By Eric Anderson

LOS ANGELES, Calif. --

As the holidays approach, it’s a time for friends, family, and of course… food. So what better time to reflect on the year in Hollywood headlines, thus far? Better yet, the eyebrow-raising, head-scratching characters of the past 11 months whom AccessHollywood.com has deemed the Top 10 Turkeys for 2009!

#10 – Miley Cyrus: The tween queen made her scripted big screen debut and launched her own clothing line in 2009, but it was a much-talked about pole dance at the Teen Choice Awards and a self-imposed exile from Twitter that had her fans crying “fowl” for this turkey. But the real clincher? Recently admitting she’s never heard a Jay-Z song, despite her “Party in the U.S.A.” lyric to the contrary. This holiday season, Miley may want to consider curling up by the fire with a nice copy of Jay’s “The Blueprint” – Volumes 1, 2 and 3.

#9 – Khloe Kardashian & Lamar Odom: A late entry into the turkey coop. They met in September at a party hosted by Lamar’s fellow Lakers teammate, Ron Artest. They stepped out as a couple just days later at Beverly Hills eatery STK… and they were married three weeks later. That’s barely enough time to cook a turkey, but more than enough time to become one. The couple may want to make the most of this holiday season. In a recent AH Nation poll, Khl-amar was voted the couple least likely to make it to 2010.

#8 – Joe Jackson: The death of Michael Jackson on June 25 shook Hollywood and fans worldwide to the core. Then there was the family patriarch, Joe Jackson, who capitalized on the wave of attention to plug his new record/Blu-Ray venture during a live CNN interview from the red carpet of the BET Awards – four days after Michael’s death. Way to keep it classy Joe! No pumpkin pie for you.

#7 – Chris Brown: Turkey is far from the right word to best describe anyone who did what Chris did to Rihanna back in February. Rather, the singer’s spot on the list is due to how he has responded in the nine months since the assault. Sitting courtside at the NBA playoffs, jetting off to Miami for an attempted reconciliation with Rihanna, Tweeting while doing his court-imposed community service in Virginia, and last but not least, recently telling MTV he’s not worried about getting back on the dating scene because “I’m Chris Brown… girls are gonna be around.” Really Chris? Really?!? (Where’s “SNL’s” Seth & Amy when we need them?)

#6 - Levi Johnston: Levi first made headlines in 2008 during Sarah Palin’s run for the White House, when it was announced that Palin’s daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant with Levi’s baby. But after hitching his wagon to the Palin family, Levi bailed on plans to get hitched to Bristol shortly after the baby was born. So how did this first-time teen father spend 2009? Spending every waking moment providing for his son? Not exactly. Instead, this turkey opted for a run at Hollywood, hitting any red carpet that would let him walk it, engaging in an ongoing war of words with his almost-mother-in-law and capping 2009 off with, what else? — a spread for Playgirl. Talk about turkey breasts gone bad.

#5 – Lindsay & Michael Lohan: A joint honor for both father and daughter — being named one of 2009’s biggest turkeys is just about the only thing Lindsay and Michael have done together in years. Lindsay’s living roller coaster continued its ups – and mostly downs – throughout 2009, with a very public seemingly endless lover’s quarrel with Samantha Ronson, a straight to cable TV movie and a failed fashion launch with Ungaro. Meanwhile, dad was busy befriending Jon Gosselin (more on him in a bit), plotting his own reality show and allegedly secretly taping phone conversations with his family. Bravo Lohans – looks like we need two more seats at the kids’ table.

#4 – Heidi & Spencer Pratt: Ladies and gentlemen, we present the “King” of the turkeys in 2009. The “Hills” stars kicked off the year with a wedding (captured on camera, of course) and then made a splash on NBC’s “I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!” – and then left… and then came back…. and then left again… and then came back… yada yada yada. The rest of 2009 then found Heidi bombing in a lip-out-of-sync performance at the Miss Universe pageant, Spencer changing his name to King Spencer, Heidi posing for the cover of Playboy – and her man, Spencer, clucking about it to anyone who would listen every step of the way.

#3 – Carrie Prejean: The resident beauty queen turkey of the list, Carrie made herself a household name in April when she declared on national TV that marriage “should be between a man and a woman” during the Miss USA pageant. The controversial remark may have lost her the crown, but it also made her a pseudo-star, with countless TV interviews following. Carrie kept herself in the headlines in the latter part of 2009 with a leaked sex tape and a meltdown on live TV during an interview with “Larry King Live” in early November. Her Miss California crown might be gone, so we happily crown Carrie Miss Turkey 2009.

#2 — Kanye West: We’ll let you finish reading this in a minute, but first we just want to say that Kanye West might be the biggest turkey of all time. Relatively quiet for most of 2009 – a feat in and of itself for the outspoken rapper – Kanye’s memorable moment came when he stole someone else’s. His infamous interruption of Taylor Swift at the MTV VMAs instantly vilified the rapper, with even President Obama offering his two cents. Kanye later apologized to Taylor for stealing her spotlight, but this talker still has turkey written all over him.

#1 – Jon & Kate Gosselin: Not surprising, the “Plus 8” parents top the list as the biggest turkeys of 2009. But what is surprising is that a year ago at this time, these two were just a happy couple raising their eight children in relative obscurity – other than being on reality TV, of course. And while Kate was initially the villain in this saga, that title quickly turned over to Jon, when he was accused of cheating on his wife with a much younger woman. Since then, neither parent has seemed to miss an opportunity to publicly bash the other, while little talk ever focuses on the livelihood of their children. Kate has taken somewhat of a backseat in the limelight, while Jon is still willing to talk – especially for money. The series may have come to end, but these two clowns served up a smorgasbord of headlines in 2009 – and the year isn’t even over yet!

AH NATION: Who do you think is the biggest turkey of 2009? CLICK HERE to cast your vote!

Copyright 2009 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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