Sideshow: LiLo makes everyone happy

Lindsay Lohan had a good day Wednesday. The sometime actor and Playboy starlet was showered with praise by L.A. Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner at a hearing to determine what progress the miscreant and ex-con had made in her long road to rehabilitation while she is on probation in her jewelry theft case. As LiLo's lawyer, Shawn Holley, explained earlier, LiLo has been a good girl, and proud of it.

"Miss Lohan, you have actually done your work, and not only done it, but done it early," Sautner told LiLo.

The Mean Girls star wore an appropriate outfit, a cream-colored cardigan and trousers, and appeared at ease. She smiled. (This is a new woman!) Sautner reviewed the first month of LiLo's five-month community service sentence at the county morgue. Her boss has been pleased with her work, which pleased the judge. LiLo also has completed four therapy sessions. We imagine her therapist is happy, too.

In yet another blow, Hollywood martyr Lindsay Lohan has not been named Time's person of the year. That honor goes to The Protester, you know, the men and women around the world who have raised their voices against oppression. Time cites pro-democracy activists in Tunisia, Egypt Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain; people who took to the streets in Greece, Spain, and Russia to decry government corruption; and participants of Occupy Wall Street. The four runner-ups include Britain's beloved new princess, Kate Middleton, now Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. "Kate has . . . been catapulted to relentless, inescapable celebrity," says Time. "She finds herself a role model whose most pressing task is to define the nature and meaning of the role. If she becomes as popular as [Princess] Diana, her choices may help the monarchy thrive or bring it to its knees."

The first family watches TV, but not always together. Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha, 10, and Malia, 13, dig "Modern Family, that's our favorite show," the first lady tells People mag during a group interview featuring the whole family.

President Obama admits he's "a little darker" in his tastes, citing Boardwalk Empire and Homeland as his faves.

Hey, there are books too. Malia currently is reading John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night, her mom says.

Fans (me in particular) are upset that Demi Moore, who is divorcing that cad Ashton Kutcher, still carries a Twitter handle tainted by his dread name, @mrskutcher.

Demi isn't all that concerned. "Changing my twitter name isn't a top priority right now," she tweets to her 4.4 mil followers, "sorry it bothers so many of u. should I not tweet until I do? does it really matter?"

Reggae and alt.rock star Matisyahu, whose Jewish roots informed his tunes, has shocked and rocked the world. The West Chester native, born Matthew Paul Miller, has shaved off his trademark beard!

Writes Matisyahu on his website, "no more Chassidic reggae superstar. Sorry folks, all you get is me . . . no alias." But Matisyahu is not turning his back on his spirituality, he assures fans. He adds, "you haven't seen the last of my facial hair."

Khloe Kardashian is making the most of her enforced migration to Dallas. (She's dutifully following her man, NBA dude Lamar Odom, who has been traded to the Mavericks.) TMZ says Khloe plans to open a DASH store in Dallas. The city should hold a ticker tape parade.

The (real) home in which (fictional) Holly Golightly resided in Blake Edwards' literary adaptation Breakfast at Tiffany's (starring real-life goddess Audrey Hepburn) is (really) up for sale, Gawker says. The four-floor townhouse on the Upper East Side has been listed for $5.85 mil.

Elizabeth Taylor's 80-piece jewelry collection, thought to be worth between $20 mil and $30 mil, has sold for more than $116 mil at a Christie's New York auction, the BBC reports. Not a bad markup.

Highlights in the collection, which was sold in separate lots, include the famed 33.19-carat diamond ring (that's, like, the size of a basketball) given to Liz by Richard Burton. It went for $8.8 mil.

A necklace featuring a 16th-century pearl sold for $11.8 mil. The pearl is so exquisite it has a proper name, La Peregrina. It was previously owned by Mary Tudor and later Spanish queens Margarita and Isabel and is featured in a painting by 17th-century Spanish artist Velazquez. Burton bought the pearl in 1969 for $37,000.

"We actually have family dinner every night. We make a point of it," Angelina Jolie tells Anderson Cooper of her homestead, which includes Brad Pitt and their six kids.

"It's crazy. There's a good five minutes where everybody is quiet and sitting together and then it starts to break off."

Jolie, who chats with Coop for an episode of Anderson to air Monday (locally on CBS3), says she has come a long way since her wild days. "When I was younger, I thought, 'Oh, God, I couldn't be somebody's mother,' " she says. Asked about rumors Brad is retiring from acting, Jolie says, "we were both racing to see which one of us gets to retire first. . . . like most people, we like being home."

Holiday music rules this week: Canadian warbler Michael Bublé is atop Billboard's album charts for the third week in a row with Christmas, which sold 479,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Blues-rock duo Black Keys is in second place with El Camino, which debuted this week with 206,000. Adele continues her 1,000-year reign in the top 10 with 21, which is at No. 3 with 187,000. One of the most anticipated records, Amy Winehouse's posthumous Lioness: Hidden Treasures, debuted at No. 5 with 114,000.