16 pop culture predictions for 2012

Here I’ve curated more than a dozen interesting predictions for 2012 from around the Web about entertainment, sports, politics and miscellaneous.

Ask.com offered a list of predictions for 2012 based on Internet queries to its website.

• Tiger Woods will retire from golf in 2012.
• Dr. Oz will surpass Dr. Phil in ratings in 2012.
• New York will reclaim its spot as the No. 1 U.S. tourist destination in 2012. Orlando was No. 1 in 2011.
• Nicki Minaj will leapfrog Katy Perry in album sales in 2012.
• The McRib will become a permanent fixture on McDonald’s menu.
• The Green Bay Packers will win the Super Bowl again.
• George Clooney will win an Oscar in 2012.
• Republican Mitt Romney will be elected president.

Forbes predicts that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will be elected president in 2012, kicking out Barack Obama after one term.

James Poulos, a columnist at The Daily Caller, also predicts that Romney will be elected president, adding that CIA director David Petraeus will be his vice president.

Predictions from Judy Hevenly, a Los Angeles-based psychic:

• Mitt Romney wins Iowa presidential caucus;
• A baby boy for Kate Middleton and Prince William;
• A tsunami in Hawaii;
• Barack Obama re-elected president;
• Breakthrough in the cure for Lyme disease;
• Angels will actually be seen walking among us by some with extraordinary powers of perception;

Adult industry professionals on the Xbiz.net forums offered a host of predictions for the porn industry in 2012. (Weblink requires registration.)
Black and Blue Media predicts that mainstream media companies will file copyright lawsuits against porn studios doing “parodies” of well-known TV shows and movies.
Copying a movie or TV show and just adding sex scenes as an homage to the original will not offer First Amendment parody protection, the group says.
Forum member Jacco agreed that some porn “parodies” likely are not protected free speech. He writes:

Parody: A work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony. 

The Supreme Court of the United States stated that parody “is the use of some elements of a prior author’s composition to create a new one that, at least in part, comments on that author’s works.”

If you look at the current crop of porn “parodies” the ridicule/irony/comments are mostly missing. The imitation part is there.

My guess is that there are not a lot more court cases … because the original copyright holders don’t want to generate publicity for the porn movies involved.

Just calling something a parody does not make it a parody.

Photo: Novelty item for opponents of President Barack Obama. The Obama Basher from RageGage lets users take out their frustrations on a toy Obama. The device responds to bashes with one of over two dozen presidential messages depending on the strength of the bash. It spouts phrases ranging from “You hit like Nancy Pelosi's hair dresser” to “OK, I give up ... I'll repeal it!”