JENS LEKMAN did an interview and four-song set to watch over at Spinner.

THE WHITE STRIPES:  The band's future is cloudy following an abrupt cancellation of its tour amid concerns over Meg's health, but Jack White tells the L.A. Times he's staying busy: "Half of me was glad because I have three other records I'm working on and I didn't have any time to work on them, and I was really getting worried that I might have to not do these things I wanted to do because of the touring."

ALEX CHILTON joined YO LA TENGO on the fourth night of the latter's traditional Hanukkah run at the legendary Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ.  Brooklyn Vegan has video, including covers of the Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale" and The Kins' "'Til the End of the Day."

BEST of 2007:  NPR reviewers Bob Boilen, Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater-Kinney), Will Hermes, Tom Moon and Meredith Ochs are streaming the year's surprises, innovations and letdowns.  Top 50 lists from MOJO and Q magazine are discussed at the 'Gum, along with Filter magazine's Top Ten.   And don't forget Largehearted Boy's continuously updated list of lists.

LED ZEPPELIN is now in the midst of a major promotional deal involving both ESPN and the NFL.  With the big reunion show looming tonight, Ten Zen Monkeys looks at the Top Ten Pillars of Led Zeppelin Mythology, while Ireland's Independent looks at the pre-Zep careers of John Paul, Jimmy and Robert. JAM! looks at their post-Zep careers.

RAY CHARLES:  Albany, GA, unveiled a revolving, lighted bronze statue of Charles on Friday in the middle of a new downtown plaza that bears the R&B legend's name.

CHRISTMAS SONGS:  The staff at Spinner has compiled lists of the 12 Best and 12 Worst songs of the season.

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS has a video for "The Gift That Keeps Giving" that is quite evil, though maybe not as bad as John Cale's "Gift."

SLY and the FAMILY STONE finished a four-night stand in NYC, so Brooklyn Vegan can give you a peek at the reclusive Sly's state of mind.

INGRID MICHAELSON, riding a wave of television placements, played the World Cafe Friday, so you can stream the whole gig on demand via NPR.

FERRABY LIONHEART:  The L.A.-based singer-songwriter did the free songs thing over at Daytrotter.

JOE STRUMMER widow Lucinda Mellor has unearthed a trove of unseen lyrics, cartoons, and other memorabilia, which is now set to be compiled in a new book.

PHIL SPECTOR has finally found a new lawyer for his murder retrial, which the lawyer proposes to begin in September 2008.

PETE DOHERTY:  A Babyshambles fan sang and played guitar with his idols at the NME Awards launch party after the trobled singer was taken ill.

BRITNEY SPEARS shoplifted a lighter from a gas station... and bragged about it to the paparazzi about it.  Like that's not going to come up in some future child custody hearing.  The pop tart previously lifted a wig from the Hustler store in L.A.

LINDSAY LOHAN makes news going out in a see-through top.  The Sun's pic does not make this as clear at the photos at Egotastic.

THE FRENCH HOTEL desperately wants her ex, Stavros Niarchos, back, say sources who have followed her antics in Miami last week.  Page Six reports Greek shipping heir Niarchos was with Brandon Davis' ex-girlfriend, Caroline Vreeland; he was also recently linked with La Lohan.

KIEFER SUTHERLAND is a "model prisoner," says a spokesman for the Glendale City Jail.  Sutherland spent his first full day on Thursday folding jail laundry.

FALLEN IDOL:  Fmr "American Idol" finalist Jessica Sierra -- busted last week for disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest -- has learned that a major pr0n company has obtained a vdeotape featuring her -- and they're preparing to distribute it.

DANIEL BALDWIN had his probation revoked and is under an arrest warrant for his failure to appear at a progress report hearing after his arrest last year for possession of drug paraphernalia and for being under the influence.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  The Golden Compass won the weekend with a lackluster 26 million, falling short of expectations (30-40 million).  The hoped for franchise-starter had a budget of 180 million and a reported 60 million in marketing costs.  Enchanted took second with ten million on a mere 34 percent drop.  In third place was This Christmas, the surprise family comedy, which earned five million.  Fred Claus clawed back to fourth with 4.7 million.  Beowulf rounds out the Top Five with 4.4 mil; its global total so far just about matches its 150 million budget. The Coens' No Country for Old Men went from tenth to sixth place with 4.2 million.  Taking seventh place was the sentimental, Christmas-themed August Rush, which earned 3.5 million.  Hitman dropped from fourth to eighth with 3.4 mil.  Awake dropped from fifth to ninth in its second weekend, with 3.3 million.  Rounding out the Top Ten was Bee Movie, with 2.6 mil; its glogal total is about ten million short of its 150 million budget (and who knows how much in promotion).

SIENNA MILLER has been paid £37,500 plus legal costs by The Sun and News of the World for invasion of privacy, after publishing nude photographs taken while she was filming a movie... in public.  Go figure.

SEX & THE CITY:  The Daily Mail is streaming the trailer for the movie reunion.

WILL SMITH revealed he wants to become President of the United States, but did not mention whether there would be a place in his Administration for DJ Jazzy Jeff.

OPRAH played to crowds in Iowa and South Carolina on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

SEAN PENN endorsed Dennis Kucinich for president in San Francisco Friday: "I found the (recent Democratic) debate infuriating, nearly an argument for fascism with few exceptions, key among them Dennis Kucinich," Penn said.  The full text of Penn's speech is online, but even Kucinich's people seem a bit on edge about it: "Sean Penn is a good friend, but he's also a very intense, independent-minded person," said the spokesman for the Kucinich campaign. "He's going to say whatever he's going to say."

MARILYN MANSON ended up sharing a cage with a baboon after taking an ecstasy pill.

PAKISTAN:  Pres. Musharraf will lift emergency rule and restore the suspended constitution on December 15, a day earlier than planned.  Islamist parties are divided and in disarray ahead of crucial January elections.  It seems like folks are rejecting Islamist text messages on the war, as well.  Pakistan's army claimed Saturday it has cleared almost all of embattled northwestern Swat valley of militants.  I would take that with a grain of salt, but if citizens are helping keep out the extremists, perhaps there is something to it.

IRAN:   The new National Intelligence Estimate that says Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 is raising concerns among the political center and left, as well as conservatives who have long called for a hard line against the Islamic Republic.  "It, like the report in 2002 that set up the invasion of Iraq, is both misleading and dangerous," wrote Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, and Valerie Lincy, editor of the nonpartisan group's Web site, Iranwatch.org, in a NYT op-ed.  Richard Barlow, a top former CIA and Pentagon expert on Pakistan's clandestine nuclear program in the 1980s until he was hounded out of the government for telling the truth, also points out that the NIE - or at least its unclassified summary - doesn't say at what stage the Iranians allegedly "halted" their weapons program in 2003.  British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed its nuclear weapons program, and believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Teheran.  The leaders of France and Germany said Iran remained a danger and that other nations needed to keep up the pressure.

IRAQ:  Gen. Petraeus said he applauds Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for helping, through a cease-fire, to reduce violent attacks in Iraq by 60 percent since June.  There are reports that Sadrists are weeding out what they consider to be black sheep within their ranks.  On CNN, Michael Yon and Michael Ware report that some of those black sheep aren't Sadrists at all now, but agents of Iran -- and that about 25 percent of the "awakening" citizen militias across Iraq are now either Shiite or mixed.  It is thus unsurprising that a regional Sadrist leader and his family died when an explosion went off as they were sleeping in their home in southern Iraq.

IRAQ II:  Izzat Ibrahim al Douri, the most wanted member of Saddam Hussein's regime and insurgent leader, narrowly escaped a raid on his hideout in the northern city of Tikrit on Friday.  The Baghdad neighborhood of Saidiyah is becoming the focal point of a growing battle between the US military and the Iraqi government over the burgeoning number of "concerned local citizens."  Iraq's defense minister promised on Sunday to wage a new crackdown in volatile Diyala province.  Iraqi bonds are surging on improved security and oil earnings.

IRAQ and the MEDIA:  The "Dwelah Massacre" totuted by the Associated Press may have been, to use a phrase from Mark Twain, greatly exaggerated.

I CAN HAS... CAT-SICLE?

THE SQUIRREL THREAT:  Militant squirrels are attacking the energy-efficient LED lights on the Christmas tree in Milwaukee's Red Arrow Park.

A RECORD-SIZE SPITTING COBRA, measuring nearly nine feet and possessing enough venom to kill at least 15 people, has been discovered in Kenya, a conservation group said on Friday.

A MOUNTAIN LION is peeping some woman's morning hot tub sessions in Deadwood.  Insert profanity-laden punchline here.

WILLY the TORTOISE made his third escape from home in Riverside, Calif.  Not only slow, Willy is the size of a small bathtub.

A 25-LB TOM TURKEY crashed through a third-story bedroom window in Traverse City, Mich.  Life imitates WKRP in Cincinnati.