YES! Magazine has always been expected to deliver the most reliable insider information on the most controversial of local showbiz stories—and in its December issue, it does just that!

THE TOP TEN SCENE STEALERS. The YES! team gathers the most explosive controversies on the entertainment scene—and feels sure enough about its information—to rank them according to magnitude and intensity.

In his introduction to The YES! List, which covers no less than 33 pages, contributing editor Andrew Paredes writes: "...we bring you the latest word on the biggest issues to hit showbiz over the last 12 months, a combination of what the mainstream media have reported and what our own investigations have unearthed."

"The Top 10 Scene Stealers list is such a sweep of the highs and lows, the darkness and brightness of the world of celebrity," YES! editor-in-chief Jo-Ann Maglipon adds in her editor's note, "that it leaves us rushing, stunned at times, and nearly spent. But we witnessed it all..."

And having been witness to the people and events that held the public riveted in 2010, the YES! team went on to tell it as it is— with the end goal of making sense of it all (nearly impossible as that may get).

Its top five: The Fall and Rise of Willie Revillame; Jinkee Knocks Out Krista, Wins Back The Pambansang Kamao; Kris & James Call It Quits; Claudine, Angelica, Gretchen: Sex, Lies & Sisterhood; John Lloyd & Shaina Face A Most Malicious Rumor.

The next five: Kim & Gerald: The Breakdown Of A Love Team; Robin & Mariel Got Married...Or Did They?; Marian & Bela Go To The Bathroom; PNoy & Shalani Break Up; Charice Lands 'Glee,' Gets Botoxed.

JAMES YAP SPEAKS. The December issue also features an exclusive interview with James Yap, a man known to be so private, he can only be heard speaking a few precious sentences when ambushed by the press.

Yet the soon-to-be-ex-husband of "The Queen of All Media" Kris Aquino and the PBA's most bankable point guard, chooses to speak at length with YES!

Jo-Ann admits in her editor's notes: "James Yap does not like the press probing his insides, and tolerates only questions about basketball, which makes him one very difficult celebrity to interview."

YES! must've done something right, in any case, because James actually spends four hours with Jo-Ann and associate editor Anna Pingol.

The hours had its restrictions, of course. His lawyer, Lorna Kapunan, wasn't keen on James talking to media at all at this time, and his manager, Dondon Monteverde, was present during the interview. (Lucky break that Dondon, whose family owns Regal Entertainment, Inc., is such a no-fuss guy and shows no wariness of the press at all!)

So the evening went well, with James getting more casual and more voluble as the night wore on.

He talked about his childhood in Escalante City, Negros Occidental, his family and his relationship with them, the people who were there for him in the years he was an unknown, and how he spends his time now that he's fast being thought of again as "single" and "free."

Indeed, how?