These unconventional roles are still great performances

(NEWSER) - It’s easy enough to predict who will snag an Oscar—but more interesting are the unconventional performances that are just as good, but will never be so honored. In New York , Bilge Ebiri and Logan Hill list this year’s 25 best, most likely to be overlooked, performances:

• Chloe Moretz, Kick-Ass: “Any 13-year-old girl unleashing a tornado of foul-mouthed violence would’ve been shocking, but Moretz offered way more.”
• Joaquin Phoenix, I’m Still Here: “Everybody ridiculed Phoenix for his fake attempt to become a rapper, but we all failed to realize that we were witnessing the role of a lifetime: raw, uneasy, painful to watch.”

Hint: The guy in the picture wasn't in the winners' circle

(NEWSER) - Who had the best year in Washington? Probably Mr. John Boehner, the Washington Post decides. Nobody else believed in Boehner’s vision of a GOP House takeover, but the speaker-elect made it happen. But that’s not the fun question. The fun question is: Who had the worst year? Barack Obama is the tempting answer, but he had some big legislative victories. No, the Post hands the copper ring to the infamous Michael Steele. More»

Snooki to Spillcam, here's what we gawked at

(NEWSER) - We stared in horror as oil gushed unchecked from BP's ruptured well for months, we might have raised a beer as Steven Slater took his epic slide down a JetBlue ramp, and we feverishly refreshed Facebook as Mark Zuckerberg took Time's Person of the Year Honors. but mostly, writes Ted Anthony for the AP, we watched. "And why not? Because that is what we do in this Brave New World, this modern age of unprecedented and unsettling wonder: We watch." More»

Including a few first-timers!

(NEWSER) - It was a bad year for movies—so bad that Burlesque got nominated for a Golden Globe . But “it was a great year for nudity,” Jim McBride tells AOL News . McBride runs the Mr. Skin website, which annually ranks the 10 best nude scenes of the year. 2010’s picks:

• Jessica Alba, The Killer Inside Me: It’s just a brief glimpse of her butt, but since it’s her first nude scene—and her best asset—it makes the list.
• Kirsten Dunst, All Good Things: She’s “never had a real nude scene in her career until now,” and her topless shower scene with Ryan Gosling “doesn’t disappoint.”

...as selected by none other than 'New York' magazine

(NEWSER) - 'Tis the season to reflect—and while 2010 was hardly the best year on record, New York Magazine can still find plenty to be cheerful about in the Big Apple. This week's cover story praises the city "where the future is always made. We steamroll forward, never imagining that there’s any place but here where we could do our best. Because where else is there, really?" It lists 59 reasons that back up its claim, including:

• All three female Supreme Court justices hail from New York.
• The Clintons, aka the "Royal Family of Democratic politics" aren't an Arkansas or DC family anymore ... they're New Yorkers.