Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Ready or not, 2008 is upon us, and famous folks are definitely among those gearing up for the New Year with a wide variety of goals and resolutions. Here are some celebrities' most memorable moments of '07 — and plans for a bigger, better year ahead:

Sam Waterston counts as a memorable achievement of '07 "surviving 'The Colbert Report.' I did the show the end of September, and I was nervous but actually had a lot of fun. He's very funny and very courageous. It's definitely a challenge, though, trying to stay on your subject — which in my case was to talk about running a nonpartisan presidential ticket through the Unity8 movement. It is important, though, I think, for moderates to stand up and demand that the political process take place around the center instead of being a tug of war among the extremes as it has been." The 'Law & Order" star's goal for '08 is "to get a nonpartisan presidential ticket in 2008 though the Unity8 movement."

John Stamos recalls his regret of the year as "taking Ambien" — as in the prescription sleeping medication that is believed to sometimes cause "travelers amnesia," which, he says, was responsible for his exhibiting such erratic behavior on an Australian talk show that it resulted in tabloid tales that he might have been on drugs.

Carnie Wilson, who'll be seen in CMT's "Gone Country" reality show debuting Jan. 25, tells this column, "My goal for this year is I want to exercise more." Wilson, you'll recall, underwent gastric bypass surgery in 1999, then was a contestant on the "Celebrity Fit Club" in 2006 to lose the weight she'd gained from her pregnancy the year before. "I want to do more exercise, and I want to be more enthusiastic about it. If I can get my exercise done and drink my water every day, I find I'm making better decisions. So that's my goal — and to give my daughter as many kisses as humanly possible!"

Phylicia Rashad says that this coming year, "I want to create that space to engage in study. I'd love to do it at least a few times a week. And when I say study, I mean the study of writing, music, the arts. I like the position of student, and I think that's probably what I've enjoyed most about this work in Shakespeare's 'Cymbeline' — the sense of starting from the beginning again."

Ashley Tisdale: "My biggest success in 2007 was 'High School Musical 2,' and my biggest goal for 2008 is 'High School Musical 3.'"

"No negative thinking" is not just a New Year's resolution to Broadway star-cum-minister Ben Vereen.

It's his mantra. "To have that hopeless thing is such a heavy weight. A friend of mine, John-Roger McWilliams, wrote a book and sent it to me in the hospital," recalls Vereen, referring to his 1992 car accident that led doctors to believe he'd never dance again. "I love the title. It's 'You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought.' None of us can. On a daily basis, negative thinking weighs you down. It's really the cross that weighs on your back." He adds, "I know it's one thing to say this and it's another thing to demonstrate it. So how do you do it? How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice!"

"My goal for the New Year is to make 'Bionic Woman' a success," says series star Michelle Ryan. "I know NBC is going to be giving the show a big second launch in January, and I want to do anything I can to help."

Primatologist Jane Goodall: To finish "this book I'm writing, which I can't get on with. It's called 'Animals Rescued from the Brink of Extinction and the Amazing Humans that Saved Them.' I have a wonderful co-author, and most of it is written, but we still have phone calls to make, and we have to sort out some of the order. It's quite complex."

"My goal is just to continue to do more for my fellow man … working on my repairing of this world," says actress Jami Gertz. "I have a charity called The Painted Turtle, which is a camp for kids with life threatening illnesses. We need to raise four million dollars a year for this camp to run every summer. I'm a founder, and I put my own money into it, and we raised the initial money. … We have a full hospital at camp, but we call it the Well Shell, and it's built like a turtle shell. It's a multi-disease camp, and the week you go to camp everyone has your disease. Let's say you have liver disease or severe asthma or juvenile diabetes, everyone there that week is all in the same boat, so it's a shared experience for these kids. So that's basically my resolution — to keep that running and supporting these kids." For more info, check out www.thepaintedturtle.com.

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2007 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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