The year in pop culture: Misc.

Sometimes you feel like a nut… 

They hung around all year but took a real beating. We’re talking about testicles, of course.

Promoting his movie Jack Reacher,
Tom Cruise told talk show host Jimmy Kimmel that he injured his foot
kicking a guy in the crotch. “There’s a scene where I’m kicking a guy in
the balls,” Cruise recalled. “It was a human being, (but) no testicles
were injured in the making of the film! We had to do the take over and
over again, and the first 10 times it was like ‘Yeah!’ After about 50
times, my foot was swelling… I kept having to loosen my shoe.”

One
of British rugby player Paul Wood’s gonads was a goner after he got a
knee in the groin during an October match between the Warrington Wolves
and Leeds Rhinos. “Just coming out of the hospital to go home,” he
tweeted. “Seriously feel like I’ve left something?”

A video
showing a homeless man in Miami being punched in the crotch while
sleeping was posted online in October with the title: “Hobo Get
Nutchecked.” Cops charged aspiring model Peter Rosello, son of Real Housewives of Miami star
Alexia Echevarria. Rosello struck a deal with prosecutors and agreed to
perform 100 hours of community service in a homeless shelter and to
write a letter of apology to the victim.

In December, we learned
of a $5,000 bounty on Justin Bieber’s testicles as part of a plot to
kill and castrate the pop star. Police allege Dana Martin hired Mark
Staake and Tanner Ruane to abduct, kill and castrate the Biebs during a
concert in New York City in November. Bieber didn’t comment about the
plot (or how he felt about his testicles only being worth $2,500 a pop).

In
the fourth quarter of a December 26 game between the Miami Heat and
Charlotte Bobcats, the Heat’s Dwyane Wade was accused of kicking the
Bobcats’ Ramon Sessions in the balls. Wade wasn’t fouled for the alleged
groin kick but got handed a one-game suspension after the NBA reviewed
the tape.

This guy had killer foresight… 

“I
would expect if I were on trial to have a FAIR trial.” Those are the
words accused killer Luka Magnotta posted online in 2008 to defend porn
star Timothy Boham, who was charged with killing Denver businessman J.P.
Kelso in 2006. “Don’t just judge him on his looks and past and assume
he is a certin (sic) way cause the media says so,” Magnotta wrote at
OMGblog.com on March 2, 2008. “They enjoy sensationalizing everything at
the cost of others and don’t (sic) care who they hurt as long as the
story is a good read.”

Magnotta identified himself as a fellow
porn star and said Boham should be acquitted “due to emotional and
mental issues. Since im (sic) in the same industry I know how hard it
is. This industry sucks you in and spits you out just as fast.” Boham,
who did gay porn under the name Marcus Allen, was convicted in 2009 and
is serving a life sentence.

Lives lost, memories preserved… 

Canada
lost two respected photographers in 2012: Andrew MacNaughtan and Mike
Cassese. MacNaughtan was a renowned celebrity photographer whose work
graced magazines and album covers. He also founded Art Gives Hope, a
charitable organization that supported children in Africa. He died of a
heart attack in January while in Los Angeles working on a project with
Rush. He was 47. “I will miss his kind and generous heart,” singer Jann
Arden tweeted following MacNaughtan’s death.

A heart attack also ended the life of Mike Cassesse, a former Toronto SUN
photographer who shot sports and celebrity events, mostly for Reuters.
He was 53. Cassese’s images captured not only moments in time but awards
of excellence. He is remembered as a soft-spoken man who loved his sons
Daniel and David. His longtime friend and colleague, Fred Thornhill,
told the Toronto SUN: “I remember him as having a big heart and his heart gave out because he gave it all to us.” Toronto Star
photographer Steve Russell summed up Cassese in one sentence. “Mike was
a super nice guy and a great photographer,” he wrote in a message
online.