By Jezza

Taylor topples ‘em at the CMAS

1. Why are so many people up in arms over Taylor Swift’s Entertainer of the Year win at the Country Music Association awards? I know it’s early in her career, but no other star has done more for country in the last year. Still, I feel a Taylor Swift backlash coming on strong.

Cameron’s Box didn’t rock the box office

2. When Hollywood realize that Cameron Diaz can’t open a movie? Like Demi Moore and Meg Ryan before her — and unlike Sandra Bullock and Reese Witherspoon — Diaz has earned a rep as a box-office draw without ever carrying a big hit on her own bare shoulders. (She may have been alphabetically top-billed in There’s Something About Mary, but Ben Stiller was the real star of that show.) Boosted by the right costar (Ashton Kutcher, Drew Barrymore), she does okay, but without another name to help carry to load, she stumbles. Case in point: The Box, her first attempt at toplining solo, recently opened at No. 6, with a meager $7.5 million. Looks like she will fail where Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kate Hudson, Laura Linney, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler and even Jennifer Connelly have succeeded in recent years: scoring moderate to major box-office success headling a thriller/horror film.

Beyonce and Gaga repackage old albums in time for Christmas

3. Why can’t pop stars just put out an album, enjoy the hits and be done with it? Now every release that spawns hit single No. 4 gets repackaged and re-released, as is the case with I Am… Sasha Fierce (Nov. 24), following the lead of Lady Gaga’s The Fame (Nov. 23) and Taylor Swift’s Fearless (a few weeks ago). The former’s trillionth single, “Broken-Hearted Girl,” admittedly a standout, is now climbing the UK charts, followed by a remix of the original album cut “Video Phone,” featuring — you guessed it — Lady Gaga! Of course, we know the answer to this one: Holiday push = cha-ching!

Just when you thought he couldn’t get cheesier, Seacrest mugs for a mouthwash

4. Would the world go on turning if Ryan Seacrest fell off of it? The answer: YES! I know that he’s supposed to be the next Dick Clark and all that jazz, but does anyone actually love Ryan Seacrest? He gets paid a small fortune for showing up each season, but would his departure from Idol be as disastrous as Simon Cowell’s — or as press-worthy as Paula Abdul’s was? I’ve never heard anyone utter these four words: “I love Ryan Seacrest!” If you ask me, they should have given Ellen Degeneres his job instead of Paula’s. And P.S.: What’s with that mouth wash commercial? Like he doesn’t have enough dough stashed away?