NEW YORK — Scandals and sensations: The year in pop culture From Tony Soprano to Britney Spears, 2007 offered shocks galore Jocelyn Noveck NEW YORK — So what really happened in that diner? You know, after the jukebox stopped playing “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” and the onion rings were gone? Did Tony Soprano die, or did he live? Tony wasn’t the only pop culture figure to leave us hanging in 2007. And some weren’t even fictional.

As the year drew to a close, shock jock Don Imus took to the airwaves again, eight months after losing his job over a racist and sexist remark. Would he follow through on his pledge to foster racial dialogue? Then there was Britney Spears, still the one we want to know about most, judging by Internet search statistics. What DIDN’T happen to her in 2007? We can only speculate on the future; but we have seen the highs and lows of celebrity past.

Let’s take a chronological journey back through a year of pop culture moments: January April was the cruelest month — before “AMERICAN IDOL.” January is when the Idol judges sink to their snarkiest behavior, calling contestants names, laughing behind their backs, insulting their looks.

Worst moment: Simon Cowell tells a stunned young man at Seattle tryouts, Kenneth Briggs, that he resembles a “bush baby.” (Briggs is awarded a guest appearance on the finale.)And at the Golden Globes, “Grey’s Anatomy” star ISAIAH WASHINGTON inexplicably gets himself into further trouble by jovially repeating the same gay slur he was at the same time insisting he didn’t use when he first got into trouble. Phew! Note to celebrities in hot water: Leave the jokes to the late-night hosts.