At 24 years old, Jennifer Lawrence has managed to win an Oscar, get nominated for two more, anchor a multi-billion dollar movie franchise, and win the hearts of pretty much every person on earth who has a pulse.

Since today is her 24th birthday, we really wanted to honor her by creating a special rendition of the “Happy Birthday” song. But with someone so accomplished, it’s hard to think of anyone worthy of the honor of singing it to her. I mean, this is Katniss Everdeen herself: how do you top the Girl on Fire?

The answer is, you don’t. Why get someone to sing “Happy Birthday” to one of the biggest stars of our time when you can just get her to sing to herself? She’s the only one who can really match up to the standards she’s set, realistically.

Of course Jennifer Lawrence, as great and down-to-earth as she is, would never be narcissistic enough to actually sing to herself. So we decided to do it for her, taking some clips of her amazing characters and interviews and having her sing the ultimate birthday tribute to herself.

Happy birthday, Jennifer! We hope 24 is as good as 23, and with “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1″ coming out in November, we’re sure it’ll be off to a great start.

Craig Flaster

If it’s a Marvel Studios movie, it’s going to sync up with another Marvel Studios movie.

Ever since “Iron Man,” the films under the Marvel Studios umbrella have linked up with one another — even the far-space epic “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which features Thanos, the grim, grinning face of evil glimpsed at the end of “The Avengers.” It will be no different for “Ant-Man,” next summer’s all-new superhero movie from director Peyton Reed and starring Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas.

Exactly how “Ant-Man” links with the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe remains to be confirmed, but a new rumor suggests that some characters from the “Captain America” franchise will appear in the first act of the film. Look away now, if you’re worried about possible SPOILERS…

According to Latino Review, four faces from the “Captain America” movies will emerge during a prologue sequence centered on Hank Pym, the Ant-Man technology inventor played by Michael Douglas. Those characters are…

Peggy Carter…

Howard Stark…

Arnim Zola…

…and a young Alexander Pierce.

It’s an interesting possibility, one that seems even likelier considering Marvel is about to launch “Agent Carter,” an eight-episode ABC series focused on Hayley Atwell’s 1940s-era spy, and rumored to include Dominic Cooper’s Howard Stark as well. Could this be a sign that Arnim Zola and Alexander Pierce will appear on “Agent Carter,” as well — and perhaps even Hank Pym?

Nothing is confirmed, but it’s all fun stuff to chew on while we wait to see ...

Taylor Swift’s love for dancing is one of her most adorable and well-documented personal quirks. And during a Thursday visit to “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” the singer explained how it all began: with a realization that in their attempts to look aloofly professional during awards shows, she and all her fellow celebrities were missing out on an amazing chance to feel the music.

“A couple years ago, I just decided, no! This is the coolest concert you could ever go to!” Swift said. “And I get to be front row, and I’m gonna dance during this, ’cause I feel like it! And not ’cause it looks cool, because it doesn’t.”

As for Taylor’s assessment of her dancing abilities… well, let’s put it this way: It sometimes doesn’t look cool. But it is always, always fantastic.

Kat Rosenfield @katrosenfield

For roughly one minute, this video is a super-cute look at a lucky squirrel stuffing his face with a veritable buffet of nuts and seeds.

But at 1:10, things take a turn for the sordid when the squirrel, drunk on power and peanuts, comes back for… um, dessert. The video is safe for work, but only because squirrel wieners are very, very small.

Kat Rosenfield @katrosenfield

With additional reporting by Janelle Myers

What’s Chrissy Teigen? Chopped Liver?
Chrissy Teigen’s beautiful hard-to-pronounce Italian dish was overshadowed by the one piece of bacon her husband John Legend threw in the pan, but she thinks it’s hilarious. She tweeted, “John cooks one piece of bacon and you guys are like OMFGZ BEST HUSBAND EVR U R SO LUCKY.” She has serious culinary skills, guys.

He Has A Good Reason To Be Upset
Childish Gambino wrote a poem about being black in America “after hearing a friend sobbing and after talking with [his] my mom,” which delves into white privilege and the public’s perception of young blacks. Lines like “my cousin wasn’t shot and stabbed twice in the neck twice last month” infer that this could have also been inspired, in some way, by the recent death of 18-year-old Mike Brown.

The ‘Can’t Stop’ Singer Like We’ve Never Seen Her
Miley Cyrus gets animated – in her own comic book. It’s part of Bluewater Productions’ Fame series, and her story begins with her oh-so-memorable 2013 MTV Video Music Awards performance with Robin Thicke.

Bridges And Hooks
Taylor Swift played beautiful music with her “The Giver” co-star Jeff Bridges, but neither you nor I will hear it — it wasn’t recorded. Oh well, at least Bridges told us what song it was, so we can at least imagine how it might have sounded like.

Must-See Video Of The Day
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After five days of sometimes intense protests in Ferguson, Missouri, Thursday night saw the memory of shooting victim Michael Brown honored in nearly 100 cities during peaceful vigils from New York to St. Louis, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Philadelphia and Orlando. In a nationwide event organized by blogger Feminista Jones around the #NMOS14 hashtag (national moment of silence), protesters gathered and bowed their heads while remembering the unarmed 18-year-old who was shot multiple times and killed by a police officer on Saturday in an incident that has gained global attention.

One of the most re-tweeted images from the evening was of a huge crowd gathered in New York’s Times Square, which was posted by everyone from Diddy to Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) and Macklemore. Following days of clashes between heavily armed police and protesters in Ferguson, Thursday night brought a calm to the St. Louis suburb after the state highway patrol came in to take over security following days of tension between angry Ferguson citizens, the media and local police. Replacing the disturbing sight of police dispersing crowds with tear gas and force were images of state patrol officers walking peacefully with the protesters.

Related: A Timeline Of The Michael Brown Shooting

Friday (August 15) is also expected to produce a major revelation in the case when the name of the officer who shot Brown is released. Along with more details on what precipitated the shooting of Brown, the teen’s family and supporters have ...

Old dogs, new tricks. That’s the mission statement of the “Expendables” franchise, the series of action films that sees Sylvester Stallone assembling all of his old 1980s action hero pals for one more run at the big-screen.

The hard-knuckled action series has its fair share of supporters and detractors. Both sides tend to agree that when it comes to an “Expendables” film, more often than not, you get what you pay for. It appears to be no different in the case of “The Expendables 3,” directed by Patrick Hughes, and in theaters now. This time out, the franchise adds genre veterans Antonio Banderas and Wesley Snipes as new heroes, and Mel Gibson as the villain. Do they bring enough juice to make the new “Expendables” worth checking out — or should this film be destroyed?

Certainly, reviews of “The Expendables 3″ aren’t exactly over the moon, but many agree that Banderas, Snipes and Gibson keep things entertaining enough. Read on for more of what critics are saying about the latest “Expendables” excursion:

The Story
“Kicking off with the rescue of ex-Expendable Doctor Death (Wesley Snipes) after eight years spent in Russian clutches with access to neither scissors or razor, this third instalment of Stallone’s geri-action franchise serves up an armored prison train, choppers, planes, speedboats, tankers, trucks, jeeps, missiles, guns and knives to make Crocodile Dundee wee himself in its first 15 minutes. Everything explodes, Caesar (Terry Crews) winds up in critical care and the target of the mission, arms dealer Conrad ...

Here’s an interesting development for any and all “Walking Dead” fans who ships Daryl Dixon and Carol — or Daryl and Beth, or Daryl and Michonne, or Daryl and any other lady, for that matter. It turns out that Daryl might not swing that way.

In the letters column of “The Walking Dead” #130, reader Nick Muller writes in to praise writer Robert Kirkman about one of the book’s newer characters — a long-haired, zombie-killing badass named Jesus, who just so happens to be gay. Muller then asks Kirkman if Daryl Dixon might be gay, writing:

“Absolutely nothing has given any indication that Daryl is straight and the relationship between him and Carol makes it seem even more likely that he is not only gay but that Carol is probably the only person he has confided in so far, and I feel like little hints have been dropped about it as well along the way but maybe not. I thought of this a long time ago but now I am pretty certain of it after the most bad ass character in the comic book turned out to be gay. I feel like if you had your way that Daryl would turn out to be gay since it’s true to the comic book and makes total sense for his character. So the real question is, would AMC let that fly?”

For his part, Kirkman answers the question head-on, without revealing spoilers. He says that AMC “absolutely would” allow for Daryl to be gay, adding:

“All ...

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If clowns give you the heebie-jeebies, tonight’s “Snack-Off” episode might have supplied one more reason to stay away from carnivals.

On tonight’s battle, three amateur chefs were challenged with upping the ante on fried dough, cotton candy and other snacks that you can typically find between the Ferris wheel and House of Mirrors, and, later, making a top-notch dish that featured pork rinds. Some, like a cheese-filled fried pepper, were hits, while others, like a dry meat-and-popcorn munchie, were left for the rats.

Though only one contestant walked away with the golden spork and $1,000, we were treated to some…interesting…cooking techniques along the way. Feast your eyes on our favorite new-age “Snack-Off” methods:

Crushing breakfast cereal into ground beef:

Making cake batter with ginger ale and mayonnaise:

Hammering out Twinkie-nuggets:

Wrapping a poblano pepper in cold cuts:

Concocting a shot with hoisin sauce (Chinese meat glaze):

Matthew Scott Donnelly

As fans worldwide continue to mourn the loss of Robin Williams, there is a small silver lining: the iconic entertainer left behind four unreleased feature films for everyone that loved him to appreciate.

And now the first clip from one of them, “Merry Friggin’ Christmas” is here.

In the film, Williams plays Mitch, the eccentric father of Joel McHale’s Boyd, acting opposite 9-year-old Pierce Gagnon, who plays his grandson Douglas.

In the new clip, which premiered on Entertainment Tonight, Douglas is concerned that there are no cookies or milk to leave out for Santa, so he consults his grandfather, who has a rather unorthodox suggestion.

“I know something that Santa loves a lot more than milk and cookies,” says Mitch.

That something turns out to be bourbon and asparagus.

“A Merry Friggin’ Christmas” opens in theaters and video on demand on November 7.

Maurice Bobb @ReeseReport