WHAT would a year-ending be without news on our favorite band U2?

The boys have plenty to celebrate this holiday season with the smashing success of their new CD How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, but they’re also in the process of settling some old scores.

Some stylist who used to work for the band wrote a nasty tell-all book in an effort to turn a quick buck, but the thing never made an impact and quickly faded into oblivion. During her time with U2 the band members gave her items as gifts, and now she’s trying to hawk them through Christie’s auction house.

But U2 have filed a lawsuit in Dublin seeking return of the mementos, which include a hat that Bono wore, earrings, sweatshirts and mugs. And who can blame them?

The perpetrator of the mess, one Ms. Lola Cashman, is of course outraged that her plans have been temporarily derailed. “I felt so upset at first but now I am angry,” she whines. “I worked with the boys for two years and was very close to them.” Geez, what a nice way for her to show her gratitude!

In other stuff, we like a quote from U2 bassist Adam Clayton that appears in the new issue of the Brit music mag NME. “The thing that’s noxious about celebrity is that it upends God’s order of things. The real romantic figures surely, should be nurses, firemen, mothers, aid workers...these are literally heroic people,” Clayton feels. Here, here.