It turns out – shockingly – that Hollywood is not the only movie empire within which scandal sells. Actually, according to the 2005 round-up linked below, things in India are even more exciting than they are here. Among the most reliable tools used to promote movies in Bollywood over the past year were such controversial techniques as rumors of tiffs among stars, directors, and writers, "unauthorized" (nudge-nudge) distribution of shocking clips via mobile phones, and stories about affairs between costars.

I may be alone in this, but one of my hopes for Hollywood in the new year is a whole lot more of all of the above. After all, what would be more fun to watch: racy, unauthorized clips of Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers getting busy or studio-produced podcasts of Woody Allen talking about Match Point?