Time for mistletoe and Grease

In 1978, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John made Grease, a huge hit and still fun to watch. They went on to have pretty good careers despite lives with tribulations. But now they must be hard up for money, because they have — wait for it — reunited to make a Christmas album!

Time for my annual rant: Unless you’re a church choir, the only reason to make a Christmas album is because ( a) you reckon there’s money in it and you don’t mind being cynical, (b) you’re so popular that you know the suckers will buy anything and maybe a Gulfstream isn’t such a bad idea after all, (c) your creative juices have dried up and even The Little Drummer Boy is better than no product at all, (d) you’re hoping some unlikely duets will revive your catatonic career or (e) you’re so obscure or so bad that you hope the yokels will buy tunes they know.

Here are some of this year’s perpetrators. Pick a category: Rod Stewart, Cee Lo Green, Lady Antebellum, Kenny Rogers, André Rieu, Blake Shelton, Kenny G, Richard Marx, The Oak Ridge Boys, Alvin and the Chipmunks and the dreaded Barry Manilow. WikiLeaks — the movie: Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange? That could work. DreamWorks has signed Cumberbatch to play the WikiLeaks founder in a new movie, says the reliable Deadline.com. Bill Condon (Twilight) will direct. Pubs and publicity: Daniel Craig, having sold his soul to the devil known as publicity, sounds as though he’s regretting the bargain, to judge by his comments in the new Vanity Fair.

“People in the movie business who have been doing this 40 years … say the difference is that, back in the day, you could go and have a drink in the bar, get drunk, fall over, have a good time, relax, whatever, and no one would know about it. But now everyone’s got a camera. ... Which is sad, because I like bars.”

He’s 44. Overheard in a bar: “… hoping Obama wins because if he loses Canada will fill up with all those Michael Moore types!” Getting big for her britches: From Sofia Vergara’s interview in Lucky mag: When she first got into acting, she says, she did so because she thought it would be the best way to jump-start the clothing line she wanted. Now she has one, she grabs the chance to get in a plug.

“I always thought of acting as a way to get a clothing line … I am really excited for my fall line. We have leggings that feel great and are really slimming and jackets that you can wear for day and night.”