For every season . . .

Last December I was kind enough to predict ten news stories for 2007. Some have come to be, some might still, and some will not. Yesterday one of my prognostications hit its mark when Lindsay Lohan turned 21.

Given her lifestyle, it was no slam dunk that she would enter her 22nd year, but Lindsay eased into her big day with a month and a half of rehab. The flip side to this cautious maneuver is that instead of something innovative, like a group sex tape or the mainlining of Ajax, the highlight of a birthday spent boringly with her family and a few friends was a brand new iPhone.

This dull passage of time ceremony reminds us that Lindsay is just one speedball or religious awakening away from leaving a great void in the Internet. And that's not even getting into the fact she is aging at rate between that of a normal person and Robin Williams in a creepy manchild movie.

Luckily, the experts say, there may be another young Long Island-born former child star actress/singer waiting in the ranks to replace Lindsay if something terrible should happen. Her name in Hayden Panettiere and, unless you watch the show Heros, you probably don't know who she is.

Hayden, who was number six on FHM's list of the sexiest woman of 2007, has an older reality TV star boyfriend, enjoys the nightlife and is quite photogenic. She is especially fond of being photographed licking a variety of different objects that aren't usually licked.

Panettiere turns 18 next month. That means come August, by some mostly imaginary barrier of self-regulation that the Internet doesn't even really follow because it is already full of pictures of Panettiere suggestively tonguing really odd things, Hayden will be able to be covered with the same all-access vigor the Lohans of the world are blessed with.

It would be awesome if the Interent had two out-of-control hot young actresses from Long Island to help power it. Not only that, it would mean, like with kidneys, if one of them were to fail we would still be OK.