Question Celebrity

Last year, this column recommended New Year's resolutions for stars who wish to be better celebrities. A review: Buy your own stuff instead of flaunting high-end freebies; tell the truth when a foible occurs; be consistent in your public/private persona; learn to laugh at your own superciliousness; and read all your reviews and press, no matter how inaccurate or, worse, unflatteringly true. We can keep all those on a permanent resolution list (as the perennial "lose 10 pounds" is for the rest of us -- and not you, Nicole Richie).

Let's add the following resolutions for double-oh-seven:

Discover the poor around you: Without detracting from the new awareness the A-list has brought to disease, poverty and genocidal catastrophes abroad, it has been a long time since celebrities found the courage to speak out for America's lower classes -- probably because to do so means to get more political, which can be a career killer. It's one thing to evince a heart big enough to endorse green rebuilding in Katrinaland or to adopt internationally; it would be another thing entirely for a top celeb to suddenly concern himself or herself with the plight of the very people who often spend their last pennies (or max out credit cards) downloading music, buying movies on DVD and gobbling up all manner of infotainment -- the everyday strip-mall Joes. It's time celebrities were moved to march with underpaid busboys, gardeners and hotel maids.

Cut back on booze: The golden age of Hollywood teetotaling seems to have ebbed. Basic celebrity scandal events in 2006 often stemmed from something as simple as too many limoncellos. Mel Gibson's arrest, Danny DeVito's weird appearance a few weeks ago on "The View," Lindsay Lohan, at age 20, reportedly falling down stairs or showing up to work late or whatever -- and revealing that she has been going to AA. Besides, booze is just loads of empty calories and makes you a ditz in public. Which leads to our biggest resolution of all . . .

Keep your panties on: The aforementioned Lohan, and now the reemergently single Britney Spears, had a weird habit in 2006 of getting in and out of cars in short-short skirts sans underwear. In front of paparazzi. Repeatedly. This leads to everyone clicking on NSFW (i.e., Not Safe For Work) photos on the Web -- repeatedly -- to gawk at pictures that veer toward the gynecological. For years, women have thrown underwear at Tom Jones. Let us now resolve to redirect that effort in 2007 toward the starlets in the valet line at Hyde.

Question Celebrity will return January 28. Keep sending your star-struck musings to celebrity@washpost.com