Robert Blake, who has had both a spinning top out of control and in the driver’s seat career as an actor in Hollywood, celebrates his 80th birthday today.

With a career that is at once tumultuous, cloaked and uncloaked in mystery and tragedy, a craft that is chameleonic and riveting, hilarious and warm, tough and unrelenting, Robert Blake still remains not a footnote in Hollywood’s rich history, but more like a boot stomp. As a child star in films, he charmed audiences, albeit sometimes to the point of ad nauseum, as part of the latter day incarnation of Hal Roach’s popular youth gone wild comedy shorts The Little Rascals as Mickey (Blake’s real name is Mickey Gubitosi). A few decades later, he became a glistening crystallization of a criminal in Truman Capote’s bloodstains-on-violets true story In Cold Blood, and then the role that defined his career, Baretta, a wisecracking LA cop with a style and substance that was on equal footing and gleaned almost from a New York attitude which lay in concert with the laid back grimy idyllic Los Angeles circa 1970s. The role and the series became a big hit and won Blake an Emmy award. He then followed this up with stints as a very Baretta-like Priest on television once again in Hell Town, which was replete with all the clichés, yet the Blake tough unapologetic heart of gold character he became associated with. Movies like Lost Highway and the mid-’80s TV miniseries Blood Feud, in which Blake gave a galvanizing performance as the Teamster kingpin Jimmy Hoffa, kept the actor enough in the public eye to be a constant.

A while back, Nicolas Cage was said to be in the mix for a role in The Expendables 3, but nothing ever came of it. Instead, it’s being reported that Kelsey Grammer has joined the cast, and will be playing the role that Cage was rumored to be up for.

Grammer will be playing an ex-mercenary named Bonaparte who helps the Expendables with their mission. The actor also recently signed on to play the villain in Transformers 4.

RIPT Apparel has two designs on sale today where the minions of Despicable Me invade Star Wars: “Despicable Jawas” by DJKopet and “Empiracle Me” by nikholmes.

The shirts went on sale at RIPT today, Wednesday, September 18, 2013, at midnight CST, and will continue for 24 hours from then, and once it’s over, it will not be sold on the site anymore.

The t-shirt is available in men’s (through 3XL), women’s, and youth sizes for $10 each. Kids sizes are $10 (Girls, Toddlers, and Onesies); Hoodies for $38 (in Men/Unisex sizes). See images on product page for shirt color choices. You can also get the design on coasters for $25; iphone (4/4s & 5) cases for $18; and prints (18″x24″) for $20. If you purchase both designs, you’ll save $1.

The $11 t-shirt deal of the day over at TeeFury today is called “Regeneration Tessellation” by Obvian and is inspired the BBC television series Doctor Who.

The sale began at Teefury today, Wednesday, September 18, 2013, at midnight EST, and will continue for 24 hours from then, and once it’s over, it will not be sold on the site for $11 anymore, though it will continue into the next day for $14 (look for the After Hours bar at the top).

The network that imagines greater has been on a new show tear lately. Unfortunately many of these new projects are reality shows but there are standouts still such as Ron Moore’s upcoming Helix. Syfy has also officially announced today that they have acquired a werewolf drama called Bitten. The series from Entertainment One is based on the popular book series Women of the Otherworld written by Kelley Armstrong.

The network has acquired the first season of the Canadian television series and has it slated to premiere in 2014. The first season will consist of 13 hour-long episodes. The story focuses on Elena Michaels, the world’s only female werewolf. Laura Vandervoort (Smallville, Ted) will be playing the lead role.