Charlie Sheen held a bipolar walk, The Sheepdogs were on the cover of Rolling Stone and Ryan Gosling and Lady Gaga were everywhere in 2011. No pop culture fan got through the year without a lot of William Shatner and a little Elton John. Plus, we said goodbye to Harry Potter and hello to Melissa McCarthy. Here are 10 pop culture events that gripped us.

1. Charlie Sheen's bipolar walk in Toronto

Hit sitcom Two and a Half Men fired Charlie Sheen in March after the star made a series of public appearances in which he mocked producers of the hit sitcom. That left the self-described warlock free to behave erratically in public for months, boasting all the while that CBS was the loser. Sheen predicted he would soon be offered work elsewhere and he was - a poorly received web series was followed by the My Violent Torpedo of Truth tour. Sheen's appearance at Massey Hall in Toronto was an odd, uncomfortable affair and the subsequent "Bipolar walk" in Toronto stranger still. Sporting a Toronto Maple Leafs shirt, Sheen declared he was not bipolar but "bi-winning" as his bodyguards struggled to clear a path for him. By September, Ashton Kutcher was ready to take his place on Two and a Half Men and Sheen was eating humble pie at the Emmys and on the talk-show circuit.

2. Lady Gaga and Winnipeg's Maria Aragon

Lady Gaga was ubiquitous in 2011, emerging from an egg at the Grammy Awards, singing a duet with Tony Bennett and posing in provocative ways for a hefty photo book by Terry Richardson. Beneath the uncomfortable costumes and the bewilderingly styled hair lies a savvy performer who shows signs of having a heart. So when Gaga saw 10-year-old Maria Aragon of Winnipeg performing a cover of her hit, Born This Way, she tweeted the link to her millions of followers. In March, Aragon appeared on stage with Gaga during a Toronto concert and the pair performed a duet together. Aragon's moment in the spotlight didn't stop there - she went on to perform with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, record I Want Candy for Gap Kids and sign a recording contract in the Philippines.

3. William Shatner's on-air confessions

Canadian-born star William Shatner is forgiven many career bloopers for his role as Capt. James T. Kirk on the original Star Trek. This year brought him more than his fair share of clunkers, starting with sleepwalking through the Genies. Then there was the ill-conceived series $#*! My Dad Says based on Justin Halpern's Twitter feed about the half-humorous, half-sage pronouncements of his own father. By May, it was cancelled, leaving Shatner free to take on new projects, including a speaking tour of Canada this fall in which he promoted his autobiography and displayed his usual facility to say the wrong thing. Then there was his inexplicable venture into the YouTube universe with a version of Bohemian Rhapsody. Now, word comes that the 80-year-old is taking his one-man shat, uh, chat show is on to New York.

4. Two big ones for the ladies

The summer hit movie Bridesmaids proved that women could pull off gross-out humour a la Judd Apatow. Kristen Wiig and Annie Mamolo wrote with Wiig starring as the unlucky best friend of the bride, played by Maya Rudolph. While squirmingly embarrassing at times, the film hit a nerve among every woman who has ever been part of a bridal party. Then Melissa McCarthy, who is surely the funniest of the Bridesmaids cast, went on to become the surprise winner of the Emmy for best comedic actress for her role on Mike & Molly. The show played it like a beauty pageant, putting squarely into the spotlight the reason why no one believed she would win - her weight. Her Saturday Night Live hosting gig in October proved to be a radiant moment in that long-running franchise. At yearend, Bridesmaids scored a Golden Globes nomination, but McCarthy was overlooked.

5. Young love! Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber

Stratford's own pop sensation Justin Bieber and Disney star Selena Gomez have been an item since before last New Years Eve. And considering their age - he's 17, she's 19 - that's remarkable longevity in the paparazzi glare. Pictures of them canoodling on the beach proved Bieber may not be as wholesome as some parents of teen girls would like to believe. Then some hussie claimed Bieber had fathered her baby and there were hot denials and paternity suits. All over now. And also, he sang, she made TV shows, they were there together at the Grammys, at the MuchMusic Video Awards, at the Peoples' Choice awards - they're not so idle for teenagers.

6. Saskatoon's Sheepdogs on the cover of Rolling Stone

Saskatoon's shaggy sensations The Sheepdogs began competing in February in Rolling Stone's contest, which awarded a cover photo on the venerable music magazine to an unsigned musical act. By the time they made it into the final round in July, most of Canada was on their side. They won after a final gig at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. It was a victory for '70s-style swirling guitar licks and lush vocals, for four long-haired lads who write their own music and step to their own drummer. The result - a record deal for the album Learn & Burn which went gold in Canada - and a string of appearances that prove they are as authentic in person as they seem.

7. Byebye Harry

The Harry Potter franchise came to a strong end, with the dark fantasy Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - part 2 hailed as one of the best films of the series based on the J.K. Rowling novels. There was predictable hoopla on red carpets on both sides of the Atlantic, but the young stars managed to be very British about it, playing down the emotions surrounding the end of the Hogwarts story in the politest way. Meanwhile boy wizard Daniel Radcliffe went on to display hither-to unknown talents - as a song-and-dance man packing them in on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. It officially opened in March and it's still running with Radcliffe in the lead.

8. And baby makes 3

Singer Elton John and partner David Furnish arrived in Toronto just two months after the arrival of their baby boy Zachary for the opening of the musical Billy Elliot, which Furnish produced. Their son was born to a surrogate mother on Christmas Day last year, after an adoption attempt earlier in 2010 fell through. Like any new parents, they were bleary eyed and eager to talk about their bundle of joy. "He's just over nine weeks old. He's very small...He just constantly makes me laugh. I could look at him 24 hours a day he's so funny," said John. Zachary will grow up to call John 'Daddy' and Furnish 'Papa.' There have been unconfirmed rumours ever since that the couple were considering buying a Canadian property.

9. The year of Ryan Gosling

An all but silent anti-hero in Drive, a political campaigner in The Ides of March, a playboy in comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love - Ryan Gosling was everywhere in 2011. The London, Ont.-born actor earned a Golden Globe nomination early in the year for his role as an out-of-luck husband in Blue Valentine. He has an equally full slate in 2012, in police drama Gangster Squad and in The Place Beyond the Pines. Gosling is the essence of understated, but still made People's list of the sexiest men alive. Then there was his casual heroics on a New York street corner - coolly breaking up a fight between two men. The video was a sensation on YouTube and helped earned him a tongue-in-cheek honour of "coolest person" from a Time columnist. The Golden Globe nominations capped the year with Gosling up for best actor in Ides and Crazy, Stupid.

10. Lars von Trier's loose lips

Danish director Lars von Trier is a distinctive and ambitious film director, whose Melancholia is earning a place in many best-of lists for 2011. It also has the admiration of filmgoers, despite the peculiar theme of the planet circulating close to the earth and threatening all life. But von Trier has a foot-in-mouth problem that got him declared "persona non grata" at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Cannes audiences put up with the nudity and violence of Antichrist in 2009, but his ruminations in 2011 about being of German origin and therefore understanding Hitler were too much. His remarks, made at a press conference, appeared to be a lame joke or the result of too much sun. He dug himself deeper the longer he spoke, eventually offering to make a movie titled The Final Solution. Von Trier quickly apologized and endured the censure of film fans and Jewish groups. Perhaps Cannes did him a favour, because he issued a statement at mid-year, announcing he would not be speaking again in public.