the buzz log

Christmas came and Christmas went this week, but Buzz lingers on. Hot topics include Robert Pattinson's web-stirring haircut, an Obama chest sighting, and the deaths of three notables.

Three Deaths
The playwright Harold Pinter, singer Eartha Kitt, and actor John Costelloe have little in common except the closeness in time of their passing. Pinter won the Nobel Prize in literature and famously wrote pauses into his dialogue. Kitt's career as a singer and actor spanned six decades, highlighted by her sultry rendition of the hit song "Santa Baby" and a star turn as Catwoman on the "Batman" TV show. Costelloe registered in the public consciousness over a mere four episodes of "The Sopranos" as the character Johnny Cakes, the lover of on-the-lam gangster Vito Spatafore. The death of this former firefighter is being reported as a suicide.

"Buzz" cut
This week, Robert Pattinson, or more accurately, Robert Pattinson's hair, wafted over and settled upon the Buzz big time, as Web devotees of the "Twilight" star clicked away on anything having to do with his new haircut. In trading in his signature unruly locks for a much shorter, untousled do, Pattinson joins the ranks of Elvis Presley and John Edwards as public figures whose haircuts have the power to make people absolutely bonkers. And for those who harbor strong pro or anti new-hair sentiments, please remember: Long tufts or no, he's still Robert Ever-Lovin' Pattinson!

President Hunk
Question: Which U.S. president or president-elect (hint, hint) would you most like to see shirtless? Sorry, Martin Van Buren fans. The correct answer is Barack Obama. How do we know that? Because of the frenzy created when photos of our soon-to-be commander in chief vacationing in Hawaii sans top hit the Web. Despite Obama's "muscular pectorals" and "flat stomach," this article from the Telegraph puts forth Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's physique as equivalent to our incoming president's. Maybe. But we say a tuxedoed Obama takes Putin in the evening-wear competition, hands down.

Also buzzing this week ...

• Christmas-related stories, including NORAD's Santa tracking, loomed large.
• Searchers continued to seek out information on the so-called Santa shooting.
• More victims of the fraud perpetrated by financier Bernard Madoff, including the Elie Wiesel Foundation, came to light
• Tina Fey was voted AP Entertainer of the Year.