-Rihanna backstage at Victoria Secret show. (Instagram)

– The best part of yesterday's Victoria Secret runway show was definitely the part where Rihanna took off her clothes and Instagrammed a picture of herself. How are these two things related? God knows.

– Here is that Lana Del Rey music video you've been asking for. Or as we like to call it, "the Lana Del Rey video that is not 'Video Games' or 10 minutes long." It's called "BEL AIR," and it is very Kate Bush, in the sense that they both love fog machines.
http://youtu.be/yq3yT8CkPzY

– We are buying a copy of Save the Assistants for Lindsay Lohan. "Gavin" refused to take the fall for the human train wreck when she told the cops that he was the one who crashed her Porsche into the back of a trailer. Now she's charged with lying to the po-po, and Gavin will have to sleep with one eye open for a while.

– Man Men’s Pete Campbell (aka Vincent Kartheiser) isn't just a hobo living in a cardboard box. He's a hobo living in a cardboard box that gets punched in the face. Like, a lot.

– A Ukrainian singer/possible mail-order bride Aza claims that Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" is a total rip-off of her song "Hunky Santa." Says the pop star(?): "I'm shocked and surprised that these people wanted to sample my lyrics on their song." I mean, she's right. They are totally identical.
http://youtu.be/w0mIgS2yi3k
http://youtu.be/fWNaR-rxAic

Rihanna and Drake, nominated for the "Take Care" video

This morning brought MTV's announcement of its Video Music Awards nominees, with established pop artists like Rihanna and Katy Perry competing with upstarts like Gotye and girl-of-the-moment Carly Rae Jepsen. In the marquee category, Video of the Year, the nominees are:

• Drake ft. Rihanna, "Take Care"
• Gotye ft. Kimbra, "Somebody That I Used to Know"
• M.I.A., "Bad Girls"
• Katy Perry, "Wide Awake"
• Rihanna, "We Found Love"

That's two Rihanna videos (essentially), a lushly overproduced Perryish fantasy of the sort that won last year (with "Firework"), a low-fi YouTube hit, and one completely left-field choice (remember Florence + the Machine first breaching American shores in this category?).

Other notable calls:

• Katy Perry is nominated in "Best Female Video" for a different video, the paramilitary recruiting film "Part of Me" (this is more notably female than "Wide Awake" only according to Lady Macbeth's dictum "Unsex me here" as she strides into battle)
• Critical favorite Frank Ocean is up against three boy bands of varying degrees of boy-bandness and Ms. Jepsen in Best New Artist
• There's now a category for "Electronic Dance Music Video"
• As noted on Twitter, Lil Wayne's devotional ballad to a stripper "How to Love" got nominated as "Best Video With a Message."
• While Lady Gaga's nowhere to be found on the nominations list, internet punching bag Lana Del Rey's "Born to Die" got a few professional nominations. Did you know there's a cinematography category at the VMAs?

Lana Del Rey (Getty Images)

Far, far away from the clutches of Courtney Love, angry Kurt Cobain fans, and Brian Williams, Saturday Night Live failure Lana Del Ray went all the way to Australia to cover Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box." Which is strange, because she wasn't supposed to go on tour till October.

You know what? Good for her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=elcJ83xu1Fw

We mean, she still doesn't know how to move her body...like, at all..but compared to her Saturday Night Live performance, we're willing to be generous and say that this is an improvement.

And hey, they seem to love the queen of Tumblr hate down under. Maybe if she moves there, she could actually get herself a record deal.

In related news, Boy George covered  Ms. Del Rey's only song. Just 'cuz.

President Kennedy, here, is played by rapper A$AP Rocky--and the Lana/Rocky pair is depicted in degraded Presidential tableaux, playing with children and smoking while buttering toast. Lana makes a convincing enough First Lady, in diamonds and blue sheath with big fake lashes, but the video, in appropriating one of the biggest news events of the 20th century to illustrate a song whose lyrics are about money as aphrodisiac, seems button-pushing in a not-very-thought-out manner.

A Google search for "Lana Del Rey National Anthem illuminati" retrieves over 1 million hits.

Last night, at what is widely hyped as the best night in New York fashion, the attendees of the annual gala benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute did not disappoint. Patterns, we saw a few: a lot of black, a lot of neon, a lot of feathers, and a lot of sheer. And Beyonce's dress? We still don't know what to think. See our picks for best and most bewildering are in this slideshow, and read our rundown from the red carpet here.

Lana Del Rey (Getty Images)

After we noted recent news that Lana Del Rey was said to be postponing a spring tour, we received word that she had a long-term master plan!

Per her reps: "Lana told MTV several weeks ago that she plans to tour in October.  There has never been a spring tour announced or cancelled."

They went on! "She's been extremely active in Europe as well in support of Born to Die, which is having historic success in its first week of sales (we'll report on sales numbers tomorrow)."

Those sales numbers put her at #2 on the albums chart, behind only queen of music Adele. See you at the Grammys, Lana!

Lana Del Rey (Getty Images)

Those hoping to catch a glimpse of Lana Del Rey in the flesh shall have to stand outside the gingerbread house in which she lives and attempt to nibble their way in. Sadly, her tour has reportedly been postponed, a casualty of her by-now-legendary-but-only-because-we-all-forgot-Ashlee-Simpson performance on Saturday Night Live.

Pop historians may recall past instances of the called-off tour amid scandal, from Kanye West canceling the "Fame Kills" tour after storming the stage at the VMAs to Christina Aguilera calling off concerts to promote Bionic after that album bombed; in her time spent not touring, we hope Lana Del Rey learns to perform just better enough so that she won't be universally mocked, without losing that which makes her the sort of intriguing curiosity from whom anyone might actually buy tickets.

Lana Del Rey.

Lana Del Rey week continues with the newly unveiled cover of British Vogue, featuring the lippy musician in a Louis Vuitton blouse with the headline "The fascinating Lana Del Rey." Boy, they're not kidding! All who--like Brian Williams--find Ms. Del Rey's success an enigma may find that she has a future in fashion commentary. In an accompanying interview, Ms. Del Rey expounds: "Fashion is inspired by youth and nostalgia and draws inspiration from the best of the past. I think both the song and the collections touch on the light and the dark side of life."

We've already seen Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga covers of American Vogue--could the Internet's favorite chanteuse make a splash with Anna Wintour as well? (We're happy for any press opportunity she gets that isn't Rock Center.)

Happy Lana Del Rey Dey! Via Getty.

Yes, today, Lana Del Rey (the singer formerly known as Lizzy Grant only two hype cycles and one lip injection ago) will see the release of her album.

Despite the fact that 'relevant' tastemakers like Brian Williams, Pitchfork, Hipster Runoff, along with approximately 3/5ths of the people you hear overhear talking about Lana Del Rey all despise her music and/or artifice, and despite the fact that everyone (including The Observer) is tired of hearing about her, the fact is that the people still have yet to render their verdict through purchases and/or illegal downloads of her album.

Vox populi, vox Lana Del Rey.

As such, today is also the day the Lana Del Rey corporate hype machine goes into overdrive. This includes but isn't limited to, of course, internet banner advertising on sites that ideally target Lana Del Rey's presumed audience; for example, a site like Pitchfork Media, which originally gave Ms. Del Rey's single "Video Games" a Best New Single designation. That'd be a great place to advertise her!

Except, not: Ms. Del Rey's album was panned by Pitchfork Media yesterday. Even so, the "ad buy" on the site likely happened weeks ago, and nobody's going to let good advertising go to waste. So instead, Pitchfork Media now looks like a cross between The Lana Del Report and the result of a revenge tactic.

It's really just an obvious ad buy, but it's fun to imagine, and the incedentialism makes the entire thing just funnier and weirder and takes us all further down this veritable K-Hole of pop culture and ideas about "tastemaking" and how the democratization of "cool" is generally leading to the end of it.

This is far from the first time this has happened with the site. When Band of Horses' sophomore album was panned, Band Of Horses' advertising folks bought out all of the site's display unit inventory to fill with their album's banners.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek