MANILA, Philippines?We don?t own a crystal ball or other divination devices, but we do keep track of how show business trends pan out from year to year, so here are our hopefully educated guesses on the entertainment world?s prospects for 2009:

Due to the worsening economic times, it?s likely that comedy productions will come on strong in the next 12 months.

Jim Carrey?s new starrer, ?Yes Man,? paces the rest of the field with its relentlessly upbeat story about a former naysayer whose life and love prospects perk up when he decides to say yes to everything.

Another star, TV?s Jay Leno, was all set to retire as the medium?s most popular late-night talk show host?until he was offered an earlier (10 p.m.) time slot for a new comedy-oriented program. The offer was too good to pass up, so Leno had to defer his retirement, possibly for years (if his show clicks with viewers).

Leno?s new show delights its producers because it?s much more economical than the dramas and sitcoms that usually fill the 10 p.m. slot.

Laugh fests

On the local film scene, the comedy connection is similarly firming up, with a number of the MMFF entries coming across as all-out laugh fests (?Iskul Bukol: 20 Years After,? ?Ang Tanging Ina N?yong Lahat,? ?One Night Only?).

Another major development can be described as an ?anti-trend?: The decline, after years of supremacy on the boob tube, of ?reality TV? shows. Viewers are finally wearying of all those eyewitness and challenge programs that intrude into people?s lives and expose them on worldwide TV.

The trend?s decline has been long in coming, because reality TV shows titillated viewers? peeping-tom proclivities by increasingly more extreme choices of topics and subjects ? from Hugh Hefner?s harem to lurid ?dating games? that end up not in a restaurant or at the movies, but in bed.

The reality TV format was doted on by producers because it was so economical. What will take its place? Clearly, the global recession will limit production budgets, so non-star vehicles should be in vogue?like shows for teens, ?tweens? and children.

Movie sequels

In the movies, sequels will continue to provide reliably buffo entertainment, as will animated features for the family audience. With the exceptionally good showing of ?Mamma Mia,? musicals may also get a big boost in 2009.

That would be a boon, because musical films, which were big hits in the ?50s, were practically defunct for decades after that, until ?Moulin Rouge? helped revive the film format less than a decade ago.

Other incipient trends: Much more interactive radio and TV, with members of the audience themselves originating a greater percentage of program content.

And, in musical theater, more stage musicals being adapted from hit movies, like ?The Lion King? and the newest kid on the theater block, ?Shrek.?

This new trend is a reversal of the traditional practice of movie versions being made of hit stage musicals, like ?My Fair Lady? and ?West Side Story.? The show biz times have changed, indeed!

New leading man

Bradley Cooper makes his bid for stardom in not one but two major comedies?opposite Jim Carrey in ?Yes Man? and in the wedding-themed ?The Hangover.?

In ?Yes Man,? Cooper plays Peter, who is repeatedly frustrated by his friend Carl?s (Carrey) constant refusals to resume his life more than two years after his divorce.

In ?Hangover,? Cooper portrays one of three groomsmen on a wild bachelor party weekend in Las Vegas.