Tinseltown Is in a Funk

News from Hollywood:

Celebs Shun Once-Famed Hollywood Parade

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES - The biggest stars at the Hollywood Christmas Parade this year will be the marble ones under the feet of spectators. The annual parade, which winds past the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was once a tradition as rich and famous as the celebrities who graced its floats: Jimmy Stewart, Bob Hope, Mary Pickford and Gregory Peck, to name a few.

But the event's cachet has declined so much in recent years that the Hollywood personality generating the most excitement for the 73rd parade on Sunday is a cartoon character — SpongeBob SquarePants....

It must be limousine-liberal-post-election-depresssion-syndrome. It began in 2000 and got worse in 2004. Only cartoon characters are immune.