Scarlett Johansson’s Christmas cards probably served as more than just a Christmas card this past year. It could have been a way to announce that she and her HOTTIE husband Ryan Reynolds decided to get a divorce. Can you even picture it? A Holiday card featuring a nice photo of the loving couple enclosed with a message saying, “Merry Christmas, We Are Getting Divorced!”

Getting divorced is one thing, but leaving Ryan Reynolds for Sean Penn is just crazy! Merry Christmas indeed!

Breaking up around the holidays is just so hard to endure! Not only do you have to deal with the guilt of the extra 10 lbs you have probably packed on from holiday splurging now you have to deal with the fact that you are going to be ALONE for Christmas! Then again this is ScarJo we’re talking about, there isn’t an ounce of fat on her amazing body! But seriously, how did this gorgeous power couple divorce?! They were supposed to make at least one perfect offspring! And Scarlett dating Sean Penn so quickly before the divorce was even finalized was just a slap in the face to Ryan. But let’s face it, Ryan gets the last laugh because although Sean Penn was a catch maybe 20 years ago, today I think he is probably more suitable for someone like Scarlett’s mother or maybe a MUCH older sister. I thought you were supposed to trade in for a younger model but instead she decided to trade her corvette for an older model mini van!

Hopefully this divorce does not lead her down a path of disaster like some of the other young celebs out there today. The way she’s presented herself so far I expect to see more of Scarlett in upcoming movie roles and not in the tabloids for nonsense in her personal life. She made her film debut at 9 years old in a fantasy comedy North. After several minor roles she caught the attention of audiences everywhere in her performance for The Horse Whisperer. At 18, she played a role of a 25 year old not using her physical assets but her husky voice. But Scarlett quickly became a sex symbol and regularly appears on the top of lists for sexiest woman in the world.

She’s definitely one of the most likeable actresses of today. Scarlett already has some upcoming roles in movies such as We Brought a Zoo and The Avengers. Although her role in Broadway’s A View From The Bridge gave her some of the career’s best reviews and a Tony Award, I’m sure she’s wishing the photo of her and Liev Schreiber in Santa hat would disappear from the Internet already! I’m sure it wouldn’t be her favorite choice for a photo Christmas card, but then again she probably would never send out Christmas cards anyway since, after all, she is Jewish!

I know, right now some of you are asking, who is Billy Idol?  Is he still alive? What has he been up to since his successful career back in the 80’s?  Well you’ll be happy to know that he is alive and well and more importantly still touring.  That’s right he’s still doing concerts.  I’m proud to say that after all these years I’m still a die-hard Billy Idol fan.  I recently saw him in concert in 2010 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC.  The man still has it.  His voice is still sexy & sultry as ever.  Let’s not forget the leather!  While listening to his song “Sweet 16”, a much mellower song, I started to think about how ordinary his life is and how he celebrates the holidays, because like you and I he has family.  I was actually thinking in the crowded Hammerstein Ballroom, “What kind of Christmas Cards would he send out to his friends & family?” As a fan, I certainly wouldn’t mind receiving a card or two!

Billy Idol is the King of Punk, and a suave Christmas crooner to boot!

We all have that special someone that will rock our world forever.  I remember seeing him for the first time on MTV in 1982 singing “White Wedding” and “Dancing with Myself”.  I quickly set up my VCR and couldn’t wait for the next time it would come on and I could record it in its entirety.  I once told my husband “if Billy comes to town – see ya!”   A girl can dream right?

Over the years I’ve followed his career through his ups and downs and no matter what people think of his bad boy image, he’s a part of music history that will live on forever! So when I heard he was coming out with a Christmas Album, yes Christmas Album, I was at first “oh no Billy, say it ain’t so….” However, being a true fan I had to purchase the CD and listen to it.   I totally enjoyed the songs.  In the video, of course, he has to add that sexy smirk & lip motion and you just have to take a deep breath and sigh!

Thank you Billy for the music and rocking my world all these years!

As most baseball fans know, the Yankees’ Derek Jeter has now broken the 3000-hit barrier and, although a trusted coworker of mine considers him to be a much media-overrated player who just happens to be playing in the city that is arguably the biggest stage for any ballplayer, I’m going to write about him anyway. In fact, 3000 hits is such a momentous occasion, it should be a part of his Christmas cards this year!

I’m not a huge Jeter fan but I will acknowledge that prior to the last couple of years, he’s been awfully reliable when it comes to knocking runs in in crucial moments, especially in the playoffs and the World Series, events which, luckily for him, the Yankees were able to participate in for much of the earlier part of his career.  Who can forget the home run he hit in the bottom of the 10th inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2001 World Series whereby he was nicknamed “Mr. November” by Yankees play-by-play announcer, Michael Kay?  Or the catch against the Red Sox in 2004 that he made by diving into the box seats, sacrificing his body (and chin) to make sure he caught that popup three rows into the stands?  There’s no disputing that Jeter—named the captain of the team by the late team-owner George Steinbrenner—has come through in the clutch many times.

Derek Jeter has 3000 hits, something only 28 players have done. What do they all have in common? Most of them played baseball for a long, long time, so that helps.

But now (as Frank Sinatra would say), the end is near and Jeter’s facing the final curtain.  He statistics since his last productive year (in 2009 he batted .334 with a .406 on-base percentage and a slugging average of .465) have steadily declined to where he is now a relatively serviceable—but mediocre—player, whose manager, Joe Girardi, hasn’t yet pulled the trigger on moving Jeter out of the leadoff spot in the lineup.  Generally, the person hitting at the top of the batting order is the one who gets on base more often than most in the lineup—the “table setter”—so to speak.  Unfortunately, as Jeter has now reached the age of 37, his utensils aren’t doing the job anymore.  Still a steady fielder, he needs to be moved down toward the bottom of the lineup by Girardi as a team-improving gesture.  This decision is a difficult one because of tradition and Jeter’s alleged stubbornness in regards to acknowledging his own eroding skills.  But it’s something that should be done now rather than later.

Granted, Derek Jeter has had a terrific career and will most assuredly be named to baseball’s Hall of Fame after his career is over (certainly over the protests of my anti-Jeter coworker).  And achieving the 3000-hit mark is nothing to sneeze at; after all, longevity in most occupations is certainly a feather in one’s cap.  However, it is now time to do what’s best for the team and Jeter should realize he can make his manager’s job easier by acceding to the inevitable and allowing himself to be dropped lower in the batting order for the team’s sake.

Oh and congratulations on achieving 3000 hits, something no other Yankee has ever done.  A most Jeterian event!

Pictured here is the online celebrity Christmas card sent by recent singing sensation Susan Boyle for 2010.  It features the same photo as the cover of her second hit CD, The Gift, also released in late 2010, with the message “I wish you a very Merry Christmas and happy and peaceful new year.  God bless, Susan Boyle”.

Susan Boyle's rags to riches story of fame certainly makes a wonderful Christmas tale.

Susan Boyle was born in 1961 in Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland to Patrick Boyle, a miner and tavern-singer, and Bridget, a shorthand typist.  Susan’s mother was 47 at the time of her birth and after a difficult delivery during which Susan was deprived of oxygen for a time, she was born with a learning disability.  Predictably, the kids at school were cruel, giving her the nickname “Susie Simple”.

After high school, Ms. Boyle was employed for the only time in her life as a cook-in-training in the kitchen of West Lothian College.  She attended Edinburgh Acting School and took singing lessons from voice coach Fred O’Neill.  She performed in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at a number of local karaoke bars.  She recorded a version of the song “Cry Me a River” for a charity CD in 1999.  Her main vocal experience came from performing in the choir of her local church, Our Lady of Lourdes, in Blackburn, where she went on several singing trips.  She also acted as a church volunteer, visiting elderly members of the congregation in their homes.  Her father died in the 1990s, at which point Susan dedicated herself to caring for her aging mother.  When her mother died in 2007, she decided to apply for a spot on the hit TV show Britain’s Got Talent, as her mom and voice coach had previously suggested.

Her now-legendary performance of “I Dreamed a Dream” on the show took place on April 11, 2009.  The contrast between Susan’s ultra-plain appearance and her dominant, compelling vocals prompted an awestruck reaction from host Simon Cowell and the entire studio audience.  She was launched to instant stardom and her first album, I Dreamed a Dream was released in November of that year.  It became the fastest-selling UK debut album of all time, with 411,820 copies sold.  In the U.S., it topped the Billboard chart for six straight weeks and with 3,104,000 copies sold, I Dreamed a Dream finished a close second to Taylor Swift’s Fearless as the highest-selling album of 2009.  As Stephen Colbert summed it up at the Grammy’s, this year “your (music) industry was saved by a 48 year old Scottish cat lady in sensible shoes.”