What's a Saint Patrick's Day parade without a black and tan? Revelers in New York found out today (March 17) when they took to the streets without one of the march's longtime sponsors, Guinness.

The brewer of the famously hearty Irish brew announced that they are dropping their sponsorship of the New York parade because of its ban on allowing openly gay marchers to participate. "Guinness has a strong history of supporting diversity and being an advocate for equality for all," read a statement. "We were hopeful that the policy of exclusion would be reversed for this year's parade. As this has not come to pass, Guinness has withdrawn its participation."

Reacting to long-time bans that freeze LGBT groups from openly marching in some of the nation's biggest Saint Patrick's gatherings, Guinness has some company this year in drawing a rainbow line in the sand.

Boston At Lager-Heads
New York won't be the only city to feel the pinch this year. After years of conflict between LGBT groups who want to openly march and organizers who freeze them out, several other major brewers are pulling their support as well.

Boston Beers (makers of Sam Adams), pulled out of Sunday's parade in Boston, citing similar reasons, according to a Reuters report. And Heineken said it was bowing out of Monday's New York gathering as well. Both of those parades allow gay groups to march, but ban any signs or messages about sexual orientation.

"We believe in equality for all. We are no longer a sponsor of Monday's parade," Heineken told CNBC.

The longtime bans have drawn ...

Harry isn't the only one looking, well, hairy on the cover of One Direction's special Record Store Day Release.

The dudes are sporting some seriously metaled-out locks (and some mildly disturbing spandex), the perfect retro complement to the throwback format.

This April, One Direction will be releasing a special, limited edition vinyl of their single, "Midnight Memories," complete with a very '80s hair metal cover and what appears to be a similarly tricked-out picture disc.

In addition to the jam, which comes off of the British-Irish boy band's record by the same name, the record will also include a live version of "Rock Me" from the documentary "One Direction: This Is Us."

A limited number of these records will be manufactured and sold at participating record stores across the world on April 19.

Record Store Day is a relatively new event, having launched in 2007 to celebrate independent record stores and their wares. Over the years, most participating bands have been of the "indie"-leaning variety, releasing special edition vinyl only available in small quantities for one day per year. However, acts like Lady Gaga and Fall Out Boy have also participated in the past.

If you're looking to nab 1D's disc come April, I suggest finding your closest participating record store post haste and camping out — or, you know, making pals with the dudes at the counter and putting in a special request for the coveted piece of plastic.

Oh, and make sure to check out the other goods while you're at it. Record Store Day is all ...

With less than a week to go until "

But most agree that stars Shailene Woodley and Theo James deliver solid performances in the first movie of what is set to be a series of movies based on the books by Veronica Roth.

Check out what the critics are saying about "Divergent" in our quick roundup below.

It's also an idea that loses much of its potency in the movie adaptation, as director Neil Burger struggles to fuse philosophy, awkward romance and brutal action. Even with star Shailene Woodley delivering the requisite toughness and magnetism, the clunky result is almost unrelentingly grim. Dystopia can be presented in dynamic ways, but this iteration of it is, above all, no picnic for the audience. —Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

Thankfully, Woodley makes for more than uncertain enough of a hero to add detail and meaning to the implosion of this world. Not unlike "The Hunger Games" actress Jennifer Lawrence, there's little artifice to her performance, and the mundane honesty of her reactions create a believability that the world would otherwise lack. As Four, meanwhile, James manages the considerable accomplishment of seeming like a real grown-up man rather than a teenage girl's image of a dreamy boy, and he makes the character's transformation from hardass to collaborator seem natural, if inevitable. —Todd Gilchrist, The Playlist

Even though it stretches to nearly two-and-a-half hours and concludes with an extended gun battle, by the time "Divergent" ends, it still seems to be in the process of clearing its throat. Blame it on burdensome ...

In one of the strongest episodes since the mid-season break, "The Walking Dead" caught up with Carol, Tyreese and the assorted littles last night, with bloody and heartbreaking results.

Tween sketch case Lizzie finally brought her crazy right out in the open, killing her little sister, Mika, so that she could reanimate as a pint-sized walker with the world's most ineffective ponytail. Carol, realizing the depths of Lizzie's lunacy, brought her out into a flowered field and shot the girl while her back was turned.

She also confessed to Tyreese that she had been the one to kill Karen and David, pushing a gun across the table and telling him to do what he had to. He forgave her, and now Tyreese, Carol and Judith are on the road once more: leaving behind two tiny graves, carrying the heavy weight of even more trauma and loss.

Or maybe that's just the several thousand pecans they shelled during their stay at "The Grove."

Which leaves us to ask certain questions, namely:

1. Which moment wins your vote for the episode's most disturbing? The emergence of a herd of char-broiled walkers was the least horrifying thing that happened last night, reminding us once again that in the world of "The Walking Dead," it's the living who pose the most potent threat.

From Lizzie's deranged smile as she fed the walker on the train tracks to Carol's steady hand as she shot a sobbing child in the back of the head, there was no shortage of deeply scary scenes from which to pick a superlative one... ...

Justin Bieber isn't letting his recent string of legal woes get him down. In fact, he has a whole new outlook on life — or at least that's what a new track from him leads us to believe.

Over the weekend, Bieber posted a 15-second clip of the song, "Life Is Worth Living," on Instagram. The hopeful ballad shows off Bieber's smooth vocals as he croons, "Life is worth living/ So live another day."

Though we can't say for sure, we could speculate that the new track might be about his reportedly rekindled romance with Selena Gomez. The pair were spotted earlier this month in Gomez's home state of Texas, where they grabbed dinner with friends, hit up a local Starbucks and had steamy dance rehearsal for ... something.

The song's positive vibe is a change for Bieber, whose previous track, surfaced in February and saw the 20-year-old taking aim at the media and the haters.

But Bieber made time for more than just music: The pop star added some new ink to his collection as well. He posted (and later deleted) a photo of the tattoo on his right arm, which strongly resembles famed street artist Banksy's "Balloon Girl."

The official Instagram account for the British artist later posted a photo of Bieber — who has made his love for graffiti art no secret — with the caption, "Controversial."

Marc Webb's web-shooting days have an end in sight.

The filmmaker responsible for the first two "Amazing Spider-Man" films will be back for the third movie in the series, but not the fourth. He confirmed as much in an interview with The Daily Beast, saying that he wants to be involved in "Amazing Spider-Man 4" as a consultant, but not as the director.

"I've had so much fun doing it," he said, "but after the third movie, it'll be time to find something else."

Given that "The Amazing Spider-Man 3" still hasn't even entered production, losing Webb is a future problem — but not that far into the future. It's worth wondering who could replace him when the time comes. With that in mind, here are a few candidates we'd want to see behind the lens for "The Amazing Spider-Man 4."

Paul Feig
He's responsible for some of the funniest movies of the past few years: "Bridesmaids" and "The Heat." In the latter movie, he showed he knows his way around a fast-paced action movie, without sacrificing laughs along the way. And if it opens up the door for Melissa McCarthy to do a gender-swapped J. Jonah Jameson, then I am all for it.

Drew Goddard
Goddard is already attached to write and possibly direct Sony's planned "Sinister Six" movie; the studio should consider refocusing Goddard's efforts on a fourth "Spider-Man" movie. His previous directorial outing, "Cabin in the Woods," proved the man's sense of humor and his eye for high-flying thrills and action. He's the perfect pick to tackle a ...