Have you heard? Soon you'll be able to call up art wonder Damien Hirst directly to purchase his terribly overpriced, overhyped work. Hirst "is causing even more of a stir with this auction because he's cutting out art dealer middlemen, and selling directly to collectors. Dealers take 40 to 60 percent of an artist's sale, but in this case his two big dealers in New York and London, Jay Jopling and Larry Gagosian, gave their blessings to his radical steps to shut them out." Blessings? Oh, sure, Gagosian sounds thrilled. [NYP]

• Kyle MacLachlan and Desiree Gruber are officially parents. The Desperate Housewives actor and Project Runway executive producer had a son named Callum Lyon MacLachlan on Friday. [Us]

Famous artperson Damien Hirst may sell the jeans he makes for $80,000, but he has some t-shirts that are much more affordable. They're 30 pounds, which is slightly less than $80,000. The catch is that all the money goes to support the ominous RED (Global Fund), the celebrity-infused charity that is either saving the world, or plotting to take it over on the low. The shirts feature works of art that the diamond skull craftsman auctioned off earlier to support that charity. Overall, I'm pretty afraid of them. But if you like butterflies, or pills, or balloon animals, you might like the ones after the jump. Cause hey, celebrity artist on your shirt, right?

Artist of our age Damien Hirst must have a busy schedule, what with all the shark embalming and gluing little diamonds onto skulls and bidding on white truffles. But he's determined to make sure that his art remains within reach of the common people, who wear jeans and patronize over-the-top art world events. So he teamed up with all-American brand Levis—and the Andy Warhol licensing machine—to design some jeans that anyone can buy, assuming they have $80,000 (really) to spend on psychedelic pants. After the jump, photos of Hirst's new clothing items from last weekend's opening in LA. The smart consumer will wait until these go on sale at Filene's.

"Art" is just another headline-filler word for "amazing." At least for children, who are the future, and geeks, who are the new trendsetter-influencer-coolhunters. Since K-12 art education is virtually dead, and no one reads books, these heavy Internet users have no preconceptions of art and they don't follow that world's big names. A new Cy Twombly or Lucien Freud painting won't get attention on Digg (Chris Ofili maybe, for the controversy), but a painted Lamborghini is one of the social news site's all-time favorite "art" posts. But it's not all bad. The Diggbrow movement isn't destroying art any more than the Dadaists or post-modernists did; it's reinventing it.

In many ways British artist Damien Hirst is like Richard Pryor in Brewster's Millions, except less black and less funny. But Hirst, like Pryor, has a ton of cash and needs to spend it in seemingly ridiculous and prodigal ways! Hirst's latest cash wad is wending its way back out of his bank account; it arrived from the sale of his $100-million diamond-encrusted skull, "For the Love of God." How is he spending it? By bidding on white truffles, of course. Duh!

Tomorrow night, "30 dead sheep, one dead shark, two sides of beef, 300 sausages, a pair of doves" by the artist Damien Hirst will be unveiled in the lobby of the Lever House. The Times says there will be a party for 2,000 people but a Nadine Johnson rep who is handling the party says that is incorrect: There will only be 200 folks invited. That's more sheep than people. This means that for at least 3 hours on a winter night, the Lever House will totally take after New Zealand. [NYT]

You read Us Weekly for the articles. You can't help but be interested in what Lindsay Lohan snorted, ran her car into or slept with this week. But, you went to college, you read the new Chabons and Lethems as soon as they come out! You're not a vapid person! Good news: Celebrity is not only a major driver of the economy, it's a subject worthy of academic scrutiny. University of Southern California professor Elizabeth Currid, PhD., explains the sociology of fame and pop culture.