Hello Brandeis! Welcome back-or to the new students out there, just plain old welcome! We've all been busy with the back-to-school routine, so in case you missed out, here are some of the latest goings-on of the entertainment world to get you up to date. From Lindsay's big Oprah interview to a One Direction member's engagement, we are left with a grab bag of pop culture news for this issue.

First, however, there was recently some heartbreaking news out of Hollywood. Last Monday, media outlets reported the suicide of actor Lee Thompson Young. Young was a familiar face to those of us who grew up watching the Disney Channel series The Famous Jett Jackson or for those who currently watch the crime drama Rizzoli and Isles on TNT. Young had a prominent role on Rizzoli and Isles as Detective Barry Frost, and the episode that aired the day after his death included a memorial tribute to the actor.

Supposedly, when Young failed to show up to a taping of Rizzoli and Isles Monday morning, his fellow colleagues urged the landlord of his Los Angeles home to check up on him. Young's cause of death was reportedly a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 29 years old.

On a lighter note, what's a pop culture column without some Lohan lowdown? Fresh from her sixth rehab stint (she received 90 days of court-ordered treatment for substance abuse), Lindsay Lohan sat down for an interview with Oprah that aired Sunday, Aug. 18 on ... the Oprah Winfrey Network (bet you didn't see that coming). Various clips of Lindsay's insistence that she has turned over a new leaf have been overplayed across big news outlets and talk shows since the interview aired.

I really do hope that Lohan is getting back on the right track, but at the same time, I couldn't help but think that the interview felt somewhat insincere, like another prop for Lohan's celebrity persona, a way to conjure up drama once again. In another show business-y move, Oprah mentioned during the interview that 27-year-old Lohan is also getting her own documentary show on OWN (see what I did there?). The series is set to air in 2014. Maybe the new show will somehow play a role in getting LiLo on the straight and narrow. Maybe.

In other news, Ben Affleck is set to star as Batman in the follow-up to this summer's special-effects fest that was Man of Steel. The sequel is to be called Man of Steel: Ben in Tights... just kidding. The film has yet to receive an official title, and it is set to premiere in the summer of 2015. According to Warner Bros., we can look forward to an intense showdown between Affleck's Batman and Henry Cavill's Superman. No doubt fans will compare Affleck's performance to Christian Bale's popular portrayal of the caped crusader in Christopher Nolan's series.

Last of all, here's some news for all you One Direction fans (and closet fans) out there. It's true-one-fifth of the British boy band is now off-the-market. On Wednesday, the news broke that One D's Zayn Malik is engaged to Perrie Edwards, his on-and-off girlfriend of two years. Edwards is a member of the girl group Little Mix, which won the eighth season of the UK's X Factor. She and Malik actually met on the set of the singing talent competition show.

If photos of Edward's diamond sparkler weren't enough, Malik also confirmed the news of the engagement himself when One Direction appeared on Friday's episode of The Today Show. Some are speculating that Malik and Edwards, both 20, are too young to have gotten engaged already - but if they feel they're ready, all the best to them.

That's your pop culture fix for this week! Good luck with the first week of classes, and look here next week for more news from the land of celebrity.
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