2008: It's Been A Bad Year For…

AMY WINEHOUSE
It’d be unfair to suggest that Amy’s year has been ALL bad. It hasn’t: She won an Ivor Novello songwriting award in May; was honoured with a wax dummy in Madame Tussauds in July and her hubby got out of jail in November. Good times! But Wino also received a caution for slapping a man in the face, was arrested after a video surfaced of her smoking what appeared to be crack cocaine, and got in a fight with a member of her own audience during her set at Glastonbury. Bad times. And without wanting to dampen the aforementioned good stuff: Amy was too ill to attend the unveiling of her wax doppelganger, she only found out about the early release of her estranged husband after reading about it in the paper, and she was hospitalised in November after a bad reaction to prescription medicine. Here’s to a brighter 09, Amy!!

 

JONATHAN ROSS
Like Amy Winehouse, Wossy’s year hasn’t been all bad. He started 2008 by bagging a prestigious Sony Gold Award for his hugely popular Radio 2 show, and kicked off another series of his chat show, Friday Night With Jonathan Ross. But all that changed in October, when he teamed up with Russell Brand to make prank phone calls to 78-year-old actor Andrew Sachs on Brand’s Radio 2 show. Eighteen thousand people complained, Brand resigned from the BBC, and Ross was suspended without pay for three months. His £18 million four-year deal was also called into question as BBC Director-General Mark Thompson admitted his behaviour had been "utterly unacceptable". Ross is due to return to work in January 2009.

 

Find out which celebrities had a good 2008

DANNII MINOGUE
Ms Minogue was the big success story of X Factor 2007, guiding her acts Leon Jackson and Rhydian Roberts to first and second place in her first year as a judge. But in 2008, Dannii’s X Factor fortunes have disappeared (like her tiny nose). Dannii was given the difficult over-25s category and Team Minogue was far from the giant love-in of 2007. Feisty Rachel Hylton and Dannii struggled to see eye-to-eye; there were reported spats between Dannii and Simon Cowell; Simon chose to sit next to new, younger judge Cheryl Cole on the panel; and then Dannii broke down in tears during a live show in November following a spat with Louis Walsh. A ‘source’ recently told Heat magazine that Simon is considering replacing Dannii on next year’s panel with a “younger male”. Ouch. It’s not all bad though – the 37-year-old found love this year with former England rugby league player Kris Smith.

 

LEON JACKON
Leon… who? Exactly! Dannii Minogue may have guided little Leon Jackson to success as the winner of X Factor 2007, but this year has been a quiet one for the 19-year-old Scot. Leon started 2008 on a high, popping champers and treating all his mates to fish suppers, as Simon Cowell warned him to take time on his album rather than rushing it. Wise on paper, but Jackson took a little TOO much time – disappearing completely until October, when he surfaced with a new single that was embarrassingly beaten to the top spot by Peter Kay’s X Factor spoof The Winner’s Song. Oh dear. Now, as albums from fellow X Factor finalists Rhydian and Same Difference look likely to outsell Leon’s effort, he can only be hoping for a better 2009.

MADONNA
As if turning 50 isn’t hard enough, Madonna had to celebrate her birthday in August with a tell-all book by her brother on the best seller lists. Life With My Sister Madonna was written by the star’s younger brother, Christopher Ciccone, who admits he has not spoken to the star for several years. 2008 will also be remembered as the year the queen of pop filed for divorce from Guy Ritchie after eight years of marriage. Madonna had wanted their three children to settle in New York, but as part of her divorce deal with Guy, she has agreed that he should share custody of his sons – Lourdes’ father is New York-based fitness trainer Carlos Leon. “I'm sad about my personal life,” she admitted. “But I feel very blessed and very lucky that I have the opportunity to do what I do in my professional life.” On a positive note, Madonna's Sticky & Sweet tour is set to become the top-grossing tour ever by a solo artist.

 

JADE GOODY
There are bad years and there are REALLY bad years, and Jade’s had the latter. It sounds ridiculous that someone could find out that they had been diagnosed with cancer while in the Big Brother house, but that’s exactly what happened to Jade. The reality star was appearing on the Indian version of the show, hoping to repair her image after bullying Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty on CBB in 2007, when the news was broken to her in the diary room. On return home, an operation showed that cancer was more serious than originally thought and had spread. Since then, Jade has made a Living documentary about her struggle and has been publicly criticised by Katie Price who accused Goody of “cashing in on her diagnosis”. Making matters worse, Jade’s on-off boyfriend Jack Tweed was jailed for 18 months shortly after Jade learnt of her illness. Wishing you well!

SIENNA MILLER
Can anyone name a film that Sienna Miller starred in this year? Erm… exactly! 2008 has been all about Sienna’s private life. The 26-year-old suffered a very public backlash after she began dating a married father-of-four, Balthazar Getty from the Channel 4 series Brothers and Sisters. Sienna's profile took a further battering after photos surfaced of the topless star kissing Getty on a boat of the coast of Italy, and not long after, Sienna's London home was defaced with graffiti. Four months later, rumours surfaced that the relationship had hit the skids, but the Transatlantic couple has been seen together in north London in recent weeks.

 

KERRY KATONA
Kerry started 2008 on a bright note, giving birth to her fourth child, a boy named Max, in April. But it was all downhill from there - in August, Kerry was declared bankrupt for failing to pay an enormous tax bill. Then she appeared to be slurring her words during an interview on This Morning in October, prompting hosts Phillip Schofield and Fern Britton to inquire about her wellbeing. Kerry blamed prescription drugs for her condition, but in the days following the interview, she sacked longtime publicist Max Clifford and admitted she had been diagnosed an alcoholic a few years ago. Last but not least, her MTV series was put on hold. Let’s hope that, come 2009, Kerry is as happy as she appears in her ads for Iceland.

Find out which celebrities had a good 2008

The views in this column are those of the author alone and not of MSN/Microsoft