Hollywood moves fast, so we keep the pace for you. “The Pop Up” brings you the latest news happening in pop culture, to keep you up to speed in your daily conversations. We weed out the wackness, and deliver quality links that will make you the go-to person for the inside pop scoop.

Word: Racebending

You’ve seen it before (cough, Avatar) and you’ve seen it again, in Hollywood. It’s called “racebending” and this time, it’s occurring for the much anticipated film adaptation of  Hunger Games. In the dystopian, young adult trilogy, the young, scrappy female protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, who is described as olive, dark-haired and assumed to be multi-racial like her father, apparently read as “Caucasian” to the casting director, who explicitly stated that necessary trait in her casting call: “She should be Caucasian, between ages 15 and 20, who could portray someone ‘underfed but strong,’ and ‘naturally pretty underneath her tomboyishness.’”

Many froms the film community, not to mention Hunger Game fans, have protested the casting of Oscar-nominated Jennifer Lawrence (Winter Bones.)  Yet, others, including the trilogy’s author Suzanne Collins, have given Lawrence the “seal of approval.” and insist that her acting chops make her the perfect Katniss. Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine)–both young, white actresses–were also up for the lead role. Of course, acting is all about becoming a character-whether the actual actress resembles the character or not, but the problem that many people have found in this casting is that  young, equally-qualified actresses of color have been passed over, yet again, in favor of a caucasian actress. Arturo Garcia of Racialicious and Deb Jannerson of Bitch Magazine sounded off on the missed opportunities resulting from this casting.

Biggie Baby

The adorable Afro’d baby on the cover art of Notorious BIG’s Ready to Die album has been found by The Daily News! It turns out that the baby wasn’t even related to anyone on the Bad Boy team. In fact, the infant was a baby model. Check out the link to see who the formerly anonymous baby is and what he’s up to now.

Black Friday

You think you’ve got haters, huh? Well, check out the newest viral video sensation, 13-year-old eighth grader Rebecca Black, whose new music video “Friday” has taken cyberhating to a new level. At the same time, this huge amount of hate has translated to almost 35 million Youtube views (as of today) after being uploaded on February 10th and major media attention, including an interview on Good Morning America. Many are claiming that Black’s “Friday” is “the worst song ever, not only due to the lyrics (yesterday was Thursday Thursday/ today it is Friday Friday) but the use of Autotune and the video direction. Black, on the other hand, has brushed the her shoulders off, going on the record to say that she pays her haters no mind, keeping her video up despite extremely harsh criticism.

Both “Friday” and Black were brought to you by the lovely folks at the LA-based Ark Factory, one of the many independent record labels sprouting up as of recent. Noticing the genius A&R gold that Usher struck (ie. Justin Bieber) from scavenging through Youtube, labels like Ark are intend on discovering and producing the next young superstar. Black’s “Friday” is now available on iTunes, for your information, so Black will certainly be headed straight to the bank with this one.

Our thing is…who the hell is ‘Pato’ Patrice Wilson, what was he thinking, and will he have the last laugh? Wilson, the man sitting driving the car, rapping about school buses and such things, actually co-wrote the song and is allegedly a producer at Ark Factory. Black has certainly gained a huge reputation, albeit notoriously, but she’s just a kid so this stunt is totally salvagable. But, Wilson? Surely, Wilson couldn’t foresee how Black’s track would blow up, so he probably thought this video would go straight to the vault. We’re curious to see what happens with Wilson’s career as a “rapper.” Could he really become a legit rapper after this video? Or would he be relegated to the hip pop genre, like Flo-Rida (a very lucrative, yet “sell-out” genre)? Either way, both Black and Wilson have made huge strides in social media.