IT WAS A YEAR... OF SEEING BAD BEHAVIOR IN LITTLE WEB WINDOWS.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

With a deteriorating war in Iraq and endless partisan political bickering, Americans needed distractions from the wearying realities of 2006.

And celebrities were more than happy to oblige. Most of what we'll remember about 2006 had little to do with celebrities' actual work and instead had everything to do with their off-screen lives. Of course, their off-screen lives, thanks to camera phones and Internet uplinks, popped up on screen nonetheless.

The new-media phenomenon failed to curb old-school bad behavior, though.

1. IF THEY DID IT

One of the biggest stories of 2006 ended up not happening. Book publisher Judith Regan announced a book ghost-written for O.J. Simpson titled ``If I Did It,'' a hypothetical confessional. As a bonus for the illiterate, she personally interviewed Simpson, to air -- where else? -- on Fox (which also owned her publishing house).

Fox was ill-prepared for the resulting firestorm. Regan didn't help matters with her explanation: ``I wanted him, and the men who broke my heart and your hearts, to tell the truth, to confess their sins, to do penance and to amend their lives. Amen.''

The project was quashed. Regan was eventually fired for an anti-Semitic invective. Which brings us to ...

2. CELEBRITY RACISM

Regan had to make do with the silver medal for 2006's most-famous anti-Semitic rant. Mel Gibson took the gold with an apocalyptic outburst after Malibu police stopped him for driving nearly twice the Pacific Coast Highway's speed limit. Mel blamed his harangue -- which blamed the Jews for all wars (was Gibson home-

schooled?) -- on alcohol, checking into rehab, a popular gambit among 2006's notorious wrongdoers.

Unfortunately for Michael Richards, he couldn't blame too much booze coursing through his veins for his

shocking performance at the Laugh Factory, where he repeatedly dropped the N-bomb at hecklers.

Sadly, we're just getting started discussing celebrity bad behavior.

3. BREAKUPS AND FEUDS

2006 was a bad year for celebrity couples. We'll never again think of Paul McCartney as ``the cute Beatle'' after his ex, Heather Mills, talked smack about his uncute behavior. Reese Witherspoon had a ``Star Is Born'' roller-coaster year, winning an Oscar then filing for divorce from philandering Ryan Phillippe.

At least she had an up moment. Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown called it quits after years of foundering. Britney Spears dumped her gold-digging, late-night-show punch line. Funniest divorce of the year went to Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock, splitting mere months after marrying because Kid went postal over Anderson's good-

humored appearance in the ``Borat'' film.

But a spouse wasn't required for an ugly run-in. Candy Spelling was so appalled by her depiction on a Tori Spelling TV series that she withheld scads of money when Tori's dad, Aaron, one of Hollywood's richest men, died. Rush Limbaugh taunted Michael J. Fox, accusing the Parkinson's-afflicted actor of overacting in a TV commercial advocating stem-cell research.

Then, out of nowhere, Rosie O'Donnell lashed out at Donald Trump for -- well, we're not quite sure. Trump pardoned a party-hardy Miss USA instead of rescinding her title, which offended O'Donnell, who also accused him of grandstanding (a funny charge coming from someone who once ran a magazine named after herself) and, naturally, having bad hair.

Trump did what any sane individual would have done and -- no, wait, he did what he would've done -- slagged O'Donnell recklessly, calling her ``disgusting'' and comparing her to those who plunged America into war with Iraq. What if he hadn't toned it down?

4. BAD BEHAVIOR

Surprise: Paris Hilton turns up here, too, sashaying through the social scene with very little under her party dresses (current partner in partying Britney Spears recently unveiled the same fashion statement). And if you see her behind the wheel, run: She was seen hitting a car in a parking lot and speeding away.

Later, she was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Hilton's former BFF, Nicole Richie, did Paris one better, not only getting tagged for a DUI but also doing so while driving east in the westbound lanes of the Ventura (134) Freeway in Burbank. Filmmaker Gus Van Sant and actor Rip Torn also clocked DUIs; Torn won the coveted trophy for Funniest Mug Shot.

Perhaps no one, however, knocked back more magical elixir than Lindsay Lohan, who received a very public crackback when her after-hours misadventures interfered with her work on the film ``Georgia Rule''; producer James G. Robinson sent her a widely leaked memo sternly addressing her misbehavior. Lohan's bewildering manifestos issued from her Blackberry, which could use a spell-check function, didn't help.

Denise Richards threw laptops at paparazzi but instead injured some elderly women. Jessica Simpson had a bizarre meltdown before President Bush and a star-studded crowd while trying to perform Dolly Parton's ``9 to 5''; she was excised from the event's televised version.

And Anna Nicole Smith's reaction to losing her 20-year-old son only days after giving birth to a daughter was to stage a fake wedding and then sell the last photos of her son, as well as video of her C-section, to gossip shows and a tabloid.

5. YOUTUBE, MYSPACE

Just about all of the aforementioned bad behavior could be found online at sites such as YouTube and TMZ.com. In fact, most of this would never have become news in the first place were it not for the proliferation of Web sites where short films can easily be uploaded for the amusement of others, as can Web sites trucking in scandal and gossip.

Had a Laugh Factory patron not whipped out a cell-phone camera, Richards' career likely wouldn't have been considered finished.

TMZ revealed Gibson's arrest.

Movies had mixed success using the Web as a launching pad. Sacha Baron Cohen's MySpace site for ``Borat,'' alongside Borat clips on YouTube, helped transform the comedy into a $100 million blockbuster. ``Snakes on a Plane,'' not so much.

And when a stingray killed ``Croc Hunter'' Steve Irwin in September, scores of fans posted films that were viewed by thousands of other fans, offering their emotional responses to his death on

YouTube.

YouTube's impact was underscored in October, when Google bought it for $1.65 billion.

6. IN THE FAMILY WAY

When Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt adopted an Ethiopian baby to join Jolie's Cambodian child, Madonna, not to be outdone, snatched herself a Malawian son. Just one problem: The kid's father wavered on whether he wanted his boy in Madonna's mitts.

Pitt and Jolie also expanded their family the old-fashioned way this year: Shiloh was born in May. The most hysterically received celebrity birth of 2006 was, of course, Suri Cruise, the mysterious progeny of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, born April 18 in Santa Monica, but kept under wraps until appearing in Vanity Fair in September.

7. DEATH OF THE ALBUM

The music industry continued to crater in 2006, as My-

Space, YouTube and iTunes conspired to further its irrelevance. Fans could download music at their favorite bands' MySpace sites, and while downloads of individual songs (usually hits) continued apace, sales of entire albums sagged.

The year's best-selling album was Disney Channel's movie soundtrack ``High School Musical''; other 2006 best sellers included more Disney Channel product, soundtracks for ``The Cheetah Girls'' and ``Hannah Montana.'' Slate.com wondered, ``What does it mean for popular music when 7-year-olds are the most reliable record buyers?''

8. ANCHOR MUSICAL CHAIRS

Katie Couric, Meredith Vieira and Rosie O'Donnell all changed jobs in 2006; it worked out for two of them.

Replacing Vieira on ``The View,'' O'Donnell transformed it from coffee klatch into tag-team trash talk. Still,

ratings rose.

Vieira moved to NBC's ``Today'' show with nary a blip despite Couric's exit: It's still the top morning-news show.

Couric, of course, made news, not always in a good way. She became the first female solo anchor of a broadcast network's evening newscast; viewership for her first week on ``The CBS Evening News'' was phenomenal. Since then, her numbers plunged below those of interim anchor Bob Schieffer.

9. SERIALIZED DRAMAS TANK

Perhaps viewers in this attention-deficit disorder society prefer trolling YouTube short films: Despite critics' claims that the 2006-07 season boasted the best programming in years, ratings tumbled. Network axes were quickly sharpened.

Hardest hit were serialized dramas. Capitalizing off previous successes ``Grey's Anatomy,'' ``Desperate Housewives'' and ``Lost,'' more than a dozen new serialized shows hit prime time. Viewers lacked the time or the wherewithal to attend to so many complicated narratives; many were quickly canceled. Only ``Heroes'' and ``Ugly Betty'' emerged as bona fide hits.

As for those canceled? Viewers seeking resolution could find it -- you guessed it -- online.

10. MIND-BENDING MOVIES

Like Hiro, Masi Oka's breakout character on ``Heroes,'' numerous films bent the time-space continuum. ``Babel,'' ``Flags of Our Fathers,'' ``The Prestige,'' ``The Illusionist'' and ``The Science of Sleep'' featured story lines leaping back and forth in time, keeping audiences on their toes.

Hollywood seemed to enjoy messing with moviegoers' minds this year. Other mind-blowing films include ``Children of Men,'' exploring a dystopic future on the verge of extinction; ``Pan's Labyrinth,'' illuminating a young girl's retreat into a fantasy world to escape the brutal reality of Franco's Spain; and ``A Scanner Darkly,'' about a narcotics cop's paranoid immersion into the very culture he's supposed to be policing.

Still, ``Borat'' perhaps screwed with viewers' minds most: Virtually every frame forced audiences to ask, ``Is this real, or fake?'' Which is appropriate for a year whose realities prompted us to immerse ourselves in fantasy.

David Kronke, [phone]

[e-mail]

CAPTION(S):

13 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) no caption (celebrity collage)

(2 -- 7) There was so much questionable behavior, it was hard to keep track of it. Let's start with, clockwise from left: Anna Nicole Smith; Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson; Michael Richards; O.J. Simpson; Rosie O'Donnell; and Donald Trump.

(8 -- 13) Clockwise from right: Serialized dramas that followed ``Grey's Anatomy,'' with Patrick Dempsey, took a hit; Disney's ``High School Musical'' was the year's top album; ``Babel'' bent the time-space continuum; fans went online to mourn the death of Steve Irwin; TomKat and baby Suri were big on secrets.