News Roundup: Political And Pop Culture Chaos

Last week was a very interesting week in both the political and pop culture world. If you've ever seen the rapid recaps at the beginning of every episode of "Glee," this will be sort of like that. Here is a quick rundown of what's been going on lately.

1. Garry Marshall's passing.

If the name "Garry Marshall" doesn't ring a bell for you, perhaps the name "Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi" will. That's right, Marshall was the man who brought us "The Princess Diaries." He also created the show "Happy Days,"produced the movie "Pretty Woman" and many more. He unfortunately passed on July 19th from complications of pneumonia after a stroke. He was 81 years old.

Above: Marshall with Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway on the set of The Princess Diaries.

2. Kim Kardashian beat Taylor Swift at her own game.

You probably heard about this one, but may be a bit confused. Not to worry! I'll break it down as simply as possible. Kanye West put out a song on his latest album called "Famous." In it, he makes references to Taylor Swift, implying that he made her famous. Swift claims that the lyrics are "misogynistic" and that she had no idea they would be in the song.

The fact that Swift claimed to know nothing about the song prior to its release angered Kim Kardashian. On last week's episode of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," she even said that Taylor knew about the lyrics, and that Kanye called her to confirm that she was OK with it. Kim decided, on "National Snakes Day" (coincidence?), to post to Snapchat the footage of the phone call. In the videos, Swift approves the lyrics, telling Kanye, "I really appreciate you telling me about it, that's really nice." She even says that if asked about it, she would say that she was in on it.

Now, Swift is fed up with the whole situation, saying that she has been "painted as a liar." She also said that she didn't know Kanye would use the word "bitch" in the line. Swift also stated that West did not call in reference to song lyrics, but to ask Swift to release his song on her Twitter account. This is clearly false, based on the footage Kim posted. He even told Swift he cared about her as a friend, not wanting to write any lyrics that didn't make her feel good. I truly don't think he had cruel intentions. I think he knows that his humor may not have been appreciated, so he wanted to reach out and get the "OK" from Taylor.

When it comes down to it, Swift makes her living off of writing about other people. Does she call them up before she lyrically taints every single one of their reputations? No. Do they necessarily want to be written about, or even have a choice? No. Regardless, Taylor made herself look bad by acting like she had no clue about any aspect of the song. Regardless, Kim gave us the receipts and beat "America's Sweetheart" at her own game.

3. Melania versus Michelle

Every college student learns the art of paraphrasing. It is drilled into our heads that taking someone else's words and presenting them as your own is punishable by law. Maybe Melania Trump's speechwriter missed that memo, because Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention was cringe-worthy. An entire paragraph of the speech was taken from the sitting First Lady, Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2008. Here is a side-by-side clip of the two speeches.

It turns out, the woman behind Trump's speech is Meredith McIver. She is a worker for the Trump organization and has come forward as the person responsible for the speech. She has also been criticized in the past for providing inaccurate information in some of Donald Trump's books, which she has co-written. Due to the controversy surrounding Mrs. Trump's speech, McIver has identified herself as the writer, and offered her resignation to Donald Trump. Trump has denied her resignation claiming "people make innocent mistakes."

Just when you thought the situation could not get worse, it got worse. After the convention, Trump tweeted:

The media is spending more time doing a forensic analysis of Melania's speech than the FBI spent on Hillary's emails.

Am I the only one who feels like this presidential election has consisted of 1 percent focusing on real issues and 99 percent immaturity, shady tweets, and Hillary Clinton trying too hard to get the youth vote? I mean... she literally told us to "Pokemon Go To The Polls."

4. One Direction may be going in different directions.

You're probably beyond tired of that joke, but I had to. This news absolutely shattered my heart. As a One Direction fan since the beginning, hearing that Liam signed a record deal with Capitol Records actually made me cry. (I know, I'm not proud of it.) There was a time after Zayn left the band that I thought, That's it. They're gunna break up. Fortunately, they stayed as a foursome. However, 1D fans, we might not be so lucky this time. Harry Styles is currently filming for the film "Dunkirk,"and is rumored to have signed a record deal of his own. Would Liam and Harry be pursuing solo careers, or just solo projects during the One Direction hiatus? According to Liam's sister, he signed a deal so that he didn't have to go two years without making music. Is she implying that at the end of 2017, all four boys will be back with some new music/ a tour? It's just too much to handle.

5. A My Chemical Romance Return?

Well, kind of! It's more like a revival. A few days ago, everyone's inner 2005 selves could be heard screaming around the world. The rock band My Chemical Romance--which has been pretty inactive since 2013-- updated some things on social media. They changed their profile pictures on Facebook and tweeted an eerie video with the iconic intro from "Welcome to the Black Parade." They also restocked some of the merchandise, causing people to ask, are they getting back together? Unfortunately, Gerard Way tweeted that the band is not returning for a tour, but they are re-releasing their album The Black Parade.

"And that's what you missed on 'Glee!'"