Pop Culture Tracker: Playoffs and Plastic Surgery

By Karen Bard
January 22, 2010

This week, between anticipating Sunday's playoff game, shopping for shoes and staring open-mouthed at Heidi Montag complete do-over in People, our Pop Culture Expert's head is spinning.

Minnesota Vikings

For Green Bay fans, it was a cold day in hell when longtime star quarterback Brett Favre trekked across the Midwestern tundra to play for the Minnesota Vikings. (This after two attempts at retirement and a brief stint with the New York Jets.) This season, the Vikings, led by Favre, have been the hottest tickets in town—in the coldest climate, nonetheless. eBay has seen sets of playoff tickets go for $2,200, and Brett Favre has been one of the most popular keyword searches related to the team. After a big win over the Cowboys, the Vikings will face off against the New Orleans Saints this Sunday for a shot at the Super Bowl.

The eBay Stats: 1,688,715 Minnesota Vikings-related items were offered and $1,988,701 in sales have occured in the past 90 days; on January 14th, a Brett Favre 1991 Wild Card PSA Rookie Football card sold for $3,200 after 21 bids

On our Shopping List: Two Luxury Suite Tickets to the NFC Championships, Saints vs. Vikings (buy it now price, $3,500); a Brett Favre Vikings Jersey

Oxford Shoes

Call them what you want—brogues, wingtips, spectators, oxfords—they come in many different styles and monikers, but one thing is the same: these old school shoes are haute again. Business dudes are always in ‘em, but these days, the gals are pairing them with rolled-up boyfriend jeans or a skirt to create a British school-girl style that is classic yet fresh. The style has been seen on celebs as diverse as Sienna Miller, Kristen Stewart, Olivia Palermo, and Emma Watson and Agyness Dean. Call me crazy, but I think the best part about the resurgence of this style is the comfort factor. If the ladies can rotate the heels out and the oxfords in, perhaps they will save themselves trips to the podiatrist in the future.

The eBay Stats: 1,136,997 Oxford shoe items were offered and $361,112 sales have occured in the past 90 days; a pair of Chloe high heeled oxfords was the highest selling style at $400

On our Shopping List: Anthropologie Pour La Victoir Oxfords (starting bid, $50), Steve Madden Women's Tuxedo Oxfords (buy it now price, $69.97)

Heidi Montag

Some people define a makeover as a new haircut or a different shade of lipstick. But if you’re cele-reality star Heidi Montag Pratt, you go out and get 10 plastic surgeries in one day. The small-town starlet hit the Hollywood scene hard when she joined the cast of MTV’s The Hills back in 2006. Sweet Heidi quickly became the show villainess when she hooked up with her good-fur-nuthin’ now husband, Spencer Pratt. The terrible twosome racked up enemies and cheesy photo-ops like Lindsay Lohan goes through men. Heidi slowly morphed from a jean skirt wearing preppy to a mini-skirted vixen with a plastic surgery habit. Most recently, she is stirring the pot with her People magazine cover where she professes she is “addicted to plastic surgery.” Shocking before and after photos show how she transformed her already-altered self into a radically manufactured vessel. The cover may become a collector’s item in the future, since this girl is clearly going to keep up with this bad habit. Someone call the producers of Intervention.

The eBay Stats: 3,654 Heidi Montag items were offered and $1,493 in Heidi Montag related sales total sales have occured in the past 90 day; a photo of a pre-surgery, bikini clad Heidi and shirtless spencer sold signed by both stars sold for $59.99 in November

On our Shopping List: Heidi's People Cover (buy it now price, $9.99); an Autographed Heidi-in-a-Bikini (Pre-Surgery) Photo (starting bid, $3.01)

**Image Credits from top: Brett Favre (Photo by Rob Tringali/Sportschrome/Getty Images); Brett Favre and Minnesota Vikings (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images); Kristen Stewart (Photo by Victor Chavez/WireImage); Emma Watson (Photo by Marcel Thomas/FilmMagic); Heidi Montag (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)**

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