The Year in Pop Culture

What didn't kill us throughout 2012 in the world of pop culture made us stronger alright: A YouTube sensation causing more flash mobs than the Macarena, the box office avenged by superheroes and vampires, more exposure of William and Kate than we expected, a tween group and a very pre-pre-pre-pre-tween ruling the universe, two new rival singing competition shows duking it out for supremacy while another has pooped out, and a certain celebrity still keeping the tabloids' presses rolling...it was hard to put down "Fifty Shades of Grey" while jamming to the soothing beats of "Call Me Maybe".

The silent film "The Artist" spoke more than volumes at the 84th Annual Academy Awards; although it and "Hugo" each claimed five awards (including one for former Fairbanksan Ben Grossmann), "The Artist" came out as the big winner with Best Actor (Jean Dujardin), Director, and Best Picture of 2011. Meryl Streep's Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady" won her Best Actress, which almost nobody saw coming after almost three decades. But host Billy Crystal was still a little rusty after the 2004 awards, and Seth McFarlane is hoping to shake that off next year.

Cable (with a side of network) ruled the 54th Primetime Emmys, as Showtime's "Homeland" scored a Drama trifecta: Series, Actor (Damian Lewis), and Actress (Claire Danes, who recently gave birth to a baby boy). "Modern Family" was still Best Comedy, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" continued their streak, and Tracy Morgan is still alive after falling for Jimmy Kimmel's "drop dead" stunt. For the first time ever, not one single network show was up for Best Drama, though the networks still reap the comedy honors.

While we're sticking with television, "The X Factor" (now with Britney Spears and Demi Lovato joining Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid) and "The Voice" (still with Christina Aguilera, but not next season) duked it out to become the new king of singing competitions with "American Idol" no longer the #1 show (NBC's "Sunday Night Football" ended their eight-year reign of terror), Aaron Sorkin -- fresh off his Oscar win for "The Social Network" -- returned to television with HBO's "The Newsroom"; the new generation of "Dallas" which also had Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray, and the late Larry Hagman from the old generation, "Gossip Girl's" revelation that it's actually Gossip Guy, Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere proved they're a little bit country alright in "Nashville", and the year's most popular TV catchphrase: "Here comes Honey Boo Boo child!", as the pint-sized, plus-sized tot suddenly became a breakout star; she even outrated the Republican National Convention! Unfortunately, "Partners", "666 Park Avenue", and "Made In Jersey" were deleted from DVR drives' season passes. Not even "Two And a Half Men's" Angus T. Jones imploring us to stop watching his "filthy" show (he would later apologize for his remarks) couldn't stop it from scoring its highest ratings so far this season.

Action heroes ruled the box office with more than an iron fist, as "The Avengers" and "The Dark Knight Rises" each scored opening weekend records (one all-time, the other for a non-3D film) while "Twilight" closed out their run with "Breaking Dawn: Part 2". "The Hunger Games", "The Amazing Spider-Man", "Magic Mike" with "Sexiest Man Alive" Channing Tatum, the latest James Bond masterpiece "Skyfall" and potential Oscar contenders "Lincoln", "Les Miserables", and "Argo" have also kept us in our seats, while "Cloud Atlas", "John Carter", "Dredd", "Rock of Ages", and "Battleship" (proving that Rihanna should stick to music) had us bolting out of them. Even Tim Burton had a disappointing year himself with "Frankenweenie" and the feature film version of "Dark Shadows."

Rihanna, Bruno Mars, Carrie Underwood, Justin Bieber, Kelly Clarkson, and Taylor Swift churned out some new hits this year, but there were even newer sensations: fun., Carly Rae Jepsen with this summer's theme song "Call Me Maybe", and some quintet of young boys from England called One Direction. But perhaps the biggest story of them all was South Korean singer Psy, who's "Gangnam Style" became YouTube's most-viewed video ever (1 billion and counting) and the dance craze sweeping the entire planet.

Two other entertainment highlights also included: Disney buying the Lucasfilm studio for $4.05 billion, and the book "Fifty Shades of Grey" so hot, it was like Lifetime meeting Cinemax. And in September, Apple released the iPhone 5 and the new line of iPods including the iPod Touch now with Siri.

No year would be complete without our fair share of scandals, and boy, there were plenty! The biggie was Kate Middleton, as while she and Prince William were touring Southeast Asia, the French magazine "Closer" ran grainy photos of the royal couple sunbathing topless in France from a few months ago. A lawsuit couldn't stop an Italian publication from publishing the pics either, but in early December, we've found out that there will be a future King of England on the way. An Australian radio station cashed in on the news by prank calling the duchess's hospital in hopes of getting in touch with Kate, but the nurse who received the call would pay the ultimate price by committing suicide shortly thereafter. As a result, the two DJs were fired. Meanwhile, brother Prince Harry took the "Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" motto a little too far as he was caught frolicking naked at a Las Vegas hotel.

Washington was rocked by two: the Secret Service appearing to be working behind President Obama's back as they were involved with prostitutes in Colombia, and general David Petraeus's extramarital affiair that cost him his job as CIA Director. Over in Britain, it was revealed that the late BBC personality Jimmy Savile had sexually abused pre-teens over 40 years ago, with 300 victims coming forward giving the world's #1 public broadcaster a black eye.

And there were more: Pics of Kristen Stewart and Rupert Sanders getting hot and heavy with each other behind Robert Pattinson's back left Twihards in a depression before things returned to normal, a new sex tape starring...wrestling legend Hulk Hogan (?????); and Kevin Clash, the man behind Elmo, quitting "Sesame Street" over a barrage of sexual allegations by him from underage boys

Plus of course you have the annual queen of scandals: Lindsay Lohan. Her return to acting as Elizabeth Taylor in the TV movie "Liz & Dick" may have bombed, but that was okay. It was all the same old, same old and now a judge has revoked her probation, meaning another trip to jail which could last 3-4 months (translation: 3-4 weeks).

In celebrity couples: Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, Anne Hathaway and Adam Shulman, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, Kate Winslet and Ned Rocknroll (as of publish time) and Matthew McConaughey and Camilla Alves among others had us singing "We Belong Together", while (back to Taylor Swift) "We Are Never, Ever Getting Back Together" were played for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Heidi Klum and Seal, Bethenny Frankel and Jason Hoppy (as of publish time); and to no one's surprise, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez...or so we thought? Oh yeah, and George Clooney and Stacy Keibler are still together.

The nurseries were quite busy as usual, as Reese Witherspoon, Drew Barrymore, Anna Paquin, and Sarah Michelle Gellar expanded their families, while room is being made for Kristen Bell and Channing and Jenna Dewan-Tatum, as well as (as of publish time) Jessica Simpson once again.

Adele may have been voted Entertainer of the Year by the Associated Press, but who was my selection this year? Well, not a person, but a thing: The tablet!

Okay, so we had a false start in 2011 with the very short-lived HP TouchPad, but during 2012, the iPad knew they weren't the only game in town anymore. Amazon unveiled their new line of Kindles including the Kindle Fire HD, rival Barnes & Noble had the Nook HD, Microsoft launched the Surface (with an actual attachable keyboard!), and Samsung and Google rolled out the Galaxy 2 and Nexus 7 respectively. In between all those, there were other, yet inexpensive tablets. To keep up, Apple unleashed the iPad Mini, and tablet usage this year, whether for business or pleasure, was on an immense rise that even the most popular apps like Instagram and Angry Birds had to be created for more than just Apple's iOS.

Two honoralble mentions go out to Eva Longoria and Maria Menounos, winner and runner-up of Sexiest Woman of 2012 respectively. Both of them had one hell of a year; Eva's was headlined by the end of "Desperate Housewives" and her successful campaigning for Prestident Obama as national co-chair. Maria's year was chock full, with "Dancing With The Stars", an brief match at Wrestlemania 28, and of course, "Extra." Oh yeah, she braved the cold -- and herself -- by doing her show in a bikini in Times Square as a consequence for her New England Patriots' Super Bowl XLVI loss to the N.Y. Giants.

But when it comes to what was the biggest entertainment story of 2012, you have to go back to Grammy weekend and the sudden death of Whitney Houston. She had been plagued with drugs and alcohol problems thanks to her ex-husband Bobby Brown, but her drowning from a hotel bathtub came as a shock to us all. Coroners later discovered that heart disease and cocaine contributed to her death, but aside from all that, her legacy will remain; "Sparkle" was an example.

As we're about to change calendars, what will 2013 bring to the table? We could be seeing Ben Affleck vs. Steven Spielberg at the Oscars, as "Argo" and "Lincoln" may be clashing for the top honors. With the "Twilight" franchise done, it'll be up to "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire", "Iron Man 3", and "Scary Movie 5" among others picking up the slack. A "Carrie" remake with Chloe Moretz is in the can, while Christina Aguilera will be taking a break from "The Voice" to tour the world. And oh yeah...there's also the late night return of Arsenio Hall. All other sorts of stuff will happen within the next 365 days, so we'll wait and see.

Next time...we cap it all off with the Top 20 Things That Were Trending in 2012!