'12 Years a Slave,' Banksy, Chris Brown and Lou Reed by the numbers

1/10

Actress Julianne Hough elicited boos for her Halloween costume, and it wasn’t just because of the holiday. The star drew immediate criticism for darkening her face to dress up as “Orange Is the New Black’s” Crazy Eyes, a character played by a black actress. She later apologized on Twitter.

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and his wife played it safe(r) with their pop culture nod as Robin Thicke and Miley Cyrus from the MTV Video Music Awards this year. (Charles Sykes / Associated Press)

2/10

Clooney stepped forward to publicly assert that he’s flying solo these days, in response to rumors of a courtship with either Katie Holmes, Croatian model Monika Jakisic or lawyer Amal Alamuddin. According to his rep, the “Gravity” actor came forward “in the interest of stopping the harassment of all three of these women.” Another gentlemanly showing. So it’s no wonder, Mr. Clooney, that the media are curious as to whether you’re taken. (Evan Agostini / Associated Press)

3/10

If the first step to recovery is recognizing one’s own issues, Brown has taken a leap. The singer has admitted himself to a Malibu rehab clinic after his arrest over a physical altercation in Washington, D.C. Brown, still on probation for assaulting ex-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009, will spend time there to focus on preventing future flare-ups, his rep said. (Frederic J. Brown/ AFP / Getty Images)

4/10

Influential rocker Lou Reed died Sunday due to complications from a liver transplant he received in May. In a statement after the operation, the former Velvet Underground frontman had said he looked “forward to being onstage and performing.” Reed’s most recent work was the album “Lulu,” a collaboration with heavy-metal band Metallica. (Greg Wood / AFP / Getty Images)

5/10

Copyright law has been hazy surrounding Thicke’s mega-hit, “Blurred Lines.” Marvin Gaye’s family has sued the R&B crooner, claiming that his single ripped off his soulful predecessor’s songs “Got to Give It Up” and “Love After War.” Thicke and producer Pharrell Williams took legal action earlier this year to protect themselves from these types of claims — apparently to no avail. (Paul A. Hebert / Associated Press)

6/10

“We’re wonderful. We’re unbreakable,” the basketball player said. Lamar was spotted with Khloe at a Kanye West concert, following a long swirl of rumors about infidelity and breakups resulting from an alleged struggle with drugs. Odom reportedly has been sober for several weeks. (Michael Buckner / Getty Images)

7/10

The reality TV star recorded a special Valentine’s Day with hubby Dean McDermott in 2009, and there’s someone who’s interested in the footage. Steve Hirsch of Vivid Video says he’ll throw more than six figures on the table — is it an offer she can’t refuse? “This is a serious offer for a real tape, and it could yield significant returns to help you through your difficult financial situation,” Hirsch wrote, alluding to an earlier interview in which Spelling revealed the couple’s inability to pay for McDermott’s vasectomy. A Spelling source said there’s no way she’d go for it. (Stefano Paltera / For the Times)

8/10

The model-actress is finally ready to talk about the affair that destroyed her marriage after then-husband Rupert Sanders was caught locking lips with his “Snow White and the Huntsman” star Kristen Stewart. “I think, for me, something always has to completely die for there to be a rebirth,” she said. “And, for me, I feel like I’m going through a rebirth.” (Imeh Akpanudosen / Getty Images)

9/10

Pauly D is excited about his newborn daughter, but he can’t see her. News about the 5-month-old girl, the result of a one-night stand, broke last week, and since then the “Jersey Shore” alum’s visitation requests have been denied or ignored. “Pauly wanted to pick up my daughter and keep her for two weeks, not even giving me specific locations or anything,” the mother said. “They didn’t even bother to ask if I’m breastfeeding, what her diet is, or anything like that! All the request said is that Pauly wants to pick up Amabella tomorrow and he’ll return her Nov. 13.” (Mark Davis / Getty Images )

10/10

While newly engaged lovebirds Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have kept details about their daughter, North, heavily guarded, they seem eager to spill dish about their upcoming wedding. The fete will be in the summer, and according to the elated groom, guests should expect something along the lines of “fighter jets” overhead. The new mom says she cares less about the celebrations proceedings than she does the location. Paris? Italy? We’re keeping close tabs. (Pierre Andrieu / AFP / Getty Images)

By Chris Lee

Nov. 2, 2013 7 AM PT

“Torture numbers and they will confess to anything,” author-essayist Gregg Easterbrook famously observed in a 1999 magazine article on climate change.

But over the course of a seven-day span that found the Boston Red Sox World Series champions, Justin Bieber a newly minted graffiti artist and German chancellor Angela Merkel the victim of NSA cellphone trolling, raw numerical data provided a handy entry to entertainmentdom’s tectonic shifts and sad passings.

This past week by the numbers:

615,000: The dollar amount for which “The Banality of the Banality of Evil,” a landscape painting doctored by the notorious guerrilla artist Banksy, recently sold at auction. Proceeds from the sale of the artwork, dropped off anonymously at a Housing Works Thrift Shop, benefit a charity fighting to end AIDS and homelessness while making an arch, meta-narrative joke out of artwork, charity and Banksy’s own infamy.

PHOTOS: Movie Sneaks 2013

“Banality” was the Brit-art rapscallion’s most remunerative effort in a month-long “artist’s residency on the streets of New York” entitled “Better Out Than In,” which concluded Thursday with an “inflatable throw up on the Long Island Expressway.”

The graffiti stunt-social experiment-prank managed to make no small number of big points. While punking the public, and inspiring flash mobs and untold Instagram posts over a sustained 31-day period, the artist generally made New Yorkers (or at least, Banksy-obsessed denizens of the Big Apple) seem like so many self-absorbed fanboy looky-loos.

400: The number of theaters into which the searing historical drama “12 Years a Slave” expanded Friday, after robust box-office returns in its limited-release theatrical run. Since debuting theatrically Oct. 18, the acclaimed film -- directed by art world innovator-turned feature filmmaker Steve McQueen -- has become the Cinderella story of awards season 2013, averaging a robust $50,000 per screening in its opening roll-out and coming to rank as an early Oscar favorite among many a guru of gold.

PHOTOS: Billion-dollar movie club

Never mind “12YAS’s” generous showcasing of arterial splatter and abject human suffering -- the most realistic, raw depiction of slavery ever committed to film. Given the $22-million production’s Euro-friendly pedigree -- both its director and star Chiwetel Ejiofor are British-born -- some Hollywood watchers have already begun to speculate about the film’s ability to become one of the rare African American-themed features to resonate with a global audience.

36: Hours for which Chris Brown was locked in a Washington, D.C., holding cell, according to his lawyer Mark Geragos, after allegedly punching a man and breaking his nose in front of a Washington hotel Sunday night. Two days later, the controversial multiplatinum-selling R&B phenom checked himself into rehab for an “anger management issue” with the sign-off tweet, “In order to go where u have never gone u have to be willing to go where u never been!!!!”

Although the “Fine China” singer is still on probation for his felony assault on Rihanna in 2009, Brown’s voluntary stint was hardly “an admission” of guilt, his lawyer said. It is indisputably an act of good faith, however. Brown faces up to four years behind bars if a judge decides to revoke his probation.

PHOTOS: Celebrities by The Times

607: Percentage by which Lou Reed album sales increased immediately following the transgressive rock pioneer’s death at age 71 on Sunday. Call it the postmodern pop equivalent to benediction -- in addition to the Velvet Underground frontman’s musical sales spike, his many admirers took to their computers to draft emotional encomiums.

With celebrities such as LL Cool J, Ricky Gervais, Mia Farrow and Miley Cyrus weighing in on Twitter, Reed’s widow, the performance artist Laurie Anderson, weighed in most poignantly, calling Reed a “prince and a fighter” in a moving letter to the East Hampton Star.

“He died on Sunday morning looking at the trees and doing the famous 21 form of Tai Chi with just his musician hands moving through the air,” Anderson wrote.

A lucky number for sure.

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chris.lee@latimes.com

Twitter: @__chrislee