Comment 5 for bug 510390

Here's what happens if I switch to the alternative provided by nvidia-current:

:~$ sudo update-alternatives --config gl_conf
[sudo] password for alberto:
There are 4 choices for the alternative gl_conf (providing /etc/ld.so.conf.d/GL.conf).

  Selection Path Priority Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0 /usr/lib/nvidia-current/ld.so.conf 9700 auto mode
* 1 /usr/lib/mesa/ld.so.conf 500 manual mode
  2 /usr/lib/nvidia-173/ld.so.conf 9620 manual mode
  3 /usr/lib/nvidia-96/ld.so.conf 9600 manual mode
  4 /usr/lib/nvidia-current/ld.so.conf 9700 manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 4
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/nvidia-current/ld.so.conf to provide /etc/ld.so.conf.d/GL.conf (gl_conf) in manual mode.
update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/lib32/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1 because associated file /usr/lib32/nvidia-current/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1 (of link group gl_conf) doesn't exist.
update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/lib32/libvdpau_nvidia.so because associated file /usr/lib32/nvidia-current/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so (of link group gl_conf) doesn't exist.

:~$ ls -l /usr/lib/* | grep vdpau
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 36 Jan 23 13:01 /usr/lib/libvdpau_nvidia.so -> /etc/alternatives/libvdpau_nvidia.so
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 21 21:09 vdpau
/usr/lib/vdpau:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 38 Jan 23 13:01 libvdpau_nvidia.so.1 -> /etc/alternatives/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1

:~$ ls -l /etc/alternatives/libvdpau_nvidia.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 48 Jan 23 13:01 /etc/alternatives/libvdpau_nvidia.so -> /usr/lib/nvidia-current/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so

:~$ ls -l /etc/alternatives/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Jan 23 13:01 /etc/alternatives/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1 -> /usr/lib/nvidia-current/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1

Or, in other words /usr/lib/libvdpau_nvidia.so points to /usr/lib/nvidia-current/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so while /usr/lib/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1 points to /usr/lib/nvidia-current/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1

According to Nvidia, this is the correct behaviour (see bug #432172).

Note: "warning: skip creation of /usr/lib32/" etc. is correct, as those slave links will be installed only on 64 bit systems

As regards the output that you posted:
1) How come do you have libvdpau_nvidia.so.185.18.36 if the current driver is 190.53? Did you install any unofficial packages from some PPA or (even worse) did you install the driver from the nvidia installer?

2) This line suggests that what I say in 1) may be correct:
update-alternatives: warning: forcing reinstallation of alternative /usr/lib/nvidia-current/ld.so.conf because link group gl_conf is broken.