9 Days of '09: Top 10 pop culture stories
Kanye, Jacko, Boyle among the big tales
For the next nine days, we'll be delivering our takes on the national pop culture scene in 2009 with nine lists guaranteed to get you talking.
Today, entertainment editor Timothy Malcolm looks at the top 10 entertainment stories of 2009.
10. Vampires: The good, the bad, the ewww
Really, 2008 was the Year of the Vampire, but 2009 saw the trend boil over into the at times ridiculous. First, the good: “TrueBlood” continued its sterling run with a solid second season, and for all its critical faults, “Twilight: A New Moon” was a hit smash among its core audience, making even bigger stars out of Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. Now, the bad: Lautner became an eerie sex symbol, the CW claimed tired cliche “The Vampire Diaries” and, maybe worst of all, Bill O'Reilly dressed as a vampire on an episode of “The View.” Ewww.
9. Oprah: I'm outta here
Leave it to Oprah Winfrey to steal the news cycle. She announced on Nov. 19 that her long-running, hugely successful “The Oprah Winfrey Show” will end in September 2011. Retrospectives poured out immediately following the announcement. She won't be going far, however: She'll be launching OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network in January 2011, replacing the Discovery Health Channel on the cable feed. Programs on OWN will include those hosted by Lisa Ling, Dr. Laura Berman and Peter Walsh.
8. Rihanna: A year in the shadows
It seemed so long ago that Rihanna and boyfriend Chris Brown engaged in a domestic dispute that ended in a black eye for the R&B temptress. It happened the night of the 2009 Grammy awards, when the two were supposed to perform together. Instead, they ended their relationship, Brown was arrested and justly labeled a thug and Rihanna went under the tabloid microscope. Photos of her black eye were leaked to TMZ. She hid for a while, surfacing only with nude photos and sporadic cameos (like in Jay-Z's “Run This Town”). She prevailed in the end, releasing her latest album, “Rated R,” late in the year.
7. Lady GaGa: A star is born
She crawled from behind the curtain in late 2008, delivering a propulsive dance single, “Just Dance,” to the masses. By spring 2009, Lady GaGa was the No. 1 artist in America. Her unique wardrobe, her fascination with celebrity and her weird stage shows and videos made GaGa an instant item for the cameras. When all of that fades, though, there's still some good music, including the No. 1 smash “Poker Face” and big singles “LoveGame,” “Paparazzi” and “Bad Romance.” She's more than just a wacky face.
6. Death: The year of
One death overshadowed all others in the entertainment world. Besides Michael Jackson, here's to whom we had to sadly bid goodbye in 2009: Patrick Swayze, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, Natasha Richardson, Bea Arthur, Brittany Murphy, John Hughes, Frank McCourt, Les Paul, David Carradine, Dom DeLuise, Billy Mays, Al Martino, Ron Silver, Ricardo Montalbán, James Whitmore and J.G. Ballard. That's not to mention non-entertainment notables such as Edward Kennedy and Walter Cronkite.
5. Late Night Wars ‘08: Leno, Letterman, Jimmy, Conan, Craig
Eyes were focused on late night television in 2009 for various reasons, with five major players seeing the worlds shift in dramatic ways. “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” ended its 17-year run in June, allowing Conan O'Brien to take over the post. His ratings dipped after episode one, to the point where David Letterman's “Late Show” was overtaking “Tonight” for the first time in years. It's still in front, thanks in part to Letterman's potshots at Sarah Palin and affair revelations. Leno, meanwhile, moved to his 10 p.m. “The Jay Leno Show,” where his ratings are drastically low, but are meeting NBC standards. Once Conan moved up, in came Jimmy Fallon to host “Late Night.” While he struggled at first, he's found a groove and is a hit with younger audiences. They've seen a lot of crazy stories — O'Brien's live concussion, Letterman's Bill Hicks apology and Leno's Kanye West interview, to name a few. Meanwhile, sitting pretty with critics and fans is the unbelievably endearing Craig Ferguson, whose “Late Late Show” competes well with Leno and is, to many critics, the best of the five programs.
4. Tiger Woods: Cheatin' man
When it seemed as if 2009 would close without any more crazy news, Tiger Woods crashed his car into a tree on Thanksgiving night. Concern for Woods' health in the immediate hours following turned to interest in small revelations picked up along the way: Was he drunk? His wife used a baseball bat to smash the window? Why was his wife angry? Suddenly the news came out: Tiger Woods cheated on his wife, Elle Nordegren. Many times. More than 10 women announced their affairs with Woods. Sponsors dropped him from their campaigns. Woods went into hiding. Too much coverage for a cheatin' man? Maybe, but with Tiger Woods' high profile, seemingly nothing is too much.
3. Susan Boyle: Instant and odd stardom
Overnight, literally, Susan Boyle became a global sensation. Her audition of “I Dreamed A Dream” on an episode of “Britain's Got Talent” was the stuff of humanist joy: Decidedly frumpy woman takes the stage wanting to be an opera singer ... crowd teases her for her looks ... woman opens her mouth ... everyone is stunned. Boyle's voice echoed the heavens; instantly, she was the odds-on favorite on “Britain's Got Talent.” Even more instantly, she found millions of admirers thanks to YouTube. After finishing in second place, Boyle's first album broke all Billboard records for a debut. Along the way she underwent great strains of stress; still, her story - a unusual triumph of human spirit and resolve - is remarkable, and only possible in the internet age.
2. Kanye West: “I'mma let you finish”
The MTV Music Video Awards has always been a landing pad for the odd (Pee Wee Herman's post-arrest appearance, Michael Jackson's kiss with Lisa Marie Presley), but odd met dumbfounded shock when Taylor Swift accepted her award for Best Female Video at the Sept. 13 show. As she started her acceptance speech, a cocksure Kanye West took the stage, swiped her microphone and uttered the magic words: “Yo Tay, I'm really happy for you and I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time.” Swift was shocked. America was shocked. The internet buzzed. 50 Cent spoke out. Donald Trump called for a Kanye boycott. President Obama — off the record — called him “a jackass.” In retrospect, it was a battle between pure and damaged, PC and unhinged, and the reaction to the incident felt overbearing. Since, Swift has garnered more positive attention, West slunk away from the cameras and MTV? They had pretty good ratings.
And the Beyonce video? Yeah, he was right: "Single Ladies" is one of the greatest of all time.
1. Michael Jackson: 1959-2009
For a while, starting sometime around 5:30 p.m. June 25, the world stopped. Michael Jackson had died. With little warning of any problems, the announcement of his death felt like a blow to the stomach to many. Billions around the world mourned. The 24-hour news cycle switched to all Jackson, all the time. Networks scraped together videos and Jackson programming. Radio stations played nothing but his hits, and the internet — which was how most people found out about the King of Pop's death — practically stalled. AOL Instant Messenger crashed for 40 minutes; over 1 million visitors browsed Jackson's Wikipedia page the hour after his death; Google thought its server was under attack. In the following weeks, the news remained stuck on Jackson's death, its cause, the players, the family and the funeral. A live televised memorial service was one of the most-watched programs in television history. Gone too soon? Yes. But his legacy has already endured.
xoxo
Carrie
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