Adriana La Cerva was never intended to be a regular on The Sopranos. And when she was wedged into weekly secret-spilling sessions with the feds, it was fairly obvious that this Jersey girl turned FBI informant would be outstaying the welcome of her prospective in-laws. So goodbye coke-snorting mob goddess. Which is all for the best: de Matteo was freed to join the sitcom Joey, where the characters' life expectancy is a lot longer.

They looked good all season long, so there was little surprise the Boston Red Sox made it to the American League playoffs. There, they withered against the Yanks until they ate some spinach and muscled their way into overdrive, clocking four wins in a row. After that it was "bye bye bambino": the Cards layed down, the Sox rocked out, and what took 86 years to achieve seemed like just another day in the park.

The question on everyone's lips during one of Phish's last shows was 'Who can replace them?' The quartet had stepped in to fill the considerable vacuum left in the jam genre by Jerry Garcia's passing, and had done so with wit, craft, and songs that featured vacuum cleaners. Whimsy was their trademark: in concert, they'd cover other artists' entire albums just for a laugh. But feeling wan after years of touring, they decided to quit while ahead. A final blowout in their Vermont home was their final hurrah.

You can only pay Jennifer Aniston $750,000 an episode for so long. Although the adventures of the Central Perk quintet still pulled in huge audiences, the sitcom called it a day after a decade-long run. Would Rachel end up with Ross in the hour-long final episode? Would Monica and Chandler adopt? Would the show's demise mean "the death of the sitcom"? As Ross told Rachel in the finale, "We're done being stupid." Shame.

Any hip-hop fan knows you should never say never, unless the question is "Will Vanilla Ice stage a successful comeback?" So when Jay-Z said he was retiring, no one believed him until "99 Problems." As Rick Rubin and Vincent Gallo grimaced, the dramatic video toured Jigga's Marcy Projects battleground, ending with the rapper going down in a hail of bullets. Jay-Z was soon back on tour, and taking flack from R Kelly, too. But one chapter in his life and times had definitely closed.

The showdown between Uma Thurman's Bride and David Carradine's Bill was hyped as the mightiest clash since Ali battled Foreman in the jungle. After Kill Bill, Vol. 1's bloodletting, however, Quentin Tarantino went back to what he does best - letting his characters talk their ears off. Before Kill Bill did what its title promised, Carradine walked off with the movie, tootling a Kung Fu-style wooden flute and grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

With his boyish looks and quick wit, Fallon became one of Saturday Night Live's leading jesters. He had a wicked rapport with head writer Tina Fey behind the Weekend Update desk, and his ability to leave Horatio Sanz in hysterics became the stuff of legend. Then, at the end of last season, Fallon said he was leaving SNL for the big screen. First up: Taxi. Sadly, Queen Latifah is no Tina Fey.

It was hard to walk out of Morgan Spurlock's documentary Super Size Me not feeling a little queasy. Vowing to only live on Mickey D's food for 30 days, the director-guinea pig filmed his expanding waistline and vomiting spells while enumerating the health risks that threaten our fast food nation. The movie hadn't even hit theatres when the Golden Arches announced it was phasing out its "Super Sized" portions, making the 30 oz. cup of cola a thing of the past.

If Kurt Cobain was the little prince of grunge, Courtney was its lippy queen. Unfortunately, she spent the tenth anniversary of his death slogging around with personal and legal woes. While battling drug charges in L.A., Love was arrested for hitting an NYC fan with a microphone stand. She flashed her chest on Letterman's show, and was dragged to a hospital in handcuffs claiming she was having a miscarriage. Even worse, her album 'America's Sweetheart' flopped. Are these the end days of her music career?

The basketball Olympic gold had been U.S. property ever since we sent professional athletes to the 1992 games. This year Iverson, Marbury, and LeBron went to Athens and had their asses handed to them by such world-beaters as Lithuania and Puerto Rico - whose collective players probably don't make Iverson's salary. The dream team officially became a nightmare when Argentina took 'em to school, and the crowd booed the all-stars off-court.

This year gig-goers looked at three-figure ticket prices and said, "Enough." A combination of slow sales and "illness" led to many high profile concerts being downsized. Norah Jones went from playing amphitheatres to just plain theatres. The American Idol guys and Jessica Simpson played to a lot of empty seats. And in spite of Morrissey headlining one of the best line-ups in years, the alt.nation spurned Lollapalooza, leading to the whole tour being cancelled.