This would've made the perfect photo to accompany their Christmas cards. Jim and Jenny are pictured with Jim's daughter, Jane, and Jenny's son, Evan. Too bad!

The announcement that Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey are splitting up after a five-year relationship made me kind of sad when I heard the news. Although unmarried, from what the tabloid TV shows and other news items reported, it seemed that the couple had a real solid thing going and it looked like they would last for quite a long time. Alas, it appears that there won’t be any McCarthy/Carrey Christmas cards sent out this year.

It’s a shame, too, because Jenny McCarthy had always maintained that her autistic son, Evan, and Jim Carry always had a special relationship. Despite Carrey’s zany behavior during talk show appearances and movie roles that exhibit a somewhat irreverent personality, Carrey’s closeness with the boy shows what the man himself is really about. In fact, it was a couple of years ago at a rally in Washington, D.C. that Carrey admitted that, “Autism made [him] a man.” Although we are not privy to the details of how the actor and McCarthy’s son bonded so well, the fact that the future will be different for them certainly is a disappointment.

McCarthy came into the public eye initially when she posed for Playboy magazine in 1993. Her career branched out as she began to appear on television and as an actress in several movies. To some, McCarthy is most respected for her autism advocacy. She is an author of several books on parenting and autism; her first publication came out in 1997. She is also a spokesperson for the organization Talk About Curing Autism and a board member of Generation Rescue. She believes vaccines have much to do with the spread of autism and that less is more. Through her research and hard work, McCarthy has improved Evans’s condition to the point where he is now classified as “typical”, meaning that although he still has auditory issues, his autism has been cured.

So, while the bad news is that a longtime relationship has apparently ended, the good news is that her son is doing very well and it looks like he has a bright future ahead of him. So this year’s Christmas card – while it may lack the face of Jim Carrey – will be a bright and cheery one nevertheless.

The perfect photo for Paul Rudd's holidays cards - Paul pictured with son Jack, both in flannel and both looking "sublimely" happy.

Another perfect holiday card photo - Paul Rudd is pictured with I Love You, Man co-star Jason Segel. Except, I don't think Paul's wife would be too happy about this one.

Receiving celebrity holiday cards from my favorite stars would be an absolute thrill! Paul Rudd comes to mind immediately because of one of his latest movie, I Love You, Man. His on-screen persona reminds me of that jolly old elf, Santa himself. I mean, he’s droll, totally innocent-looking, but with a really mischievous twinkle in his eyes. And that look is what sent me on this kick of wishing for a holiday card from Paul.

Paul Rudd’s celebrity holiday card would be the first to go into the movie star scrapbook I’ve kept since I was in grade school. My beloved treasures are black and white, autographed 8×10-inch glossies of my favorite stars from the 1940s and 50s. Not so precious are magazine articles and gossip columns, along with Dixie cup lids featuring pictures of movie stars. (For you youngsters out there, Dixies were cups of vanilla and chocolate ice cream that cost a nickel and included a wooden spoon. Lick the back of the lid, see a star.)

I would love to find out if his sense of humor extends into his private life. If Paul Rudd sent holiday photo cards, would he be on the front wearing a giant Christmas ornament costume, something similar to the huge, round planet Earth suit he wore on the Sesame Street TV special, “Being Green?” Or, would he dress up like a chef? He once had a job glazing hams for the Holiday Ham Co. in Kansas City. Can’t you just picture him, a la Lucille Ball’s famous candy factory scene, frantically trying to paint glaze on the hams as they whiz by him on a conveyor belt? Would his greeting read, “Hammy Holidays?”

Maybe he would go musical. There’s a manger on the front of the holiday card, with Paul, his wife, and son as the holy family, surrounded by a shepherd, some sheep, three kings and their camels. As you open the card…bam! A loud rap version of “Joy to the World,” with baa, baa, baa plus grunting camels hits your ears. Okay, maybe I got a bit over zealous with this one. After all, Paul Rudd is Jewish, so he probably wouldn’t have a manger on the front of his holiday cards.

Paul Rudd, if you read this – with the sense of humor I hope you have – and you aren’t deeply offended, please, please, please send me a holiday card.

Perhaps one of the better pictures of Anna Nicole Smith, appearing happy and not boozed out or drugged up.

Larry Birkhead stopped to pose for a photograph with daughter Dannielynn during a Christmas shopping spree.

Anna Nicole Smith hosted a Christmas party on her 2002 reality show, leaving behind a dysfunctional holiday tradition captured on video that would definitely be better off forgotten. Perhaps Christmas cards sent instead to all those who attended the event would have been a more appropriate memory of the holiday season that year.

Anna Nicole hosted this Christmas party dressed in a low-cut red dress trimmed with a white fur collar. At one point during the party, guests sat on her lap as she played “Santa” and distributed gifts. The evening progressed rapidly downhill as the drinking increased. Fights, drunken caroling, and stripping are only some of the highlights of this get together. The most disturbing portrait of Anna Nicole is the aftermath of a drunken make-out scene under the mistletoe between herself and comedienne Margaret Cho. Anna looks into the camera, her face smeared with red lipstick, her facial features hideously distorted from too much liquor…and possibly drugs. Surely this picture printed on a Christmas card might have been the perfect legacy to pass along to her then alive son Daniel and his yet unborn sister Dannielynn.

Dannielynn is an innocent contrast to her mother’s drunken holiday image. After a very lengthy public paternity suit, Larry Birkhead appears to be a loving father tying to bring some normalcy into the little girl’s life. Speaking about the impending suit, Larry is quoted as saying, “Christmas has come early, and I thank God that I will soon have the opportunity to prove that I am the father of Dannielynn.” One year later, Mr. Birkhead is chased by a group of paparazzi while Christmas shopping for his little girl. Unable to outrun the cameras, Larry stops to show one purchase he made for his pride and joy – a pair of pink converse sneakers. Perhaps Christmas cards featuring the smiling face of Dannielynn, the innocent offspring of the tragic mother, would be a better legacy to pass along for Anna Nicole Smith.