Taylor Swift's Sexual Temptation

Taylor Swift has a bellybutton. (Here is photographic proof.) Her seeming reluctance to flaunt it -- duly noted by the blogosphere -- could mean any number of things. But it arguably has the effect of, well, buttoning her up; regardless of how much midriff she's baring, Swift is always in some sense covered.

If anyone was doubting the persistence of Swift's star-power or her transformation from country to pop, numbers released last night for her latest album, "1989," should silence the haters. According to Nielsen SoundScan, "1989" sold 1.287 million copies in its first week, beating Swift's last album, "Red," which sold 1.208 million copies in its debut week. In fact, "1989" had the biggest sales week of any album in more than a decade; it's already the largest-selling album released in 2014.