Entertainment and Celebrities

From the latest late night brouhaha that had Johnny Carson spinning in his grave to "Dancing With The Stars" spinning in the ratings, from 3D making a more-than-ever comeback, to more and more stars in the social networking galaxy, 2010 in the world of entertainment had us crooning "Baby, Baby, Baby" on our iPads.

James Cameron's "Avatar" may have shattered records to become the top-grossing movie of all-time both domestically and worldwide, but at the 82nd Academy Awards, it would be "The Hurt Locker" leaving him blue-faced taking six awards including Best Picture of 2009 and in an historic first...Best Director for ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow. Meanwhile, Jeff Bridges easily collected Best Actor for "Crazy Heart" while Sandra Bullock took Best Actress for "The Blind Side." But she would be blindsided herself as far as her marriage was concerned, which I'll get to later.

Only two of the four shows continued their winning streaks at the 52nd Primetime Emmy Awards ("Mad Men" and "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"), but for "The Amazing Race", they're now 7-1 as "Top Chef" put that to an end. And not even "Glee" or even "30 Rock" could stop "Modern Family" taking Best Comedy, though "Glee" itself was the year's top breakout TV hit with episodes featuring the music of Lady Gaga, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", Britney Spears, and others. Not even a little scandal (the provocative "GQ" photoshoot) couldn't hurt them!

In other 2010 TV highlights: Simon Cowell saying goodbye to the ailing "American Idol", Oprah Winfrey kicking off her 25th and final season by surprising her audience they're going to Australia with her (which they recently did), the end of "Lost" though Daniel Dae Kim would immediately find work with the new "Hawaii Five-O", Larry King signing off after 25 years of "Larry King Live", Katy Perry alongside Elmo too R-rated for G-rated "Sesame Street", and "Entertainment Tonight's" Mary Hart and Canadian news anchor Lloyd Robertson about to call it a career next year.

But it was "Dancing With The Stars" that outshined them all this year, thanks to headliners like Kate Gosselin, Pamela Anderson, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, David Hasselhoff, and one that either delighted or pissed off loyal viewers (one of them even had to go Elvis Presley on his TV)...Bristol Palin! In the end, the mirror ball trophies ended up in Nicole Scherzinger's and Jennifer Grey's living rooms.

The social networking universe, fueled by Twitter and Facebook, spread like wildfire this year like never before; there were more tweets than blogs, especially from yours truly. As far as Facebook was concerned, it was a pinnacle year with membership now topping 500 million, "The Social Network" starring Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake garnering critical and even Oscar buzz, and the icing on the cake: The man behind it all, Mark Zuckerberg, being named "Time" magazine's Person of the Year.

In gadgets, Apple's Steve Jobs was that person of the year with the iPhone 4 and the iPad, setting off a wave of similar smartphones and tablet computers hitting the market this year in a bid to out-do him. E-readers of various kinds including Barnes & Noble's Nook were out for the Amazon Kindle's blood...or make that a share of the booming sales. And remember WebTV from 15 or so years ago? That's now a dinosaur compared to the new ways we can access the Internet on our TVs, and upgraded Blu-ray players and Google TV made that happen when they went on the market this year.

3D got a 21st century enhancement to go along with vinyl records already making a return presence, especially on TV and at the box office. And speaking of which, there were hits that were more enjoyable in either 3D or 2D, like "Toy Story 3", "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1", "Inception", "The Twilight Saga" Eclipse", and "Shrek Forever After." And what did "MacGruber", "Jonah Hex", "Green Zone", and "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" have in common? They were also crowd pleasers...in 1D!

The music world throughout this year had the wackiest cast of characters the side of Looney Tunes, with the latest from Ke$ha, Rihanna, Lady Gaga (whose dress at the MTV Video Music Awards had Rob Reiner calling her "Meathead!"), Taylor Swift, Black Eyed Peas, the aforementioned Katy Perry, and some guy named Justin Bieber.

Along with Brett Favre and Wikileaks, there were other scandals that topped the headlines in '10, with Mel Gibson and Lindsay Lohan being the biggest ones of them all.

First, Gibson with those series of expletive-laden voicemails attacking ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva making the rounds. And to rub salt in the wound ever further, he was out of "The Hangover" sequel with Liam Neeson in. Here's hoping "The Beaver" next year (directed by his good friend Jodie Foster) will be his comeback.

And then there's Lohan, who has always had one share of drama after another year after year; this time, she was admitted to the Betty Ford Center.

Among the year's "I Do's": Katy Perry and Russell Brand, Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher, Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, Oscar winners Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky, Nicole Richie and Joel Madden, "True Blood" co-stars Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr, and Jane Lynch and Lara Embry. And as of publish time, Natalie Portman and Reese Witherspoon were engaged.

And then there are those who said "I Don't": Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman, Eva Longoria and Tony Parker, Christina Milian and The-Dream, Al and Tipper Gore, Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds (as of publish time), and yes, Sandra Bullock and Jesse James.
So...what was the one entertainment story in 2010 that had everybody talking? It was the 2000's version of the late night shuffle involving Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, and troubled NBC.

When O'Brien took over as "Tonight Show" host last year, it lost a substantial amount of ratings to David Letterman. Leno's 10:00 gamble, on the other hand, also lost to "The Mentalist", "Private Practice" (starring Sexiest Woman of 2010 winner Kate Walsh), and the local news on most Fox/CW/independent stations. Then earlier this year, NBC considered Leno returning to 11:35 with Conan to follow at 12:05. Conan didn't want any part of it, and the network offered him a deal to take the money and run. He accepted it, and after the Olympics, "The Jay Leno Show" became "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" once again in its regular time slot.

While Conan was taking his act across North America, he also shopped for a new TV home. In the end, TBS made him an offer he couldn't refuse, and he signed on the dotted line with him at 11:00 moving "Lopez Tonight" to midnight and his new competition being Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Chelsea Handler (nobody cares about Mo'Nique). But it was ABC's "Nightline" that emerged as the quiet late night victor in the wake of all this.

"Time" may have their Person of the Year, but for the first time, I have my Entertainer of the Year: Betty White! With the Snickers commercial that led to hosting "Saturday Night Live" thanks to a successful Facebook campaign (and winning another Emmy for it) as well as "Hot In Cleveland" and "You Again", it's no wonder why at even in her late 80's, this living legend won't be pushing up daisies anytime soon.

Like I said in the news recap, the April wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton will be one major entertainment story we'll be watching in 2011. But what else could be on tap? Anne Hathaway and James Franco will be hosting the Academy Awards; will one or both of them be nominated for "Love And Other Drugs" and "127 Hours" respectively? Britney Spears has been in the recording studio recently, and as she's about to approach the age of 30 you know her upcoming album (when it comes out) will show those young "whippersnappers" like Gaga, Perry, and Bieber how it's done. No matter who the cast will be next season, will "Dancing With The Stars" finally unseat "American Idol" as the year's #1 show? What will be the next old school technology to make a new school revival? And after her stint in rehab, could Lindsay Lohan follow Robert Downey Jr.'s lead the pull off the biggest comeback ever? These questions and many more will be answered within the next 52 weeks.

Next time...we wrap up the Year In Review with the Top 20 Things That Were Trending in 2010!