Every year I seem to struggle with buying my friend, Jamie, a Christmas gift. I always ask her what she wants and I seem to get the same response…nothing. Jamie is a close friend of the family and we have been exchanging gifts for years. She is a simple person who doesn’t ask for much. This makes it extremely difficult to buy a gift for her. Therefore, I always wind up getting her a gift card from a chain store or local restaurant. But she had helped me a lot this year with my recent move, so I wanted to try and get her something special.

After a few weeks of procrastinating, I still hadn’t thought of a gift to get Jamie, but soon a great idea hit me. As I was watching the Today Show one morning, they just finished a segment on celebrity Christmas cards. Later on in the program, they were going to bring on Clint Eastwood. This was it!  Jamie is a huge Clint Eastwood fan and I could get her some of his more popular movies. I quickly picked up the phone and dialed Jamie’s brother, Brian. I asked him if Jamie owned any Clint Eastwood movies. Brian soon pointed out that she had an extensive movie collection and was pretty sure that she owned all the Eastwood movies that she liked.

Clint Eastwood would like you to go ahead and make his day by having a very Merry Christmas!

I decided to scrap the movie idea and took my search to the internet. I pulled out my laptop and ran a search on E-Bay. My initial search results didn’t show anything that piqued my interest. It was mostly Eastwood DVDs, posters, and pictures. As I dug further though, I found some pretty cool items: a pair of signed gloves from the movie Million Dollar Baby, an Eastwood worn Stetson hat, a life sized card board cutout, and even a dollar bill with Clint’s picture in the middle of it. While all these items were pretty cool, they just didn’t seem practical. What was Jamie going to do with a Stetson hat?

I started to become frustrated. I finally had a great lead on a gift, but couldn’t pull it together. I continued running my search, as Clint Eastwood made his appearance on the Today Show. I wasn’t interested much in his interview but did hear that they were giving away five personalized signed Eastwood pictures. Every 10th caller would win!

I picked up my phone and started dialing…busy! I tried again…busy. I tried two more times and finally got through. I won! I asked if Clint could personalize the photo with Jamie’s name, wishing her a happy birthday. They said this wouldn’t be a problem and mailed me the picture

Three days later I received the package. The autograph read “To my biggest fan, Jamie.  Merry Christmas.” How cool was this?!? And the timing was perfect. Jamie was having a few friends over at her place later that week. She was going to be out of town on Christmas and decided to have a holiday party before hand. I immediately went out and bought a frame.

On the day of the party, I picked up Jamie’s brother, Brian. I wanted to keep the gift a secret from everyone, and didn’t even tell him. As we showed up on Jamie’s doorstep, I gave Brian my camera. I asked him to take a picture of Jamie as she opened her gift. As we walked in to Jamie’s place, I handed her the gift. Brian started snapping pictures as she opened it up. She looked at it with a puzzled face, then bursted into laughter. I didn’t know what to make of her reaction, so I asked her if she liked it. She then left the room, only to return with another autographed picture from Clint Eastwood. Jamie then said, “I guess you watch the Today Show too, huh?”

So I was browsing the internet the other day looking at celebrity sites and, low and behold, I came upon this great picture of actor Sean Connery in a Santa Claus outfit and thought, “Is this the picture he uses for the front of his photo cards for Christmas that he sends out each year?” With that white beard, the slightly over 80-year-old Scotsman makes a perfect Santa. Still handsome, still very alluring to the ladies!

Who needs a traditional Santa when we can have Sean Connery dressed up as Zed from the movie 'Zardoz'! That's one sexy Santa!

I then wondered whether there were any Christmas cards or Christmas-related information on the web that featured Connery as a younger man, like when he starred as James Bond during the 1960s. I didn’t find anything like that great Santa shot but I did come upon a Christmas ad he did for Jim Beam bourbon which appeared in 1967, tieing in with his Bond adventure, You Only Live Twice, released in June of that year. Connery was at his physically-appealing peak at that time and…never mind cards! Any woman would have loved to have had the man featured in that whisky ad in her Christmas stocking or show up in person at her front door! The thing about the ad is, I remember in his movies, James Bond always drank his martini “shaken, not stirred.” Well, as far as I know, bourbon isn’t something mixed in a martini, so what is that all about? Wouldn’t it have made sense to do an ad for a particular type of gin since gin is used in a traditional martini?

One image of Connery I found that I am sure he would not have wanted to use on his Christmas cards was the image of his character, Zed, from the 1974 fantasy / sci-fi movie, Zardoz. Listed in The Official Razzle Movie Guide as among the “100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made”, Connery parades around in a red diaper and thigh-high boots, probably he right thing to wear if he were working as a Chippendales dancer but certainly not appropriate for Christmas cards! (Although red is a Christmas color, isn’t it?)

Anyway, whether featured in the Bond movies or in other hits such as Marnie, Murder On The Orient Express, or Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, the bodybuilder-turned actor (who retired from filmdom a few years ago) has given fans – both female and male – lots of thrills throughout his 50-year career. Let us all hope he will continue to send holiday cards for many years to come.

My world is being turned upside down.  Black is white.  Left is right.  Jersey Shoreis Masterpiece Theatre.  Why am I in such a state, you ask?  Because the status quo is changing, my friend.  Life as I know it will never be the same.  Too much change in the television landscape.  First Oprah said “peace out, cub scouts” and headed to her private island to roll around in her millions (Chicago is an island, right?)  But now?  Now?!  Regis Philbin is calling it quits.  Regis.  The Reeg!  I hope he celebrates his retirement by sending out Christmas cards of himself and his wife Joy sitting on recliners playing the home version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”.

We'll miss Regis and all of his zany activities. I'm sure it won't be the last we see of him!

After 28 years waking up with America on his syndicated morning show, Regis has decided it’s time to hang up the mic and move on.  I’m getting verklempt.  Talk amongst yourselves.

There, I’m better.  Though nowadays, Regis chats it up with the endearingly perky Kelly Ripa, we all remember his start with Kathie Lee Gifford.  Of course, you can now see Kathie Lee drink her way to the bottom of a wine bottle on the 4th hour of the Today Show.  She really has moved up in the world.

While Regis is the institution on Live! With Regis & Kelly, producers of the show aren’t ready to say bye-bye to Ripa.  She has been signed on to host the show until 2017.  For now, the show will tentatively be titled Live! With Kelly until a permanent replacement may be found.  In the meantime, certain celebrities shall pop in for guest-hosting stints, starting with Jerry Seinfeld later this month.  Rumor has it one of the top contenders for the job is none other than Mark Consuelos, Ripa’s husband.

For my part, I’ll miss Regis.  Watching him slip slowly towards senility was—dare I say it?—adorable.  His goofs, facial expressions, and shout-speaking will be missed (especially by all your friends who do Regis impressions.  You know you have them).  I think Kelly is enough of a talent and has enough personality to keep the show going for a while, but no one can truly replace the man that started it all.

What do you think?  Can anyone replace Regis?  If so, who?  And let’s settle this once-and-for all: Kathie Lee or Kelly?  Sound off below!

I love Survivor! Having watched every season of this show, I can tell you that there have been many many characters through the years. Boston Rob, Rudy, Pavarti, Johnny Fairplay etc., however, none are quite as interesting as Coach, aka, the Dragon Slayer. I would love to have  photo Christmas cards from him. It is sure to be imaginative, interesting and downright odd.

Would you want a Christmas card from Coach? He is one wacky guy!

His real name is Benjamin Wade, but if you have watched the show, you would just call him Coach. Many people have seen him as underhanded, sneaky and a villain. The fact of the matter is, the man is a great story teller and he is entertaining, but he is a little too honest to be sneaky so he never makes much progress. He has been voted off twice and now has returned for a third time to compete for one million dollars.

Coach spent his early years in Knoxville, Tennessee. He started a music career as a child and his main instrument was the trumpet. He made some appearances at the Indianapolis Symphony, the Knoxville Symphony and the New York Metropolitan Opera. Graduating with a business degree from the University of Tennessee in 1993, he moved on to coach the woman’s soccer team at Simpson University in Redding, California. Over the next thirteen years he was coaching a variety of collegiate soccer teams and wound up at Southwest Baptist University in 2005. He was fired from the position when he went on Survivor and he was unable to return to his position for two months. Hopefully, this time he can keep his newest position as a teacher of music history at Lassen College.

Coach may be off to a better start this year as he has limited the number of stories that he has been telling. He’s learned some strategy and started by ambushing his team mates by calling people out on what they had said behind others backs, with the result that the elimination went exactly the way he wanted. I, for one, miss his entertaining stories, but the man is full of character and a delight to watch. Hopefully, I can get on his mailing list for what must be a great Christmas card. Go Coach – slay the dragons!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or actually care about way more important things), you’ve undoubtedly heard the heartbreaking news: Kim Kardashian is getting a divorce.  I know.  Hold back your tears.  Stay strong.  We’ll make it through this together.  But if you were expecting Christmas cards from the once Mrs. Humphries, well you can just forget it.

How could this magical love affair have ended so quickly? If Kim Kardashian can't stay married, who can?

It seems like only yesterday, America was celebrating the marriage of Kim to Kris Humphries (whoever that is??).  Wait.  It was yesterday.  Pretty close to it actually.  The “happy” couple clocked in a somewhat-impressive three month marriage, which by Hollywood standards translates to about 5 years of wedded bliss (my math may be off).

Kim may have bagged herself an NBA player (I just googled Kris Humphries.  You’re welcome), but clearly, sister Khloe has more luck with the athletes, as her marriage to Lamar Odom stays strong.  For now.

Anyway, this is Kim’s story, so let’s focus on her.  Is anyone shocked about the split?  I can’t say that I am.  Her engagement seemed to come out of the blue, with the marriage quickly following.  Tabloids and message boards were abuzz with Kardashian wedding fever!  America’s very own Royal Wedding!  Eat your heart out, Kate Middleton!

The wedding was recorded and televised for Kim’s show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians.  She sold her wedding pictures to the tabloids.  Clearly, the message here was love.  These two were in love.  Crazy, stupid, reality-show love (not to be confused with real love.  Two different animals altogether).

But riddle me this, Batman: Isn’t it a bit of a coinky-dink that the person to break the news of Kardashian’s divorce was none other than Ryan Seacrest?  The very same Ryan Seacrest who serves as executive producer of Keeping Up With the Kardashians?

I may be an outsider looking in, but I can’t help feeling this was all just a publicity stunt.  Kim’s mom, Kris Jenner, went on the Today Show to talk about the divorce.  Was that really necessary?  I think people would feel a little more sympathetic had the wedding been low-key, something private.  Instead, it was a circus, shoved down our throats at every turn possible.  Kim profited from this wedding, no matter how you slice it.  But, at the very least, let’s give her some credit: she is donating her wedding gifts.

Lesson of the day: when you decide to get married, invite your closest friends and family members.  Not the entire world.