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Plenty of shoppers stalk the Gilt Groupe website (to get the best deals, and now the company’s children’s division is encouraging shoppers to do the same on its Facebook page, where it will offer exclusive products and deals. First up?... Read the rest of this post

Style icon Nicole Richie and menswear designer John Varvatos joined NBC’s ‘The Fashion Star’ (as celebrity mentors and judges in the upcoming style show, where aspiring designers compete for a multimillion-dollar contract to launch their own... Read the rest of this post

“It lives in a rainforest, under a tree…” Scientists have discovered a new fungus growing in the jungle and have named it after Spongebob.

“Shaped like a sea sponge, the bright orange (and sometimes purple) mushroom, Spongiforma squarepantsii, was discovered in the forests of Sarawak, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo in 2010, and just described in May in the journal Mycologia. The fungus has a particular odor, smelling “vaguely fruity or strongly musty,” according to Dennis Desjardin of San Francisco State University.”

“Vaguely fruity”? Yep, that’s our Spongebob!

(Thanks, Red Pill Junkie)

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | 4 comments | Post tags: SpongeBob Squarepants

'American Idol' without Simon (takes a ratings hit, particularly with young adults, but keeps on kicking overall as the most watched show on both Wednesday and its new time slot on Thursday night. So will the  "age of niceness" reigned by Jennifer... Read the rest of this post

Companies like Viacom and Warner Bros. are notoriously unpicky about how they license their characters, but using preschool cartoon characters to unload perfume onto children sinks pretty low. What is the smell that appropriately evokes a four-year-old Hispanic girl? Or an undersea sponge for that matter? When I scratched the SpongeBob sample at the drugstore checkout counter, I half expected the briny scent of the ocean and seaweed. Alas, the people who made these weren’t that thoughtful; all of them had a generic synthetic smell that evoked nothing. My floor wipes have a more sophisticated scent than these sorry excuses for children’s merchandise.

'Toy Story 3′ storms the box office (giving Hollywood a much-needed cash infusion this summer and Pixar's biggest opening [$109 million] to date. Maybe this study will push licensing folks to package healthy snacks with cartoon characters on... Read the rest of this post

Katy Perry to host the 'Teen Choice Awards' (on FOX in August, following in the dual performer/emcee footsteps of the Jonas Brothers. We'll see if that helps combat the award show fatigue we saw with the Movie Awards… And over in Late Night... Read the rest of this post

Everything Wall Street wanted to know about teen media habits (but was afraid to ask. 15-year-old Morgan Stanley intern Matthew Robson explains it all — from teens love of texting and Wii, to their lack of interest in newspapers and Twitter... Read the rest of this post

The unsinkable 'SpongeBob' (The Atlantic explores the enduring appeal of the decade-old franchise. Plus, the full-length HD trailer for 'Princess and the Frog') (The Atlantic) - Threadless Tees (the crowdsourced t-shirt design site talks about... Read the rest of this post

Yesterday's Essentials post about Jordin Sparks and her remarks at the VMAs provoked some interesting discussion in the comments about this year's VMAs and the issue of tween/teen/twentysomething overlap. Izzy pointed out: I was kinda... Read the rest of this post