9 Halloween Costumes to Commemorate the Year in Pop Culture

By Chris Frey
October 8, 2010

Tabloid train wrecks, reality stars, politicians and fallen athletes are perfect fodder for Halloween. Superficially, they might seem too subtle a costume choice in the face of more lavish traditional get-ups, but these pop culture favorites can still pack a timely punch—hopefully to hilarious effect. We’re here to help with a few of the small details to guarantee no one mistakes your Snookie for Kim Kardashian.

Oprah Winfrey

eBay users (and everyone else) are all abuzz about Oprah on this, the 25th and final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show: listings of items with the term are up 16 percent in a recent week vs. a week-long period approximately one year ago, while sales are up 96 percent in the same period.

The audience for the season premiere of Oprah's show was treated to an all-expense-paid trip to Australia, announced with the help of John Travolta and a mocked up Qantas airline jet. We thought it fitting, should you decide to embody the queen of daytime for Halloween this year, that a bag of money should be on-hand to toss liberally and randomly throughout the night.

Roll over items for details

New Play Money

(buy it now price, $24.95)

Oprah Winfrey

9 Halloween Costumes to Commemorate the Year in Pop Culture

(Photo by James Devaney/WireImage)

Kim Kardashian

Following Paris Hilton is way over. These days it’s all about out "Keeping up with the Kardashians." Whether you can pronounce it or not, you’ve probably seen the name in print—and on eBay, where listings with the term "Kim Kardashian," the most buzzed about of the clam, have more than doubled and sales have increased six-fold in a recent week vs. a week-long period approximately one year ago.

Kim Kardashian stars with her mother, two sisters, brother, half sisters and stepfather Olympic Champion Bruce Jenner in this reality series that documents their wealthy L.A. lives. Men want to be with Kim, women want to look like her and we have one item that will get you that much closer to the much admired Kardashian posterior.

New Padded Panty Pads

(buy it now price, $27.18)

Kim Kardashian

(Photo by Florian Seefried/Getty Images)

Joaquin Phoenix

The jig is up for Joaquin Phoenix, who recently admitted on the "David Letterman Show" that his documentary film "I’m Still Here" was indeed a hoax—a yearlong exploration into the craft method acting, one might say. In that year, his bloated, bearded, dreadlocked persona became tabloid fodder, and it was hard not to look. But despite the disheveled appearance, Phoenix was nevertheless rocking designer Tom Ford “Jack” sunglasses, day in and day out.

New Tom Ford Sunglasses

(buy it now price, $218.99)

Joaquin Phoenix

(Photo by Donna Ward/Getty Images)

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton made headlines recently when she donned a dime store hair clip to the United Nations. The silver or clear (experts dispute) clip can be found in just about any drug store but what you won’t readily find is one of Hillary’s signature sapphire blue power suits. Ladies, this is your anti-sexy-nurse Halloween getup. Proceed with caution.

Royal Blue Pants Suit

(buy it now price, $30)

Hilary Clinton

(Photo credit should read STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)

The Jersey Shore

It’s possible that you haven’t heard of "The Jersey Shore"—that is if you don’t own a television or use a grocery store check-out aisle. The 20-something cast in all its alcohol-fueled glory has been splattered across the pages of every tabloid on the newsstand. If we didn’t know The Situation, Snookie and Jwoww were the names of real people, we might assume the show was based on comic book characters. And in many ways the garish clothes, jewelry and makeup are as cartoonish as it gets. One thing’s for sure, there is no attempting this look without a tan. A very very deep tan.

New Airbrush Spray Tan

(buy it now price, $88)

Jersey Shore

(Photo by Frank Micelotta/Getty Images)

Troy Polamalu

Troy Polamalu has been a football hero for years. His long curly black locks cascading out from under his Pittsburgh Steelers helmet give him warrior-like status. This year Head and Shoulders insured his Samoan locks for 1 million dollars. It may take several layered wigs to truly achieve what Polamalu was born with but here’s a start.

New Curly Black Wig

(buy it now price, $14.99)

Troy Polamalu

(Photo by Peter Read Miller /Sports Illustrated/Getty Images)

Lindsay Lohan

Everyone is asking, “When will Lindsay Lohan get it together?” Meanwhile her court appearances have kept paparazzi occupied. Runny eyeliner, ratty blond hair extensions, messages written on her fingernails that we can’t repeat here and of course, the SCRAM bracelet are all part of the drama. We couldn’t find an official SCRAM, but pair one of these ankle weights with some platforms pumps and you’re on you’re well on your way to house arrest ingénue.

New Ankle Weights

(buy it now price, $31.25)

Lindsay Lohan

(Photo by Amy Graves/Contributor)

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga took her always-outlandish costumes to a new extreme last month, wearing a dress made of meat to the MTV Video Music Awards. There, she cheekily asked Cher to hold her "meat purse" while she accepted her award. We love the idea of a fake meat dress, or even a Gaga-meets-Carmen-Miranda getup with a cornucopia of other plastic culinary delights in the mix. Check out the Gaga options on eBay, where listings with the term "Lady Gaga" have increased five-fold and sales have increased seven-fold in a recent week-long period compared to a week-long period approximately one year ago.

New Fake T-Bone Steak

(buy it now price, $4.85)

Lady Gaga

(Photo by Kevin Mazur/Contributor)

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods was this year’s good-boy-gone bad; and very bad at that. We suspect that although the media coverage has slowed down, there will be plenty of folks out there ready to take a stab at his now tainted image. We’ll never really know what happened that night with his Cadillac Escaladem but we know you can’t go Tiger without a club.