady Gaga “Telephone” was met with great Internet approval, hitting 8 million views in just several days. Not so much love at MTV, which has deemed the prison-yard storyline too provocative and has officially banned the video. Which is weird, because we weren’t aware MTV still played music videos… > Update: MTV disputes CNN’s report.

Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s long-awaited “Telephone” video is finally here and just as we’d all hoped, it’s a fashion explosion. And while the storyline of the 10 minute long video is certainly compelling and creative, it’s Gaga and Beyonce’s getups that have us totally obsessed. Behold the five trends inspired and confirmed by “Telephone.”

From Pink’s glittering ascent into the air to Beyoncé’s feisty, militaristic performance to Green Day‘s 21 Gun Salute to Elton John and Lady Gaga’s sharing a double-sided piano to the Zac Brown Band’s rousing Americana, to the pairing of Ke$ha with Justin Bieber (!), to Sn00ki in the Glamostrator, to people like Stevie Nicks and Alice Cooper, Lionel Richie and Smokey Robinson taking the stage, to Paris and Prince Jackson honoring their father, the 2010 Grammy Awards was a pretty memorable night.

It’s always been my understanding that the Grammys are Hollywood’s Halloween of sorts. For one night, all bets are off. You can stray from safe, bring the hem line up, and add an inch (or 5) on your heel. Alas, this year’s Grammy’s seemed to pull a page from the always safe Oscars: a bunch of yawns, and too many huge misses. Here’s a look at the best (and worst!) of what the red carpet had to offer tonight.

Two days ago, Mediaite reported that singer Beyoncé Knowles had given a private New Year’s Eve performance for an exclusive crowd in St. Barth — allegedly paid for by relatives of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Today, that report has been confirmed.

At this point, we have numerous reports that Beyoncé> was paid $2 million to perform for a member/members of the Gaddafi family in the Nikki Beach nightclub on the exclusive party getaway island of St. Barth, and more reports of her performing for the family of the Libyan dictator – including, now, from hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons.

Yesterday, we asked: Did Beyoncé perform on New Year’s Eve for the family of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi? Rumors had been slowly percolating that Beyoncé’s fabulous private New Year’s Eve performance at the exclusive Nikki Beach club on St. Barth was hosted by family members of Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Ghaddafi. His son, Saif Gaddafi, is said to have held a similar New Year’s Eve bash at Nikki Beach for the past few years; last year, he reportedly hired Mariah Carey to perform for $1 million.

Did Beyoncé perform on New Year’s Eve for the family of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi? Reports are surfacing that she did — and people are starting to wonder why. The mega-star and her mega-star husband, Jay-Z, are confirmed to have spent their New Year’s holiday in St. Barth thanks to numerous sightings, tweets/twitpics and paparazzi photographs over the last few days of 2009. The singer is rumored to have received a $2 million payday for her performance at the exclusive St. Barth party — but who paid her?

This has been making the rounds, and for good reason — it’s a catchy, boppy new yet familiar song that sums up the last year not only in mashing up some of the biggest hits of 2009 but in doing so in auto-tune, which was one of the distinctive, hallmark sounds of the year. (It [...]

The same week that Saturday Night Live skewers President Barack Obama for accomplishing absolutely nothing, he has won the Nobel Peace Prize? Spin this: President Obama was 11 days into his presidency when nominations closed for the Peace Prize. What exactly was he nominated for? Forget Jimmy Carter waiting over two decades for his – One could argue that George W. Bush should have gotten the Nobel Peace Prize, since he literally may have done more for world peace by leaving office than Obama did by entering it.