While Jewish groups have accepted his strongly worded renunciation of the Führer, Will Smith-Loves-Hitlergate rages on: A telling statement spoken at the end of the I Am Legend star's interview with a Scottish reporter is now raising eyebrows, leading some to wonder if Smith hasn't perhaps spent more time than was entirely necessary hunkered down with a Nazi-haired Tom Cruise in a bunker eight floors below the Celebrity Centre, preparing at any moment to bite down on a problem-solving vitamin capsule should it come to that:

· Well, at least we know where Mike Huckabee stands on the Jamie Lynn Spears issue. To the rest of the candidates: We're waiting.
· After taking the whole family to see The Water Horse, Angelina Jolie is now intent on adopting one of the adorable baby Nessies to add to her ever-growing, multicultural brood.
· How one laid off below-the-line staffer learned to stop worrying and love the strike.
· Now you have no excuse for driving on New Year's Eve (unless you plan on spending it anywhere on the Westside): "All Metro Rail lines will run all night, every 20 minutes."
· The Oscar ballots are officially in the USPS's hands now: God be with them, and may they never end up in the dead-letter office Santa's P.O. Box.
· Now, thanks to the internet, you can stare indecisively at the contents of other people's fridges from around the world.

Barron Hilton, Paris's grandfather, has announced today his plans to donate 97 percent of his $2.3 billion fortune to charity. While his similarly philanthropic granddaughter was unavailable for comment, we're certain she would wholeheartedly embrace the rechanneling of the family's vast fortunes to those less hot and/or fortunate, and match the act by pledging a penny from every sale of her mobile phone game sensation Paris Hilton's Jewel Jam to feed the hungry Darfricans. [Reuters]

Don't say we never gave you anything: Paramount Vantage's awards consideration site has made the shooting scripts for all their contenders available for download. That's A Mighty Heart, Margot at the Wedding, Into the Wild, The Kite Runner, and There Will Be Blood. [Vantage Guilds via Slash Film]

· Dub Club at the Echo, Nekromantix, Barnyard Ballers, Tabaltix, The Howlers at the House of Blues, and Brad Johnson and Killin Time play Long Beach's Cowboy Country.
· George Lopez is playing the first of his six dates (six!) at the Nokia Theater (the Nokia Theater!). (George Lopez!) (!)
· Catch Oscars-bound Julie Christie in one of her classic performances playing opposite a rare Hairdresserus Heterosexualis in Shampoo. With The Landlord, at the New Beverly Cinema.

Jamie Lynn Spears's tot saga is really shaping up to be 2008's answer to the onion-layers complexity of big sis's 2007 mental breakdown. Newest development: the dad might not be fellow recent-driver's-license-acquirer Casey Aldridge, but an exec at the kiddie net Nickelodeon, according to a Star magazine report:

We'd like you now to take a moment and think back: way, way back, when a pre-reformed shock-starlet Lindsay Lohan was light years away from sharing the urban-pop-recording goings-on in her newly clean-and-sober life with a Las Vegas radio show (which we'd in turn set to charming, anthropomorphized vegetable imagery). 2005 was the Golden Age of Lohan-Generated Vehicular Manglings, but who of us could have anticipated that over two years later, we'd still be talking about the once-commonplace occurrence of her black Mercedes colliding with a delivery van following a lunch at The Ivy:

Current Las Vegas casino employee Josh Duhamel and future Las Vegas casino performer Fergie are engaged. Do these two have some catchy nickname? How about "Hunk and Humps?" [TMZ]

You've no doubt noticed that Carson Daly's been demonstrably less gut-bustingly hilarious these past few weeks sans pro writers —the bon mots his niece texts him from math class usually fall flat—but the show hit a new low last night when the material-starved talking head, openly looking to kill a few minutes, held a "talent" show featuring members of his put-upon staff. Listen to the tone of voice of everyone in this thing. Heaven's Gate members were peppier.

2007: It was a year that started with a bang—would you classify Tara Reid unsuccessfully attempting to count backwards from 60 any other way?—and ended with one protracted, stalemated whimper, filled with not-so-shocking (and yet totally shocking!) deaths, outrageous pregnancies, and a visit from the transformative robots of our youth. Without further ado, we proudly present the first installment of our 2007 Year in Review:

Antipodean charlatan-to-the-stars Teymara Antonio-Wright has released her star predictions for 2008, drawing upon the prognostigatory powers of Jupiter's relation to Orion's belt buckle to forecast what the coming year has in store for Dannielynn Birkhead. You can't make this stuff up. A quick pick from the passel over at ETOnline:

Thought Monday's round-up was smothered in weak sauce? Just wait until you see today's!
· Jay-Z is retiring again—from his position as the president of Def Jam records. We totally foresaw this earth-shattering development when he tellingly rapped, "I hydroplane into fame/Come'n down with the Dow Jones/When the clouds come we gone" on "Umbrella." [Variety]
· "Classic" acts dominated 2007's concert business, with half of the top 20 tours having started their careers in the '70s. We set this news to the comforting strains of The Eagles' "Long Road Out Of Eden," evocatively covered in proto-spiritual sand dune imagery and available at a Wal-Mart near you. [Variety]

"The driver — 6-foot-4 and 280 pounds — was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving [on Sunday evening], in this case a misdemeanor, police said. In addition to a red Santa hat, he wore a blond wig, red lace camisole, purple G-string, black leg warmers and black shoes. 'We are pretty sure this is not the Santa Claus,' Deputy Chief Ken Garner said." [LAist]

Former pin-up girl, Chairman of the Board-squeeze, and B-movie star of Guns Don't Argue and The Monster of Piedras Blancas Jeanne Carmen died of lymphoma Thursday at the age of 77. Her groundbreaking efforts in the busty blonde arts paved the way for our current generation of panty-allergic starlets. [Yahoo]

That New York Post item about an "Internet billionaire" and his "lady-loving," "wild-child" daughter who's been to rehab twice still has us thinking. Former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel's daughter Courtenay is wild enough, but her dad's not rich enough. How about Megan Ellison, daughter of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, the aspiring film producer? Her MySpace profile lists her as "bi". And while we haven't heard anything about stints in rehab, she did write the following in a MySpace blog entry:

Great news for everyone who knew deep in their hearts that beloved Moesha star Brandy would never intentionally mow down someone on the highway: She may not have! Potentially exculpatory evidence in her ongoing fatal fender-render investigation might have her appraising the talents of mother-and-son plate spinning teams on America's Got Talent faster than you can say "Hey, that guy's selling oranges. I've been meaning to get some—OH MY GOD!" TMZ reports:

We're sure more than a few of you apartment- and tract-housing dwellers without the luxury of a real fireplace have turned to the crackling comforts of the televised Yule Log over the years to give your Christmas mornings some added ambiance.

A story circulated Friday afternoon in which Biggest Movie Star in the World Will Smith, who's built an unparalleled career trading on his intense likability, offered a Scottish reporter some of his seemingly sympathetic thoughts on Adolf Hitler's motives—comments that were quickly extracted and repackaged by several online out-of-context-celebrity-quote-farming outlets, accompanied by judicious headlines such as "Smith: 'Hitler Was a Good Person.'" Seeing as Smith's fabricated love of Hitler and Jesus's gift-exchanging birthday extravaganza seemed to us an uneasy pairing, we ignored it, but it nevertheless got enough play to warrant the issuance of an angry statement in which Smith reasserted his rejection of all things Hitlerian:

· As we gaze at the Bassett Hound literally taking a dump in the middle of the three-way intersection outside the window of Defamer HQ-2 (a Christmas miracle!), we think fondly of Defamer videographer Molly, who is away today. We therefore had no choice but to plunder from the tidily wrapped video gifts beneath the tree of our more affluent cousins over at Jezebel. Look, everyone! It's Charo singing "Feliz Nablahblah" on the Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special!
· 'Tis the season to be breathalyzered: In what is unlikely to be the last celeb DUI of the year, Boy Meets World's Topanga was picked up for drunk driving.

· Christmas Eve Music: Lounge legends Marty and Elayne are at The Dresden, Avalon Christmas Eve featuring Astral Projection, Loli, Ami O, Udi, and Daytona are at Avalon Hollywood, and Taiwanese singer Jay Chou is at the Galen Center.
· There's Garage Comedy at the El Cid tonight, featuring a grab bag of sketch, stand-up, music, performance art, and freak acts with which to stuff your stockings, and a jolly after-party where you can get toasted on toddies like the little alcoholic comedy-loving elves that you are.
· Perfect that triple-lutz! Ice at Santa Monica is a rink at 5th Street and Arizona Avenue. $10 gets you an hour of skate time and a skate rental, and it's open until 7 p.m. tonight.