Nothing was more memorable this year than Election '08. Never in my 20 years have I seen people take the election seriously enough to wait in line for 3 hours to vote. I myself waited in line for an hour while my friend in Florida waited for 6 in the pouring rain. What really surprised me about this election was how much it reminded me of New Year's Eve. People all over the world were gathered in the streets waiting to hear the news of Barack Obama's win like they wait for the ball to drop. It's definitely one of those things I'll tell my future children and grandchildren about.
The Beijing Summer Olympics was must-see TV in August. Night after night everyone watched as Michael Phelps got closer to breaking Mark Spitz's gold medal record. When he finally won that 8th gold, there was nary a dry eye or a Facebook status that wasn't Phelps-related.
My girls Misty May and Kerry Walsh returned to the Olympic sand and are still the reigning champions of Olympic Beach Volleyball. Now while May is healing from the injury she sustained from her stint on Dancing with the Stars, Walsh is expecting her first baby next year!
Gymnasts Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson brought all the right moves to the mat as they both left Beijing as golden girls.
In the music world, Estelle looked for her American Boy, but Kanye West was in Love Lockdown. She should have gone after Usher since all he wanted to do was make Love in this Club. Lil Wayne tried to lure her in with a Lollipop and A Milli to no avail. Maybe she should have pulled a Katy Perry and Kissed a Girl like Mariah Carey who has been singing, "Touch My Body."
Estelle wasn't the only one with boy trouble. Leona Lewis was Bleeding Love, Duffy begged for Mercy and Danity Kane was Damaged so much that Diddy kicked Aubrey out of the group for being too trashy. I think the best person to lift Aubrey's spirits would be Pink. I think their conversation would go something like this :: Pink: "So What, you're still a rockstar!" Aubrey: "Hell yeah! I'm not a Bad Girl! You can't fire me. I'm Leavin' like Jesse McCartney!"
Chris Brown was Forever on the dance floor which didn't bother Lady GaGa because all she wanted to do was Just Dance to a hot girl anthem like Beyonce's Single Ladies. Chris' girlfriend Rihanna had other plans in mind. First she decided to Take a Bow. Then she told Maroon 5's Adam Levine, "If I Never See Your Face Again I don't mind, cause we've gone much further than I thought we'd get tonight." So scandalous that even Shwayze and Cisco Adler were Buzzin about them! Then Rihanna was all freaked out in Disturbia. She even saw T.I. who told her, "You can have Whatever You Like - one condition, Live Your Life." So in the end she checked into Rehab with Justin Timberlake and T-Pain yelled, "I Can't Believe It!" Former rehab girl Britney Spears made it her mission to call out a Womanizer in the Circus that is her life. Too bad she didn't have a Pocketful of Sunshine like Natasha Bedingfield or a guy in her life like Jason Mraz who would say to her everyday, " Baby I'm Yours."
As Christina Aguilera would say, music just Keeps Gettin' Better. I wonder who'll rule the charts next year, but we won't know until the ball drops and musicians everywhere begin their race to the top. In the words of Tokio Hotel, Ready, Set, Go!
And now for the Disney kids. I had to give them their own category since they like to cover all the bases: music, movies, TV, YouTube. Miley Cyrus had scandal after scandal in '08. One minute she used a body double on tour so she could change, the next she was in a Vanity Fair photo shoot wearing only a sheet (she had jeans on too but the photo was only of her from the torso up). Then she had her best friend Mandy were dissing fellow Disney best friends Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato in a YouTube video. Now Miley's dating 20 year old model/musician Justin Gaston and there are rumors that she's acting up on set to get out of her Hannah Montana contract. On the music side of things, 7 Things was a hit and Fly on the Wall has a cool music video.
The Jonas brothers semi-starred in the campy Camp Rock movie over the summer. It wasn't that great and really wasn't about them at all. The real star of the movie was the girl who said, "BTW, your lip gloss is so not glossy anymore!" Okay, not really - I just love that line. The real star of that movie is Demi Lovato who can actually sing!
On the music front, the JoBros had a hit with Burning Up and I'm loving their new song Lovebug. I'm just wondering who they're burning up for: Miley, Selena, Demi, Camilla, Taylor? Why are there so many girls in the JoBro's love web? And why do people only concentrate on Joe and Nick? I want to hear something scandalous about Kevin in '09!
No Disney story is complete without the Wildcats of East High. You know what I'm talking about. This year's High School Musical movie made a major leap to the big screen. I didn't see it, but I don't think I will after seeing the Boys are Back number. The choreography's a bit cheesy, but I'm sure Zac and Corbin could have beat Miley Cyrus in that YouTube dance crew challenge.
The movie world was also abuzz this year with the release of superhero movies, cartoons, and the movie version of the popular book Twilight.
The top 10 grossing movies of 2008 were:
(10) Horton Hears a Who: $154,529,439 - Never read the book, never saw the movie. Sorry Dr. Seuss.
(9) Twilight: $158,461,000 - My friends love the book so much that some of them even went to the midnight showing. I haven't seen it yet, but I just finished reading the book last night and I highly recommend it! I'm glad the movie did well and Catherine Hardwicke now has the record for the highest grossing movie directed by a female. Yay!
(8) Quantum of Solace: $161,300,000 - Daniel Craig is a-mazing! To the stylist who put him in those white pants, my mom and I are forever grateful. ♥ My goal of '09 is to become the next Bond girl.
(7) Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa: $172,332,000 - Never saw the first one. Never saw this one, but I love that petite Jada Pinkett Smith voices a hippo.
(6) Kung Fu Panda: $215,434,591 - Didn't see this one either, but I love pandas and Jack Black.
(5) Wall-E: $223,749,872 - Didn't see it, but my friend loved it!
(4) Hancock: $227,946,274 - Haven't seen it yet, but I definitely "will." ;-)
(3) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: $317,023,851 - Haven't seen this one either, but I will eventually because my future husband (a.k.a. Shia LaBeouf) is in it. I'm just getting caught up with all his movies. I watched Disturbia for the first time on Christmas, so I'll get around to this by Mother's Day.
(2) Iron Man: $318,313,199 - I'll probably see this whenever they air it on TV and love it, but I'm not really into the superhero movies, except for, of course ...
(1) The Dark Night: $530,750,228 - Saw it, loved it, need to buy the DVD! I hope Heath gets the Golden Globe (and an Oscar for this one).
Although they weren't in the Top 10, four of my other favorite movies of '08 show my diversity when it comes to films.
(4) Pride and Glory: If it wasn't for my mom's love of Colin Farrell, I would never have seen this movie. Edward Norton and Colin Farrell are amazing, and the movie really makes you wonder about what goes down behind-the-scenes with the men in blue.
(3) Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2: For my 20th birthday, my mom surprised me by taking me to see this movie. I'm glad she did because I could totally relate to the girls now that they were in college. Plus, if there was an Oscar for best abs in a movie, it would have to go to Jesse Williams (a.k.a. my future husband if he wasn't already engaged).
(2) Transporter 3: After having the villain in Transporter 2 walk around in lingerie all day while packing some major heat, I didn't know how they were going to top that in Transporter 3 but they did. I think it had something to do with Jason Statham stripping. I'm just saying.
(1) Sex and the City: Let's face it, it's hard to make a movie based on a hit TV show. Luckily the ladies of Sex and the City know what their fans want. This movie is every single metropolitan fashionista's dream. How badly do you want Patricia Field to style you everyday? And where can I find my Mr. Big?
The small screen was just as full of action and drama as the big screen was. The most talked about show (as usual) was the Hills. This was due in part to whatever deal Speidi must have made to be on the cover of US Weekly for what seemed like every week in '08. Since I don't watch The Hills, my most talked about show was definitely Gossip Girl. I didn't know how they were going to top the first season, but they did. From the will they/won't they Blair-Chuck relationship to the Lily and Rufus "Was it a boy or a girl?" cliff-hanger, this show just gets better with age.
My other favorite show is One Tree Hill. I was excited when Lucas chose Peyton, I freaked out when Nanny Carrie returned, I cried when Q died, I laughed when Dawson alum James Van Der Beek showed up as a director, I was excited when Nathan played slam ball, and I'm freaking out again that Sam is hanging out with the guy who shot Q (have you seen the previews).
I've also been watching Ugly Betty on-and-off this season due to homework, but what I've seen, I like. Other big shows of '08 were definitely 30 Rock and Mad Men. I watch neither, but I love Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin and I couldn't go to any class this year without my professors mentioning Mad Men. Also Tina Fey's dead on Sarah Palin impersonation gave SNL a much-needed rating boost. If only Mad TV had her; maybe they wouldn't have been cancelled.
Of the new shows that were on this year, I've only seen the first two episodes of 90210 and one episode of Privileged. 90210 was okay, but I wouldn't watch it even though Shannen Doherty, Lori Loughlin, and Jennie Garth are on it. The one episode of Privileged was pretty good so I may watch it again. Now that I'm not in high school, I can't really take anymore of these high school dramas.
My favorite shows that I somehow discovered over the summer actually come from across the pond. The BBC America show Skins is new in the US, but it's definitely not new in the UK where it's entering it's third season. I've seen every episode of the first two seasons and it's definitely the craziest thing I've ever seen. Since it is set in high school, I probably just contradicted my anti-high school drama statement, but it's not really about high school, now is it. One of my other favorite British shows is Britannia High. It's a mix of Fame meets High School Musical meets Degrassi. The actors (including Mitch Hewer from Skins) are so talented and exciting to watch.
Now on to my favorite game, match the baby names with the celebrity parents!
Of all the babies born this year, Harlow and Nahla were my favorites. But as always, the cutest Tinsel Town tot of them all was Suri Cruise. The girl's a fashion icon in the making.
As the Byrds said in Turn! Turn! Turn!, "To everything there is a season." We can't move on until we remember those who passed this year. This isn't everyone, but here are the ones I'll never forget.
Paul Newman
Isaac Hayes
Cyd Charisse
Yves Saint Laurent
George Carlin
Bernie Mac
Tim Russert
Eartha Kitt
Bettie Page
Heath Ledger
And lastly, I just want to talk about my favorite trend this year ... Twitter. Twitter came out of nowhere ... okay it came from San Francisco as many a social networking site does. Although it's been around since 2006, no one really started using it until this year, myself included. I jumped on the Twitter bandwagon right before it started getting hot as a way to pass the time as I sat in an office with nothing much to do over the summer. I can't get enough of Twitter. Even as I wrote this '08 recap, I posted on Twitter 9 times. Now Twitter is garnering some major media attention. It seems that every time I read an article, Twitter is mentioned in some shape or form. I can't wait to see how Twitter will evolve in the future.
How many did you get right in the baby name game?
Matthew & Camilla = Levi
Jack & Tanya = Thomas
Ashlee & Pete = Bronx
Jessica & Cash = Honor
Jennifer & Mark = Max & Emme
Angelina & Brad = Knox & Vivienne
Nicole & Joel = Harlow
Halle & Gabriel = Nahla
Christina & Jordan = Max
Gwen & Gavin = Zuma
