A lot can happen in a year. Sandra Bullock's happy home life exploded, Paul Henry's outbursts went global, and Prince William got engaged. View takes a look back.
JANUARY
* "Nasty" judge Simon Cowell, 50, announces he's departing American Idol to concentrate on creating the US version of the X Factor.
* Terminally ill actor Dennis Hopper, 73, files for divorce from his wife of 13 years and denies her access to his deathbed.
* The Hills reality star Heidi Montag, 23, unleashes a storm of controversy when she reveals her new top-heavy Barbie doll look - courtesy of 10 plastic surgery treatments in one day.
FEBRUARY
* Singer Jon Mayer apologises on stage for racist comments he made in Playboy magazine, as well as racy details about his sex life with ex, Jessica Simpson.
* 80s Aussie band Men At Work are convicted of copyright infringement. Their catchy flute riff on the hit Down Under is ruled to have been copied from the classic Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree, a song written for the Girl Guides back in 1934.
MARCH
* Just eight days after her Oscar win as best actress for The Blind Side, Sandra Bullock's world explodes when her husband Jesse James' sordid affair with a tattoo model is exposed.
* Ex-Aussie child actor Sarah Monahan, reveals she was sexually abused on set by Robert Hughes, who played her father in the 1988-94 sitcom Hey Dad! She claims the attacks began when she was 9. Hughes, who quit the show abruptly in 1994, causing its demise, denies the allegations.
* After years of speculation, singer Ricky Martin (Livin' La Vida Loca) publicly outs himself on his official website.
APRIL
* Sandra Bullock drops a bombshell, telling People magazine she is the adoptive mother of an African-American baby boy.
* TV3's low-rating breakfast show Sunrise is cancelled.
* Seven-times wed TV host Larry King, 76, and his wife Shawn Southwick, 50, file for divorce after her alleged affair with their sons' 29-year-old baseball coach. Three months later they drop the case and reunite.
* Poison frontman and Celebrity Apprentice contestant Bret Michaels, 47, has an emergency appendectomy and suffers a brain haemorrhage.
* Michael Douglas' son, Cameron, 31, is sent to prison for five years for conspiring to sell crystal meth and possession of heroin.
MAY
* David Letterman's alleged blackmailer, former CBS news producer Robert "Joe" Halderman, is sentenced to six months in prison.
* Singer Alanis Morissette, 36, weds rapper Souleye (aka Mario Treadway), 30. It is the first marriage for both.
* Sixteen months after the death of their teenage son, John Travolta, 56, and Kelly Preston, 48, stun the world by announcing they're pregnant with their third child. (The baby boy is born in November.)
* Heavily in debt, the Duchess of York is caught out in a British tabloid sting offering to sell access to her ex-husband, Prince Andrew for US$50,000 cash.
* Chastity Bono, daughter of Cher and the late Sonny Bono, is granted a legal gender and name changed (to Chaz Bono), a year after undergoing a sex change.
JUNE
* Former Party Of Five star Jeremy London, 37, makes a bizarre claim that he was kidnapped in Palm Springs and forced to do drugs. His twin brother Jason and mother later claim he has serious mental health issues stemming from longtime drug abuse.
* After more than eight years together, actors Harrison Ford, 67, and Calista Flockhart, 45, wed.
* Gossip blogger Perez Hilton stirs legal trouble when he publishes a photo of underage teen star Miley Cyrus (then just 17) leaving a car without knickers.
* Breakfast TV host Paul Henry calls his employer TVNZ's programmes "banal" and "unwatchable".
JULY
* Audiotapes of Mel Gibson's profanity-laced phone rants to his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva - mother of his baby daughter Lucia - are leaked. Accusations of domestic violence and extortion are soon levelled by each side.
* Penelope Cruz, 36, and Javier Bardem, 41, are wed in a low-key ceremony in the Bahamas.
* Lindsay Lohan had a special message for the court hearing her probation violation; her middle fingernail has F*** U painted on it. She is later sentenced to 90 days in jail.
* Absolutely Fabulous star Jennifer Saunders, 52, is given the all clear after months of treatment for breast cancer.
* Swiss authorities rule against a US extradition order and free director Roman Polanski, 76, from his seven-month house arrest over a 33-year-old criminal sex case.
* After only one season on American Idol, Ellen DeGeneres announces she's quitting as a judge because "it doesn't feel the right fit for me".
AUGUST
* Aussie actor Matthew Newton (Underbelly) quits The X Factor just days before it is due to air after revelations of two domestic violence incidents involving girlfriend Rachael Taylor at a hotel in Rome.
* Former Disney star Hilary Duff (TV's Lizzie McGuire), 22, weds pro-ice hockey player Mike Comrie, 29.
* Just a few weeks out from the release of his Wall Street sequel, Michael Douglas, 65, reveals he has Stage IV throat cancer. He undergoes eight weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
SEPTEMBER
* John Lennon's killer Mark David Chapman, 55, is denied parole for the sixth time.
* Gossip mag Star accuses Ashton Kutcher, 32, of cheating on his 48-year-old wife, Demi Moore, with a young brunette beauty. No legal action pends.
* George Michael goes to jail for eight weeks for driving while high. He had crashed his Range Rover into a shop while high on cannabis. He had committed a similar offence in 2006.
* Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and his wife Jools add another strangely named babe to their brood: son Buddy Bear Maurice.
* Top Gun actress Kelly McGillis, 53, weds her long-time girlfriend Melanie Leis, 42, in a civil union.
* Randy Quaid (Brokeback Mountain), 49, and his wife Evi are arrested after being found squatting in a California home that once belonged to them. It is just one of a series of bizarre incidents involving the couple, who later claim to be running from "star whackers".
* Paul Henry unleashes the c-word during an outrageous acceptance speech for a People's Choice award at the Qantas Film & TV Awards.
OCTOBER
* Comedian Dawn French officially ends her 25-year marriage to Lenny Henry on the grounds of his "unreasonable behaviour".
* Broadcaster Paul Henry resigns from TVNZ after a storm of protest, acknowledging he had crossed the line with his jokes about the surname of Delhi's chief minister Sheila Dikshit and comments about NZ's Governor-General.
* Christina Aguilera, 29, files for divorce from her husband Jordan Bratman. She is soon linked to a set assistant on the set of her film, Burlesque.
* Outspoken Kawerau teen Danielle Hayes wins the second season of New Zealand's Next Top Model.
NOVEMBER
* Singer Lily Allen suffers her second miscarriage. Days after, she is admitted to hospital with blood poisoning.
* Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria files for divorce after discovering hundreds of sexy text messages from another woman to her basketball star husband Tony Parker.
* More than 700,000 viewers tune in to witness the end of hit Kiwi drama Outrageous Fortune.
* Chef Gordon Ramsay publishes an explosive open letter to his mother-in-law pleading with her not to sever links with the family, just a month after he had severed business ties to her husband, his former manager Chris Hutcheson.
* Prince William, second in line to the British throne, announces his engagement to longtime on-off girlfriend (and commoner) Kate Middleton. They are both 28.
DECEMBER
* Oprah Winfrey arrives in Australia - along with hundreds of her lucky US fans.
* Footage emerges of teen idol Miley Cyrus, 18, smoking from a bong, believed to be the legal high salvia.
* After two years and two children together, Joel Madden, 31, and Nicole Richie, 29, wed.
* Liz Hurley is caught canoodling with former Aussie cricketer Shane Warne.
* Tis the season for splits. High School Musical's Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens; Dexter co-stars Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter; and Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds.
