For years, James Franco was "that guy from Freaks & Geeks." But, after earning a degree from UCLA, Franco enrolled in numerous graduate degree programs earlier this year, studying English at Yale, MFA writing at Columbia, and filmmaking at New York University. At the same time, he published a book of short stories, took on a guest role on General Hospital as a " performance art project," launched a solo art exhibition, and crafted a 268-word sentence in an essay for Esquire. Plus, Franco is still garnering attention for his stellar big screen performances this year—he played Allen Ginsberg in Howl and 127 Hours opened to rave reviews amongst those who were able to stomach the graphic arm-hacking scene. In fact, Renaissance man did so much serious work this year that some critics wondered if it was all part of a Joaquin Phoenix-style elaborate joke.
"I'll always be this once-famous actress nobody recognizes... because of a nose job," 1980s icon Jennifer Grey once said of her ill-fated experiment with plastic surgery in 1993. Though Grey's roles in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Dirty Dancing were among the most memorable of the era, she went on to appear in a string of flops and her face-altering rhinoplasty did not help matters. Grey said her friends didn't even recognize her. "It was like being in a witness protection program or being invisible," she said. New-schnozed Grey then largely fell into obscurity until the 2010 season of Dancing With the Stars. The 50-year-old actress and dancer braved injuries (which put her back on the operating table) and proved that nobody can permanently put baby in the corner. After channeling her iconic Dirty Dancing character by carrying a watermelon, Grey took home the top prize, beating out 20-year-old Bristol Palin and 19-year-old Disney star Kyle Massey. "It so surpassed my wildest dreams," she told People magazine of the experience. "I'm so proud I was able to say yes in the first place and that I had the courage to do it."
The bitchy gossip blogger's name was once synonymous with everything that's wrong with the celebrity reporting. Hilton's blog—originally called PageSixSixSix.com and referred to as " Hollywood's Most-Hated Website"—was rife with profanely scribbled-on photos, sarcastic captions, cruel speculation, and mean nicknames. His belligerence even occasionally followed him off the web—Hilton started a bar fight by calling rapper Will.i.am a "f---ing f----t" and earned widespread disgust by tweeting upskirt photos of a then-underage Miley Cyrus. But sobered by the suicide of Tyler Clementi, who had also been bullied online because he was gay, Hilton announced in October that he was changing the tone of his site. "I still want to be sassy and critical," he said in an appearance on Ellen. "But I can do it without having to be mean or nasty."
Beautiful, blond Gwyneth Paltrow has managed to inspire a particular brand of hate with her Academy Award, her rock star husband, her quirky baby names, her forever-svelte figure, and her vanity newsletter GOOP. Full of lifestyle tips that are "expensive, inconvenient and totally unsustainable,", GOOP has long been singled out as proof that Paltrow is totally self-absorbed and out of touch. But this year, Paltrow proved she is willing to work for her fame. She fought through tears and bleeding fingers to learn the guitar for her upcoming role in Country Strong and then nailed her performance of the title song at the 2010 Country Music Awards. Top it off with a sassy, kick-ass musical performance on Glee, and Paltrow quickly found herself back in the public's good graces.
Paul Reubens' career sunk in 1991 when he was arrested for indecent exposure in the back of an adult theater in Sarasota, Fla. And as the star of the beloved children's show, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, Reuben's high-profile arrest prompted public outrage. Then, in 2002, Reubens was arrested for possessing thousands of vintage erotic images that were, by modern standards, considered child pornography. After his career languished for nearly another decade, the man in the grey suit and red bowtie said he suddenly thought of doing a stage show. "I just got up one day and felt like I'm gonna come back, that was it," Reubens revealed. "I just felt like, ‘Not doing that much, might be fun to rehearse a show for weeks and weeks and weeks.'" And fun and successful it actually was. The Broadway version of The Pee-Wee Herman Show earned $3 million in advance ticket sales before its wildly successful opening just before Thanksgiving. (Insert victorious, mildly devious throaty Pee-Wee laugh here.)
A short three years ago, Britney Spears was shaving her head and attacking SUVs with umbrellas. And though nasty reports of child abuse and sexual harassment continued to fly in 2010, Spears scrapped the antics and instead scuttled dirty rumors with a fresh air. When stories began surfacing that her boyfriend Jason Trawick had beaten her, Spears released a statement saying, "This is just another example of the irresponsible nature of the tabloid media relying on shoddy sources and false information for the sole purpose of selling magazines." The songstress' newfound confidence with the press gave her time to focus on important things, like singing her classic hits on an amusing episode of Glee. She even took a lighthearted jab at the tabloids via Twitter (where she reigns queen). "Star Magazine, Radar Online, Jason Alexander and the rest of you liars. Ya'll can kiss my lily white southern Louisiana ass!" Spears has seemingly managed to keep her spunk and motherly responsibilities in check in 2010 and having just celebrated the " best birthday of [her] life," we hope her 29th year is even better.
Russell Brand is a complicated fellow: In addition to being bipolar and struggling with bulimia and self-mutilation, the British comedian has been arrested 11 times and been in rehab for addiction to both sex and heroin. But his most recent run-in with the law had more chivalrous roots—Brand was arrested for assaulting a paparazzo who he claimed was trying to shove a camera up the skirt of his then-fiancée Katy Perry. The funny man seems to be on his way to overcoming his past— Brand has given up drugs and regularly attends Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. And so far, things are working out for Brand—both Get Him to the Greek and Despicable Me were 2010 box office smashes and for the first time in his long history of relationships, he agreed to settle down and marry Perry in an October ceremony in India. "When you're not clean, you're not in control of your life," he recently told Reuters. "Since I've been clean, people don't have any reason to boss me around."
Like many a philandering celebrity before him, Tiger Woods proved "standing by your man" isn't always the best policy. By the end of 2009, Woods' extramarital scandal—which began with a drunken SUV crash in November of that year—had unveiled a colorful cast of party girls, escorts, and porn stars. In the early days of the media firestorm, Nordegren signaled she might stay for the sake of the couple's two children. Though Woods reportedly offered her millions to avoid a divorce, Nordegren eventually decided the humiliation he had put her through was enough and filed for divorce this summer. She walked away with a hefty payout of $110 million and for good measure, Nordegren sold another $2 million-worth of jewelry Woods had given her. When she finally spoke to the press, the former Swedish nanny took the high road, telling People magazine, "I wish him all the best in the future, as a person and as an athlete."
No longer the Mickey Mouse Club member or the boy band heartthrob, Justin Timberlake came into his own as an actor with his performance in this year's Facebook drama The Social Network. Timberlake—who stars as Napster founder and Facebook president Sean Parker in the Aaron Sorkin movie—found the movie-making process fulfilling and said it was "more collaborative" than performing live on stage. He even enjoyed director David Fincher's grueling process—25 takes per scene or more is the rule rather than the exception. When asked about his decision to foray into film, the Grammy winner was anything but the cocky pop star he's seemingly been in the past. "I'm jumping around so people don't find out how moderate I am," Timberlake told The Wall Street Journal. "I didn't want people to find out I wasn't the best singer, so I became an actor." He's so funny and smooth that we're ignoring his next screen project.
Some things get better with age and no one has given that theory more clout this year than former Golden Girls star Betty White. Though she never really fell out of our good graces, the 88-year-old actress outdid herself in 2010—she kicked off the year with an irreverent acceptance speech at the SAG awards that had Sandra Bullock cracking up, followed it up with a hilarious Super Bowl Snickers ad alongside Abe Vigoda, and then went on to revitalize sketch comedy on Saturday Night Live. Our favorite potty-mouthed granny gave one of the SNL's best performances in recent memory and the gig led to incredibly high ratings for NBC and an Emmy for White. Soon thereafter, she brought TV Land their highest ratings ever with her hit series Hot in Cleveland and continued cracking America up with stints on Community and 30 Rock. Tina Fey should feel threatened.
Tony Danza achieved 1980s immortality for his roles on Who's the Boss and Taxi, but in 2010, he took the reality road to fame—except instead of sashaying on Dancing With the Stars or finding himself in Celebrity Rehab, he starred on A&E's Teach: Tony Danza. The beloved 59-year-old TV dad took on the role of a real 10th grade English teacher. But the show isn't some kind of societal voyeuristic adventure like Intervention—it's a genuine effort on Danza's part to take on a second career as an educator in an inner city school in Philadelphia. The premiere episode documented his first day in the classroom, during which the beloved TV dad cries at least four times. Throughout the rest of the 2009-2010 school year, he continues to try and get through to his students because, as Danza taught us, "There's a path you take and a path untaken… the choice is up to you, my friend." Of his brave venture into the classroom, the Brooklyn native told Parade (seemingly not ironically), "I'm getting a chance to go back and take the road not taken."
Though she hit the teen pop scene in the late 1990s alongside Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, "Candy" singer Mandy Moore was too sweet to stand out. Her albums were moderately successful and her acting stints did little to improve her image (i.e. A Walk To Remember). But this year, Moore dropped jaws on the season six finale of Grey's Anatomy. In one of the show's best episodes ever, Moore proved so memorable that she was brought back for season seven. "While Mandy Moore's chipper attitude was quickly transformed into fear, it was an interesting turn," one reviewer at TV Squad wrote of her performance. That positivity also served Moore well when she auditioned to voice the long-haired princess in Disney's Tangled. "We actually saw between 250-300 actresses for the Rapunzel role," the film's co-director told The Wall Street Journal. "What you want with an animated voice is someone who can communicate personality and humor and spark without seeing her face." And Moore did that successfully— Tangled was the only film that managed to knock Harry Potter out of the No. 1 box office spot.
There's a certain draw to watching the Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil try professional ice skating on Skating with the Stars. Although Neil (SPOILER ALERT) was voted off in this week's episode, the heavy metal frontman was the only rock star brave and agile enough to give the series a go. This hell raiser, former strip club owner, drunk driver, and unintentional sex tape star may have been one of the show's unlikeliest contestants, but Neil actually skated in his youth. He hadn't been on the ice in decades, but found it was like riding a bike. "The first day I put on skates, I didn't think I could do it. Within a half an hour, it was all coming back," Neil told USA Today. Although he admitted he wasn't "graceful" or "limber," he told USA Today he was in the competition to win it, not to make a comeback. He may not have won, but Neil's positive attitude and clean act showed he'd upped his game on all fronts. "You're beginning to remember what you did at the age of 12," judge Dick Button said in Neil's final episode. "I'm the TSA of figure skating and I see the talent in you!" We don't understand the pat-down analogy, but it sounds like a compliment.
Did anyone prove the old adage "everybody loves a wedding" better than Chelsea Clinton this year? The 30-year-old daughter of the former president and current secretary of State married her longtime boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky in Rhinebeck, New York as the world looked on. Although the 400-person ceremony and reception was off-limits to press, the media swarmed the tiny town en masse during the final weekend of July. By Monday morning, the four photos the family released of the affair had made their rounds on the web and everybody buzzed about how stunning the bride (and once awkward White House pre-teen) looked, how many times her father cried, what her mother wore, and the rest of the details. Although she's shunned the spotlight her whole life, Clinton became the closest thing Americans had to royalty on her special day. The father of the bride in particular was wowed by the former first daughter. "She was more beautiful than ever," Bill Clinton told Entertainment Tonight of Chelsea.
We knew Sheriff Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) tried to aim high since one of the Toy Story's central character's signature expressions was "Reach for the Sky." Still, we had no idea how much he meant it until Toy Story 3. The summer blockbuster asked a serious question: What happens to those possessions you outgrow? Woody, the hapless former leader of one boy's toys had become the damsel in distress a decade prior in Toy Story 2, letting Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen) take the pilot seat. But Woody once again became the hero of the third installment, saving the toys and the day and giving audiences a lesson in growing up. As his proud owner Andy explained at the film's end, "He's brave, like a cowboy should be. And kind, and smart. But the thing that makes Woody special is he'll never give up on you... ever. He'll be there for you, no matter what." The toys learned a lesson in loyalty and adult audiences left with crumpled up Kleenex, proud of the characters they fell in love with back when the franchise launched in 1995.
