STUFF YOU GOTTA WATCH - 2006 Year-End Entertainment Column

Best Ten Moments in Entertainment 2006

By Steve Bailey
December 2006

Steve Bailey is an award-winning movie reviewer from the lovely land of Florida. He has kindly allowed this site to reprint one of his columns. - JB

I'm well-known as a curmudgeon, but every so often, something happens in the entertainment world that pleasantly surprises me. Sometimes it's a hopeless-looking movie that turns out to be a gem. Other times, it's an egotistic celebrity getting his or her comeuppance. They're not always huge epiphanies, but often enough, they reassure me that show biz hasn't completely succumbed to the lowest common denominator. Here, then, are ten events that gave me hope in the passing year. - SB

1. Conan O'Brien's spot-on "Music Man" parody on the annual Emmy Awards. Close second: His ongoing televised threat to kill (in-on-the-joke) Bob Newhart if the awards show ran long.

2. Clint Eastwood's movie of "Flags of Our Fathers." One of the greatest anti-war films ever made, directed by a 76-year-old. Tell me again why we have an enforced retirement age.

3. "Rocky Balboa." It took him five sequels, but Sylvester Stallone finally got it right.

4. Despite months of Internet hype, "Snakes on a Plane" grossed only $34 million. Turns out the public was just as sick of those bleepin' snakes as Sam Jackson was.

5. Once a multi-media irritant, Britney Spears is now reduced to going out in public sans panties just to get press coverage. Perhaps the day is near when her public persona will be as invisible as her underwear.

6. The recent black eyes sported by ABC's "The View": Danny DeVito's drunken rant, Rosie O'Donnell defaming Donald Trump and much of the population of China. This is what happens when a major network wastes an hour on a glorified coffee-klatsch.

7. The fall-out from "Borat." The aftermath of embarrassing real people in an offensive movie comedy: The people come back and sue the moviemakers

8. "Brotherhood." This Showtime series looked like a "Sopranos" knock-off but quickly came into its own. I'd take any single episode from this show over Scorsese's "The Departed" any day.

9. Jessica Simpson finally gets her lack of talent thrown in her face. Appearing at a Kennedy Center tribute to Dolly Parton, the buxom non-star flubbed the words to Parton's song "9 to 5" and was treated to an audience sitting on their hands. She fled the stage and asked to be edited out of the tribute's TV special.

10. "Love," the surprisingly triumphant new album from The Beatles. John Lennon and George Harrison long ago passed on, and they still had a better year than I had.

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