We offer the top 5 celeb stories in reverse order below. Of course it’s a matter of opinion and any list will depend on the criteria of selection. Here I chose to include Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Phil Robertson, the Kardashian-Jenner axis of evil, and of course, Prince George. These topics were very popular on my radio shows and I think you’ll enjoy them. Amongst other hot or scandalous people we left off this year’s list were Teresa Giudice, Michael Douglas, Paul Walker, Amanda Bynes & Alec Baldwin. Of course there are dozens of other celebs we could have selected but we decided to stick to 5.
5. Beyoncé served up what will inevitably be one of the top selling albums of the year with absolutely no warning. 14 tracks, 17 videos dropped overnight as if it was a simple after thought- “Oh by the way, here’s my new album.” Bey proved exactly why she is the queen of all divas by being smart enough to realize that she didn’t need any of that advance PR to get her self titled album noticed. No advance interviews, no 30 second leaks of what her management thinks are the strongest tracks, just the finished product. Not only did her fans go crazy, but she also earned a new level of respect from fellow artists like Katy Perry and Lady GaGa. Beyoncé proved that quietly doing the work can yield a big pay off and look for other artists to follow her lead in 2014. This move is a real game changer and it’ll be interesting to see how other big artists will choose to release their new music in coming months.
4. Did you notice that the Kardashian empire is FINALLY crumbling? After 4 years of being force fed scripted “reality” shows and watching Kim Kardashian and her sisters hawk every product under the sun their fan base is finally thinning. Kanye West aimed to turn Kim into a bonafide Hollywood star with respect and instead his Q rating is tanking along with hers. Perhaps if people believed that Kim’s new baby was anything more than an accessory it would have helped her cause but staged photos just aren’t cutting it. Khloe is divorcing Lamar, Kourtney is begging her douchelord boyfriend to go to rehab and momager Kris Jenner is downing bottles of booze while earning her cougar stripes. Is Bruce Jenner really about to become a woman? Probably, but guess what? No one cares any more!
3. The fallout over Phil Robertson’s anti-gay remarks will no doubt go down as one of the top stories of 2013 because it gave people an opportunity to take sides. Either you were appalled by the Duck Dynasty star’s comments or you totally agreed with his sentiments and between those two sides is a mountain of controversy. While fans and foes alike seem to believe that their opinions count and that what they have to say is somehow going to help determine the fate of Phil and his families show, they couldn’t be more wrong. Money is what A&E ultimately cares about, not the people that are contracted or the fans watching at home. As long as advertisers don’t pull their ads DD will survive as if nothing happened (and it likely will). A&E has found a way to walk the line by not just saying they don’t back Phil’s statements, but offering him a slap on the wrist to prove it. They then decided to please the fans by showing a holiday DD marathon. In the end, no one is really going to lose here, but Phil managed to give us all something to talk about during what would normally be one of the slowest weeks of the year. He also proved that DD is more interesting than anyone that happened to land on Barbara Walters last week.
2. It’s not every year or even every decade that the world gets to welcome a new royal heir and we were thrilled to finally be introduced to Prince George in July. This story had a bit of everything to offer. There was the whole fairytale come to life aspect but the reason that people love Kate Middleton and Prince William is because they are as normal as possible given the circumstances. We see Kate running errands in her sweats and walking their dog like a normal person. When William says that they want to be like any other new parents he then backs it up by doing something like driving his son home from the hospital for the first time himself. When Kate insists on raising her son as a hands-on mom we all know it’s not just lip service, she’s enduring the sleepless nights and probably is covered in spit up until she has to throw on real clothes for a royal engagement. They are likable and respected which is a really good thing because William is expected to bypass Prince Charles and be crowned king in 2014 when Queen Elizabeth abdicates the throne.
1. Miley. Miley. Miley. Miley Cyrus – the hardest twerking woman of the year. Perhaps her VMA performance mortified you and perhaps you are one of the many (myself included) who initially thought she had screwed herself out of a career at least for awhile. Instead girlfriend managed to be the one that everyone spent the next several months talking about. What seems to be her secret? She’s authentic. After years of having Disney tell her what to wear, how to look and what to say Miley broke free and is handing us herself. She freely admits that she has no clue who she is or where she’s headed and is just bringing everyone along for the ride. But it’s real. What you see is exactly who Miley is, in that moment. It may change next week and you can bet that whatever she morphs into will be equally authentic. Oh and moms everywhere will be glad to know that Miley is promising to put more clothes on in 2014.
