Pop! goes the culture

A quick roundup of some interesting items from the world of entertainment:

• When celebrity bloggers became published authors, does it mean old media has firmly embraced the new, or just co-opting it? Or maybe, as The New Yorker explains, it's simply because one particular talent agent is a big fan of the blogosphere.
• The New York Times' Kate Aurthur examines how, and why, "American Idol" may be fundamentally broken. In a related sidebar, Sarah Hepola dishes on "Idol's" fascination with oldies -- and no, it's not because more recent songs are too costly to license, at least not entirely.
• Also in the Times, Robert Levine uses "The Simpsons'" 15th-season finale, which aired Sunday night, as a launch pad for analyzing the long-running series' distinctive narrative structure.
• Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin have drawn flak for naming their new daughter Apple. But it's far from the worst monicker celebrities have inflicted upon unsuspecting children, the Arizona Republic notes.
• Leslie Gornstein, E! Online's Answer B!tch, explains how rappers get their odd-sounding stage names. Many, as it turns out, started as childhood nicknames originally given in derision. Keeping them displays humility and confers street cred.
• In "The Prisoner of Azkaban," Harry Potter starts growing up -- and so do his movies. Newsweek delves into new director Alfonso Cuaron's reinterpretation of the (now) teen wizard's world.
• Slate film critic David Edelstein waxes poetic as he reflects on the sheer terror and majesty that is the original "Gojira" (bastardized on these shores as "Godzilla: King of the Monsters"): "It's the most emotionally authentic fake monster movie ever made."