Grammy Noms in Their Gossipy Glory

MICKEY'S PRIDE Timberlake You were probably too busy illegally downloading the entire Warner Music catalog to your iPod—Richard Parsons—to know it, but this morning the nominations for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards were announced in Los Angeles.

Like it or not, the nation's celebration of the worst, yet most commercially viable art available will dominate the day and fuel tabloid fodder for months until the actual ceremonies on Feb. 11 in L.A., after which the whole process will begin anew.

In the meantime, rather than debate whether Fergie's "London Bridge" wanna go down every time you come 'round or if, in fact, Justin Timberlake can claim credit for bringing sexy back, we thought we'd remind you of some of the Album of the Year contenders' juiciest moments of the year.

• The Dixie Chicks, Taking the Long Way. Good year for the Chicks, whom Time dubbed "Country's Defiant Darlings" and were featured in Barbara Kopple's documentary Shut Up & Sing. And then there's that admission by one them to Howard Stern that she'd had a three-way.

• Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere. More like St. Everywhere. This band was all over this year, from the cover of Spin to this fat kid's bedroom (and, subsequently, computer screens everywhere).

• John Mayer, Continuum. Mayer popped up in the tabloids more than he probably would've liked this year with his are they-or-aren't they relationship with Jessica Simpson. But he also had some fun with a viral marketing campaign promising to teach you guitar, a parody of several popular websites, and of course, dressing as a bear.

• Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium. The Peppers found themselves on the receiving end of accusations of plagiarism for what some perceived to be similarities between their song "Dani California" and Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance."

• Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds. Timberlake had some fun playing dress-up as a Marine for GQ, and the former Mouseketeer dissed American Idol winner Taylor Hicks, saying the blazer-rocking soul patrolman "can't carry a tune in a bucket." He also admitted to doing drugs and saw Edison, his big screen acting debut, go straight to video.

Mary J. Blige was also nominated, but she didn't really do anything stupid this year.