2010 is merely a week old and already Gilbert Arenas has sparked the first celebrity scandal of the new year by bringing his guns to the Washington Wizards locker room. But for those of you who crave for the mistakes and tragedies of the famous, and can’t wait until the next nipple slip or criminal charges, the Black & White has decided to take a walk down memory lane to relive the Top Five Celebrity Media Moments of 2009.

5. Tiger Woods’ many affairs are revealed after a late night incident in which the golfer apparently crashed his car into a hedge, fire hydrant and ultimately a tree.  Woods’ many transgressions (an impressive 14) dominated media coverage for weeks, overshadowed only by the White House crashing Salahis (Tareq and Michaele are not on this list because, despite their personal beliefs, they are not celebrities).  Eventually, sponsors begin to drop the adulterous pro.  However, Woods wasn’t the only athlete to face trouble in 2009…

4. Michael Phelps is caught taking a bong rip in a photo published by News of the World, a British tabloid.  The Olympic gold-medalist was suspended from professional swimming for three months.  In the end, Phelps was not charged with a crime for lack of evidence, but Kelloggs announces that they will not be renewing their contract with the gold medalist.  The photo also sheds new light on Phelps’ consumption of 12,000 calories a day.

3.  Chris Brown is arrested for assaulting Rihanna. Brown’s music was pulled from the airways after photos of the 19-year-old’s celebrity girlfriend with extensive facial bruising were leaked to the press.

Brown responded by releasing a two-minute YouTube apology video a full four months after the beating.  Unsurprisingly the video didn’t impress the jury and Brown was sentenced to five years of probation, a year of counseling and six months of community service.  Rihanna, in part, issued a restraining order against her former lover and fellow musician.  Clearly the relationship and Brown’s clean-cut image would not last “Forever.”

Watch Brown’s apology here.

2. Kanye West interrupts the VMAs during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video to proclaim that “Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.”  The notorious egomaniac became (even more of) a late night talk-show punch line as clips of the incident were viewed thousands of times.  West’s decree was ripe for parody, and mash up videos were common around the web, such as one of President Obama’s address to Congress in which Rep. Joe Wilson’s cry of “You lie!” was replaced with West’s diatribe.

Watch the incident here.

1.  Michael Jackson passes away June 25 after entering cardiac arrest.  The untimely passing, the most memorable in a summer with an unusually high celebrity death rate, sparked a media frenzy, especially after the death was ruled a homicide and Jackson’s physician went AWOL.  Ironically the King of Pop’s death, which occurred before his prospective set of comeback shows at London’s O2, revitalized the icon’s flailing career.  Within hours, iTunes’ list of top selling albums was dominated by Jackson’s work.