1. Fallen R&B star Bobby Brown, for setting the record straight on Saint Nicholas. Carving up a ham and surrounded by family and friends on his TV holiday special Being Bobby Brown: Christmas With the Browns, the singer looks straight into the TV camera and states, “Kids, I want to tell you there’s no such thing as Santa Claus.” Teenage daughter Bobbi Kristina tries to intervene, saying he’s just kidding, while Brown insists, “I’m not kidding, there’s no Santa Claus.”
2. Singer Janet Jackson, for being the most popular name search on Internet search goliath Google this year. Jackson made headlines in October when reports she had a teenage daughter with her ex-husband James Debarge surfaced. Weeks later, a recording of Jackson sunbathing in the nude was leaked onto the Web.
3. Former 24 star Elisha Cuthbert, for taking the time to write, of all things, an ice hockey blog on North America’s National Hockey League official Web site, NHL.com.
4. Angelina Jolie’s estranged father Jon Voight, for always putting his foot in his mouth–and feeding fodder to the press. Voight is convinced Jolie adopted children Maddox and Zahara Marley because she failed to find the right man to father her babies, and is urging Jolie to procreate with Brad Pitt, who apparently has the genes she’s been searching for. Our guess is comments like these are why he’s Angelina’s estranged father.
5. Civil and human rights activist leader Al Sharpton, for deciding against starring in a sitcom based on his life, Al in the Family. Instead of following in the footsteps of 1970s All in the Family star Archie Bunker, Reverend Sharpton has decided to concentrate on his dream of becoming the first black American president.
6. Singer Elton John and longtime lover David Furnish, for taking advantage of a new British law giving same sex relationships the same official recognition as married couples. The legendary rocker, 58, and Canadian filmmaker, 43, “wed” in a civil partnership ceremony earlier this week at Windsor’s 17th century Guildhall in Windsor, England.
7. Pop princess Kylie Minogue’s iconic gold hotpants, which are being preserved in an airtight case at the Powerhouse museum in Sydney to stop them from disintegrating. The undies, worn by Minogue in her “Spinning Around” video, have joined a touring exhibition about the star titled, Kylie: An Exhibition.
8. Singer Mariah Carey, for refusing a Christmas gift of two fur coats because the thought of animal skins repulses her. Carey reportedly received a Saga mink and a fur coat, worth $9,000 each, from a mysterious Russian millionaire.
9. Writers Tom Wolfe and Gore Vidal, who have agreed to lend their voices for an upcoming episode of The Simpsons, which pokes fun at literary culture.
10. Veteran movie composer Bill Conti, for being named musical director of the 2006 Academy Awards for the 18th time. Conti, who won an Oscar in 1983 for his score to The Right Stuff, will conduct the Academy Awards Orchestra at the ceremony at Hollywood’s Kodak Theater on March 5. The 63-year-old also scored the movies Rocky, The Thomas Crown Affair and The Karate Kid.
