Fametastic buttonWell, that’s just about it for 2007: just four hours left until 2008 kicks off and we look forward to another gossiptastic year!

Fametastic has continued to go from strength to strength this year and we’ve covered some really great stories. Here are some of our favourites.



Lucy’s favourite stories

Wow, this year has flown by for me. It’s not been helped by the fact we’ve not really had proper seasons in the UK - last winter was mild then summer was mostly a wash-out - so it’s been one big blur. I’m looking back at stories from the first few months of the year and thinking “jeez, was that a year ago? wow, I must be getting old.”

I think, without a doubt, my favourite story of the year was Katie Price (Jordan)’s description of why she named her daughter with husband Peter Andre, Princess Tiáamii:

“Her name is Princess Tiáamii. Princess because she is our princess and Tiaamii was Pete’s idea because it’s taken from our mums’ names. We’ve put an accent over the first ‘a’ to make it a bit more exotic and two ‘i’s at the end just to make it look a bit different.”

I just love how it’s completely without pretence - no pretend spiritual reasons behind it or anything like that. It gave me a new-found - respect isn’t the right word, neither is love but they’re both getting there - a new-found fascination with them. What will that kooky Katie say or do next?

Speaking of kooksters, I was both disturbed and fascinated when Britney Spears shaved her head. I can see how for someone in her position it would be rather empowering to shave her head - cast off her old image so she can reinvent herself - but given she was already in the middle of a breakdown (or the like) when she did it and has proceeded along that line since then, I doubt that’s what she really had in mind. The initial pictures of her doing it were disturbing because of the somewhat deranged look in her eyes but she looks really pretty in this later picture. She’s started to look really pretty lately too - perhaps I’m biased towards plastic framed glasses since I wear them myself or perhaps it’s because she’s been looking genuinely happy recently. Hopefully things will (continue to) get better for Ms Spears in 2008.

Finally, I had my first stab at doing red carpet event fashion write-ups this year as our usual fashionista Cat was busy with her own manic life. My first one was for the Costume Institute Gala in New York in May (wow, was it really way back in May?!) and it was great fun to put together. I’ve done the Emmys and MTV VMAs since then and look forward to doing more in the future - I’m quite the tomboy in real life but it’s nice to dress-up vicariously through celebrities! :)

Lucy’s Resolutions for 2008:

  • Dull one: Use my time more productively rather than in the stressed!-then-booooooooored manner of the moment.
  • Fun one: Go on a proper holiday for the first time in more than two years.


Heather’s favourite stories

This year has been such an interesting gossip year: we’ve constantly been featuring stories on all my favourite girls but not all of them have been good ones.

I couldn’t believe it when Lindsay Lohan got busted not once but twice for DUIs over the summer. I mean, really, that’s just getting silly. I’ve harboured a not-so-secret love of her since Mean Girls but she’s really been testing my fandom this year with her crazy behaviour and her desire to be the blondest of the blonde and the tannest of the tanned. She seems to be losing what has made her unique and great - but I wouldn’t put it past her to do a Drew Barrymore: have a few wilderness years as she loses then finds her feet, then finds a niche, possibly Drew’s rom-com one, where she works well. Fingers crossed.

My girl Amy Winehouse has also had a helluva year and I’ve got my fingers crossed for her too (it’s getting hard to type). Back to Black is in my top 10 most played albums list and I really worry that she’s going to be a flame that burns brightly for a too short an amount of time rather than a slow-burner who becomes the utter legend she deserves to be. When she was hospitalised after her overdose in August, I was really worried that she’d be dead within a month so even though it’s not been a great time for her, I see her still being with us - buying ice pops at 4am and wandering around in her bra - as a good sign (hopefully).

I’m very glad that one of our hopes for 2007 came true - Nicole Richie seems to have really turned herself around this year. She’d have been number six on our People of the Year list if we’d gone up to six because while she’s not done that much this year, she looks so much healthier this days and given how sketetal and messed up she once was, that’s a worthy achievement. I wouldn’t have put her and Joel Madden together in my mind but they seem to work really well together and seem to be delighted about their soon-to-arrive baby — and that’s been nice in a year of DUIs, overdoses and custody battles.

Speaking of babies, I was surprised to her that Lily Allen was pregnant - and so early into a new relationship - but after a wild youth, she seems pretty on top of things these days and I’m sure she’ll be a great mum. Her MySpace blog is just about one of my favourite celebrity sites out there and I hope she keeps us up to date with her bump’s developments.

Heather’s Resolutions for 2008:

  • Dull one: Do more exercise than just clicking my mouse buttons!
  • Fun one: Finally conquer the unicycle!


Our hopes for 2008

  • Like last year, we’d still like to see Britney devise a game plan and stick to it - and not start heading down the cosmetic surgery route she seems to be toying with at the moment because it’s unlikely that it’ll end well.
  • Ditto Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty. (We’d really like to see Pete back with Kate Moss because they seemed so in love - but only if the relationship’s good for them both.)
  • After Jennifer Lopez got her long-awaited wish, we hope Nicole Kidman will also get to have her much-desired baby.
  • And we hope that no other too-young teen stars join Jamie Lynn Spears in pre-natal classes: safe sex can still be good sex, people.
  • We hope celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and Zac Efron realise that sometimes less is more when it comes to preening and the like.
  • And finally, we hope that we get to introduce all the new ideas we have for Fametastic because some of them are really awesome - see you in 2008!