We'd like to say we're far past being shocked by what Miley Cyrus wears, but we've got to hand it to the girl: she sure knows how to turn heads.

Ever since the 19-year-old chopped off her long hair, she's been stretching her legs in the style department. A goth look for the grocery store? Fine with Miley. A shaved head on the red carpet? Even better. No top? No problem. Most recently, the newly-engaged star stepped out in Los Angeles in a particularly interesting look.

While on her way to a recording studio on Friday, the future Mrs. Liam Hemsworth tried loud, printed leggings, a crop top, a gold "Miley" necklace and some of the chunkiest thigh-high boots we've ever seen (her shoe of choice, apparently). And while we have no problem with fashion experimentation, something about this look is a little overwhelming for us. Trend overload, perhaps?

We may remain unconvinced of the merits of this outfit, but what about you? Check out the photo and tell us what you think.

Earlier this week, the much-anticipated trailer for Iron Man 3 debuted. Unfortunately, our requests to discuss the trailer with the star Robert Downey Jr. were denied. (This is a lie, we never asked.) But, the good news is that we may have the next best thing: our old friend The Chitauri Warrior from The Avengers. So, let's find out what he's been doing since our last visit and maybe just get a scoop or two about Iron Man 3.

(Also, you're welcome, nobody.)

Thanks for joining me, Chitauri Warrior.
You're welcome. And, please, call me Steven.

I thought you went by Steve.
My agent felt that Steven the Chitauri Warrior sounded classier than Steve the Chitauri Warrior. Also, apparently there's already a "Steve the Chitauri Warrior" in SAG.

So, Steven, what did you think of the Iron Man 3 trailer?
I think there's a misunderstanding, I was not under the impression we'd be talking about Iron Man 3.

But that's why we wanted to talk to you today. You know, we were thinking that you could break it down for us with all of your insider knowledge.
[Silence]

Chitauri Warrior?
Look, compared to other Chitauri Warriors, I'm a pretty easy Chitauri to get along with. But I was told that I was here to talk about my upcoming appearance on Chicago Fire.

Oh, sorry for the confusion, Chitauri Warrior. OK, who do you play on Chicago Fire?
I play a human being who is in a building that is on fire.

How did you get this role?
Well, a good friend of mine, David Faustino, knows one of the producers and he put us in touch. David is a great guy.

How did you approach your role on Chicago Fire in comparison to how you prepared for The Avengers?
Well, for one, when I was in The Avengers, I didn't realize that it was a movie. I mean, I really thought I was invading Earth. They didn't let us in on the fact that it was all fiction until after shooting was complete.

Is this why you don't want to talk about Iron Man 3?
Do you want to know the reason? To be honest, I just don't like the guy.

Tony Stark?
Tony Stark is a fictional character. I'm talking about Robert Downey Jr.

Wait, he seems so charming. Why would you say that, Chitauri Warrior?
I let a lot of things go. When The Hulk punched my friend, Mitch, in the face ... I didn't hold a grudge. In fact, when I've seen Lou Ferrigno around town, we've had very pleasant conversations ...

Wait, Lou Ferrigno didn't play Hulk in ...
But the one thing I can't accept is intolerance.

What are you trying to say?
Between invasion rounds -- I later found out these were "takes" -- I overheard Downey make a snide remark about the comedic stylings of Sinbad. If there's one thing that the Chitauri love, it's Sinbad.

Are you in Iron Man 3, Chitauri Warrior?
Yes, but it's hard to see me.

Oh, who are you playing?
In the trailer, do you know that scene in which a helicopter shoots a missile that destroys Tony Stark's house? I'm the one flying the helicopter. This scene was never in the final script, that's just me acting on my own accord because of the Sinbad comments. Later, I learned they decided to keep it in the movie.

Colin Powell's former chief of staff condemned the Republican Party on Friday night, telling MSNBC's Ed Schultz, "My party is full of racists."

Retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson made the comment in response to Mitt Romney campaign surrogate John Sununu's suggestion on Thursday that Powell's endorsement of President Barack Obama's re-election was motivated by race. Wilkerson, who served as Powell's chief of staff when the general was secretary of state during the first George W. Bush term, told Schultz that he respected Sununu "as a Republican, as a member of my party," but did not "have any respect for the integrity of the position that [Sununu] seemed to codify."

When asked by Schultz what, if anything, the remark said about the attitudes of the Republican Party, Wilkerson said:

    My party, unfortunately, is the bastion of those people -- not all of them, but most of them -- who are still basing their positions on race. Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists, and the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin, and that's despicable.

The retired colonel also said that "to say that Colin Powell would endorse President Obama because of his skin color is like saying Mother Theresa worked for profit."

Powell, a Republican, endorsed Obama for the second time on Thursday morning -- he also backed the president in 2008 -- saying on CBS' "This Morning" that he was "more comfortable with President Obama and his administration" than with Romney on a host of issues.

Sununu, no stranger to incendiary rhetoric this election cycle, reacted to the endorsement on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight," saying that "when you take a look at Colin Powell, you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama."

Obama himself dismissed Sununu's suggestion on Friday, telling radio host Michael Smerconish:

    Any suggestion that Gen. Powell would make such a profound statement in such an important election based on anything but what he thought was what's going to be best for America doesn't make much sense.


Sununu backed off his remarks shortly after his CNN appearance, issuing a statement that said Powell is a friend and, “I respect the endorsement decision he made, and I do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the President’s policies."

U2 frontman Bono may be one of the world's highest-profile musicians, but you wouldn't know it from the low profile his family tends to take. Case in point: The rocker's 21-year-old daughter, Eve Hewson, who's been building an acting career in an understated, non-splashy fashion. Not too many people are familiar with Hewson's stunning looks--have you seen her before?

The beautiful blue-eyed brunette--the second-oldest of Bono and wife Ali Hewson's four children--stunned onlookers in New York at a screening of her new film, This Must Be The Place, which co-stars Sean Penn and Frances McDormand.

The movie competed at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and will go into limited release domestically on November 2. Hewson plays the teenaged Mary, a friend to Penn's portrayal of an aging Dublin rock star seeking revenge for his father's torment at the hands of a Nazi guard.

The Irish-born Hewson, who lives in Brooklyn, made her feature-length acting debut in the 2008 drama The 27 Club. She also features prominently in Irish band the Script's music video "For The First Time."

reaking news on Benghazi: the CIA spokesman, presumably at the direction of CIA director David Petraeus, has put out this statement: "No one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need; claims to the contrary are simply inaccurate. ”
Barack Obama

So who in the government did tell “anybody” not to help those in need? Someone decided not to send in military assets to help those Agency operators. Would the secretary of defense make such a decision on his own? No.

It would have been a presidential decision. There was presumably a rationale for such a decision. What was it? When and why—and based on whose counsel obtained in what meetings or conversations—did President Obama decide against sending in military assets to help the Americans in need?

Sofia Vergara, we know you know you're sexy. You wear curve-hugging dresses like it's your job, tweet out your NSFW wardrobe malfunctions and have the guts to tell interviewers, "I know [my breasts] have opened doors for me, let’s be real."

But in case we'd forgotten, the "Modern Family" star stepped out on Wednesday night in a dress that showed off her stunning figure... because it was almost short enough to be a shirt. The occasion was a VIP reception for Domingo Zapatas, a hot new artist whose latest work includes covering Vergara with body paint -- which seems apropos, given that Vergara's dress for the event was practically painted on.

Paired with black tights and boots, Sofia's frock, while stunning, begs the question (and accompanying flowchart): "Am I Wearing A Dress?" The chart, a riff off the beloved "Am I Wearing Pants?" chart published last year, acts as a cheat sheet for women getting dressed in dresses so short they might as well be shirts.

It was also the first thing we thought of when we glimpsed Sofia's latest outfit.

So check out the actress below and follow the chart: is Sofia really wearing a dress?

Adding another wild-card to the 2012 campaign’s final days, a former aide to Vice President Joe Biden has written a tell-all Washington memoir in which he lacerates the former Delaware senator as an “egomaniacal autocrat” who was “determined to manage his staff through fear.”

The book is hardly an objective study of the vice president, however. Author Jeff Connaughton, a Biden Senate staffer turned lobbyist, is by his own admission deeply disillusioned with the capital and embittered about his experience with the man who inspired him to enter politics.

Connaughton wrote “The Payoff,” which came out last month, in the fashion of guilt-racked whistle-blower: he was a party to a corrupt system and now wants to blow the lid off the game.

“I came to D.C. a Democrat and left a plutocrat,” he confesses.

As chief of staff to former Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), Biden’s successor, Connaughton was radicalized by his unsuccessful experience trying to get an amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill that would have broken up the country’s largest banks. So he left Washington politics and wrote what he believes is the unvarnished truth about the country’s political system. The big reveal: Big banks control both parties.

“It’s time people understand why – and how – Wall Street always wins,” Connaughton writes at the outset of his book.

He is harshly critical of his own party and the Obama administration, arguing that the president is no different than most other Washington Democrats in his willingness to kowtow to Wall Street.

President Obama and Biden, he writes, are “both financially illiterate.”

“The Payoff” is every bit the cri de coeur of a man who, as he writes, is “willing to burn every bridge” in order to indict the transactional Washington lobbying and political culture. (After Kaufman’s term ended, Connaughton fled D.C. and moved to Savannah, Ga.)

But the book is also a reprise of the familiar cautionary tale about an idealistic young politico who came to Washington to make a difference but went native – and was let down by the powerful man he looked up to.

Time and again, over the course of decades, Connaughton tells of being disappointed in Biden or not receiving the treatment he felt he was due. He doesn’t hide his sour grapes - he’s up front about his unhappiness and that he never gained the full trust of the former Delaware senator.

“Only a handful of people ever made it into his inner circle,” he writes, adding: “I simply wasn’t one of the chosen.”

What’s remarkable about the book is the lengths that Connaughton goes to portray his former boss and political idol in a bad light, piling up embarrassing anecdotes and examples of when Biden couldn’t be bothered to help one of his own aides.

This weekend, a nearly three-hour long movie called Cloud Atlas will open in theaters. Cloud Atlas is based on a book (that takes more than three hours to read) also titled Cloud Atlas. The film version stars a plethora of actors that you've heard of -- Tom Hanks (The Man With One Red Shoe), Halle Berry (Boomerang) and Hugh Grant (Mickey Blue Eyes) -- but, does that ensure your enjoyment of Cloud Atlas? As a service, we answer every question that you could possibly have about Cloud Atlas.

Q: If I haven't read Cloud Atlas, will I understand Cloud Atlas?

A: I have not read the book, yet I was never particularly more confused than I am during any other movie. (Full disclosure: I'm easily confused.)

Q: Is this the movie that Republicans like?

A: You're thinking of Atlas Shrugged (and, unrelated, Boiler Room).

Q: At nearly three hours, does Cloud Atlas feel like a three hour movie?

A: Yes, it does. Maybe a little longer.

Q: Does this mean that Cloud Atlas is boring?

A: No. Though, it is dense. I mean, there's a lot going on in this movie. It's actually one of the most remarkable films that I've ever seen. But just because something is remarkable doesn't necessarily mean that it's also an enjoyable experience.

Q: What are the chances that someone at Warner Bros. is thinking about using, "One of the most remarkable films that I've ever seen," as a pull quote?

A: 35 percent.

Q: Can you make a bad analogy that not at all relates to what we're discussing to explain what you mean by that?

A: Sure. A black hole is certainly remarkable. But the process of being spaghettified by that black hole once crossing over the event horizon is not an enjoyable experience. (I assume.)

Q: What is Cloud Atlas about?

A: Ha.

Q: Are you not going to explain the plot of Cloud Atlas?

A: Oh, you.

Q: OK, can you at lest summarize the plot of Cloud Atlas in less than 100 words?

A: Oh, good grief, fine. There are six stories that are all loosely related: A post-apocalyptic journey to a mountaintop; a late '70s journalistic investigation of a corrupt nuclear power plant; the process of composing the perfect piece of music; the freeing of a slave; an escape from a retirement home; and a futuristic clone's fight for freedom.

Q: You have 43 more words.

A: I'll pass.

Q: Well, who does Tom Hanks portray in Cloud Atlas?

A: It might be easier to explain who he doesn't portray. The actors in Cloud Atlas portray multiple roles.

Q: Was a good amount of your time watching Cloud Atlas spent thinking to yourself, Wait, who is THAT?

A: It's almost impossible not to play the "which famous actor is in the crazy makeup" game while watching Cloud Atlas.

Q: What did you assume that you would never see, yet you saw it in Cloud Atlas?

A: Hugh Grant wearing war paint on his face.

Q: What's the best thing about Cloud Atlas?

A: Jim Broadbent's escape attempt from a retirement home.

Q: What's the worst thing about Cloud Atlas?

A: An annoying creature of some sort that haunts Tom Hanks throughout the film.

Q: Hooch?

A: No. Hooch was a nuisance, but not particularly annoying. Hugo Weaving portrays a goblin, or something, that constantly taunts Hanks' post-apocalyptic character.

Tyrann Mathieu's chances of returning to LSU's football team took a serious hit Thursday when the 2011 Heisman Trophy finalist and three other former Tigers players were arrested on drug-related charges.

Mathieu and former LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson were charged with simple possession of marijuana, the Baton Rouge police department said in a release.

Former Tigers linebacker Karnell Hatcher also was charged with simple possession while former defensive back Derrick Bryant faces the most serious charge of possession with intent to distribute and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to police spokesman Don Kelly.

Known as the "Honey Badger," Mathieu was kicked off the team in August for failing multiple drug tests. He returned to the school as a regular student, hoping to earn a second chance at returning to the team.

But Thursday's arrest greatly narrows the chances of such a return for Mathieu, who would have been a junior this year and was suspended last season for failing a drug test for synthetic marijuana.

According to the police report, officers found the marijuana in Mathieu's apartment Thursday afternoon. Mathieu answered the door, and officers "immediately smelled a strong odor of marijuana," the police report stated.

After Mathieu, 20, gave the police his consent to search the apartment, officers discovered a marijuana grinder, a digital scale and 10 bags of high-grade marijuana, including seven in Bryant's backpack, according to the report.

Police say they were called to the apartment complex after receiving a complaint about a man, who later was identified as the 22-year-old Jefferson, forcing his way through the security gate before going to Mathieu's apartment.

Les Miles expected there to be a happy ending for Tyrann Mathieu. But after the ex-LSU cornerback's latest arrest, that's unlikely to come in Baton Rouge, writes

It was the second arrest for Jefferson, the starting quarterback on last season's team that lost to Alabama in the BCS National Championship game.

A three-year starter, Jefferson missed the first three games last season after being arrested for his involvement in a bar fight during August camp. He was reinstated to the team after charges against him were reduced to a misdemeanor.

Lance Unglesby, Jefferson's lawyer in the misdemeanor criminal case, said a discovery hearing in that matter is scheduled next week. He said his client has always maintained his innocence in the bar fight.

"My opinion that Jordan is a fine young man remains the same," Unglesby said.

Unglesby said he had not yet been provided with any details of Jefferson's latest arrest, but stressed, "All individuals are presumed innocent and I look forward to the opportunity to examine the facts of this case to find out what really happened."

It was not immediately known whether Mathieu, Hatcher or Bryant had lawyers.

Hatcher was a linebacker who started last season until losing his starting job to current starter Kevin Minter. Bryant played sparingly but had a significant role in LSU's 2011 win over Auburn, playing after the suspension of Mathieu created a need for LSU in its nickel package.