PEACH BUZZ: Looking back, mostly fondly, on 2008 news

New Year’s Eve 2008. A time to reflect on all the jaw-unhinging happenings that took us by surprise at Buzz Central this year. Read on.

Best book tour: The ever-incomparable Ted Turner went on a national media blitz to promote his memoir, “Call Me Ted,” this fall just as the country needed some no-nonsense financial advice from its favorite crazy uncle. “It’s simple,” Turner explained at the Atlanta Press Club. “You shouldn’t spend more money than you make.”

Best historic opening: Tyler Perry’s star-studded debut of the first African-American-owned film and TV studio facility in southwest Atlanta in October. Attendees included Will Smith, Hank Aaron and legends Sidney Poitier, Cicely Tyson and Ruby Dee, who had soundstages named after them. During an emotional ceremony, Oprah Winfrey cried her eyelashes off as Tyson told us: “I never dreamed I would witness this in my lifetime.”

Best apology: This summer, “Colbert Report” host Stephen Colbert apologized to Canton after calling the Cherokee County city “crappy.” Colbert conceded: “I hear Canton is a beautiful place. It has so much to offer. Oxygen and paved roads. Why did I call your lovely city crappy? A simple mixup. I meant Canton, Kansas. That place is a real [expletive] hole!”

Best chat with a country legend: Loretta Lynn’s phone call before her August date at the Cobb Energy Centre. Discussing her late husband Doo, who served as the inspiration for many of her hits, Lynn laughed and said: “Songs about cheatin’ have always done me right. Now Doo, he didn’t like some of those songs, but Doo ended up making us a lot of money over the years!”

Best-kept family secret: Martin Luther King III’s disclosure in January that he had been married for nearly two years to bride Arndrea Waters. The son of MLK only publicly spilled the beans because the Rev. King’s first grandchild was on the way.

Best new career: Former UN ambassador and Atlanta mayor Andrew Young teaming up with producer CB Hackworth to create a series of “Andrew Young Presents” documentaries, including his riveting doc with troubled rapper T.I., “Walking With Guns.”

Best reason to lie about where you live: Bravo’s reality wreck “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.” Little was real and none of the fame-hungry “housewives” ever washed a dish during the show’s first season. Our favorite “real” moment? Atlanta vocal coach Jan Smith’s delicate assessment of alleged singer Kim Zolciak’s talents: “You’re living in a very beautiful house. With a cracked foundation.”

Obit we hated having to contribute to: Soul man and former Atlantan Isaac Hayes, whose untimely exit came in August. In 2005, discussing “Hot Buttered Soul,” his 1969 album of pure baby-making music, Hayes told us: “Guys have come up to me and said, ‘Man, I’m so glad ‘Hot Buttered Soul’ is out on CD. Now, my lady doesn’t have to wait for me to flip the album over.’ “

Kookiest fund-raiser: In August, Atlanta playwright Topher Payne convinced actor pals Greg Morris, DeWayne Morgan and Joey Ellington to work for free and don drag for “Golden Girls Live!” at an Onstage Atlanta benefiting AID Atlanta. Said Payne: “The frightening thing is that in drag as Bea Arthur I’m more mannish than I am dressed as myself.”

Most over-the-top wedding: Spanx founder Sara Blakely’s October classy corporate merger marriage to Marquis Jets co-founder Jesse Itzler in Boca Grande, Fla. Among the guests: Matt Damon, Eve Ensler, Doug E. Fresh, oh, and “Grease” star Olivia Newton-John, who the bride hired to serenade the couple with “Hopelessly Devoted to You.”

Most recession-proof fund-raiser: Sir Elton John, who brought his annual Advanta World Team Tennis Smash Hits benefit for the Elton John AIDS Foundation to his U.S. hometown this fall. Of the sold-out VIP reception for 600, John told us: “All of the money raised here today will stay here in Atlanta and Georgia. Forty-six percent of AIDS cases are now being reported in the South.”

Worst Christmas present from future Chrysler CEOs: Suits from Niche Media Holdings flew in from New York this month to tell staffers at Atlanta Peach magazine they were unemployed while confiscating staff PDAs. That was after they invited publisher Elizabeth Schulte Roth and editor Drew Brown to lunch at Chops, ordered surf and turf, then fired them. We hear they also made off with the last can of Who Hash. …

Interview of the year: Our September sit-down with Perry. We discovered a smart, funny, ambitious, sensitive guy who never forgets where he’s been in life. On why he’s just now getting around to writing white folks into his work, via “Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys,” he told us: “I never knew any white people! I grew up in New Orleans and moved to Atlanta and for 15 years I didn’t know any white people. Now I’m living in a world where I’m meeting all kinds of people. Now I look at a situation and say, ‘Oh, this is how this person lives.’ “

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Actor Anthony Hopkins is 71. Rock musician Andy Summers is 66. Actor Ben Kingsley is 65. Singer Donna Summer is 60. Author Nicholas Sparks is 43. Pop singer Joe McIntyre is 36.

LAST CALL!

For Buzz reader resolutions. E-mail us your poignant, unique and funny New Year’s resolution today at buzz@ajc.com. Attach a photo of yourself too, if you like. We’ll publish the best Thursday.

Contributing: News services