The situation with credit cards is much stronger. Card delinquencies — payments late by 90 days or more — dropped to their lowest levels in 17 years during the spring, then saw a slight increase in the third quarter, but still remained near historic lows.

Chicago-based TransUnion's forecast takes into consideration several factors, including expectations that consumer confidence and the economy will improve next year.

NEW YORK – If the U.S. economy does not suffer more setbacks, the rate of mortgage holders behind on their payments should decline significantly by the end of next year, according to credit reporting agency TransUnion.

While the drop will be significant, the rate will remain well above the pre-recession average of 1.5 to 2 percent.

One reason card delinquencies are expected to remain so low is that credit is much tighter than it was before the recession. TransUnion data showed that nearly a quarter million new card accounts were opened by people with less-than-stellar credit scores during the third quarter, which contributed to the slight increase in late payments during the summer months. But banks are mainly still going after consumers with top-tier credit histories.

"We have a long way to go to get back," said Steven Chaouki, a TransUnion vice president.

Chaouki said the conventional wisdom before the Great Recession was that homeowners would put their mortgages first because of concern about their reputation and the emotional attachment involved in owning a home. But what has become clear as housing prices have continued to fall, he said, is that bill payment is far more practical.

"People were protecting their home equity," he said. Credit cards were relatively easy to come by in years past, he said, so when money got tight, it was an easy decision to default on cards and maintain house payments. Now it's common to owe more on a mortgage than a house is actually worth, but credit cards are harder to get. So consumers are being practical and protecting what is more valuable to them.

He said he expects the equation will shift again if housing prices rebound and people go back to building home equity.

Helping to cut the mortgage delinquency rate are a slowly improving job market and a stabilizing housing market.

That slowed down the process, Wise said, and left mortgages listed as delinquent for longer than they otherwise might have been, temporarily boosting delinquency rates.

But by the end of next year, it could drop to 5 percent, TransUnion said. That's well off the peak of 6.89 percent seen in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Also, banks are expected to get a good portion of pending foreclosures off their books next year, said Charlie Wise, TransUnion director of research and consulting.

Banks are still working through a backlog of foreclosures created by issues including the robo-signing scandal, in which bank officials signed mortgage documents without verifying the information they contained. The issue surfaced last year in areas with large numbers of foreclosures, and banks had to backtrack and review foreclosures across the country to make sure their paperwork was in order.

TransUnion predicts by the end of 2012, just 0.69 percent of cards will be considered delinquent, down from a predicted 0.74 percent in the current quarter. The rate has wobbled in the last few years, peaking at 1.36 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, then dropping and bouncing back up to 1.32 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

TransUnion expects further edging up in the current quarter and the first three months of 2012, but then late payments on bank-issued cards should fall again.

"Lenders are willing to lend, but are still pursuing the best customers," said Chaouki.

Economic uncertainty has also contributed. In the third quarter of 2011, mortgage delinquencies saw their first uptick in six quarters, largely fueled by concerns over the economy as lawmakers were debating the U.S. debt ceiling and Europe's debt crisis was unfolding.

Mortgage delinquency rates — the ratio of borrowers 60 or more days behind on their payments — will likely tick up to about 6 percent through the first three months of 2012, TransUnion said in its annual delinquency forecast issued Wednesday.

The 20-year-old actress, who plays George Clooney's daughter in The Descendants, wore one-shoulder black cut-out dress with barefoot running shoes by Vibram at the star-studded soiree. Though Woodley's sock-like sneakers were named the most popular shoe trend of 2011, they were hardly red carpet appropriate.

PHOTOS: Stars in crazy, sexy shoes

PHOTOS: Inside all the Golden Globes afterparties!

Woodley, a first-time Golden Globe nominee, lost the Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture trophy to The Help's Octavia Spencer, who also beat out Jessica Chastain (The Help), Berenice Bejo (The Artist) and Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs).

Tell Us: Would you wear barefoot running shoes with an evening gown?

Shailene Woodley didn't exactly put her best foot forward at Warner Bros. and InStyle's Golden Globes afterparty in Beverly Hills, Calif. Sunday.

VIDEO: Watch the stars walk the red carpet at the Golden Globes

Keep a Child Alive with Alicia Keys airs on the cable television Showtime channel on Dec. 1, which is World AIDS Day.

PIC: Alicia throws her hubby a surprise b-day bash!

PHOTOS: Egypt and other famous babes with unique names

"I was terrified the moment I met her. I was shaking in my boots," the Irish musician and philanthropist said. "I was very moved by her singing of course, but what was interesting was the hard questions afterwards, and I think it's those hard questions that she asks that lead her." 

Bono, 51, added that the mom of 13-month-old Egypt and wife to Swizz Beatz has "lioness energy."

Bono fights fearlessly for humanitarian causes around the world, but there's one thing that really petrifies him: Alicia Keys!

At the premiere of the Showtime documentary Keep a Child Alive with Alicia Keys on Tuesday in New York, the Associated Press reports that the U2 frontman interrupted Keys' speech and said: "She's scary, isn't she? She's scary!" 

PHOTOS: Stars' good deeds

Oneal has been charged with reckless endangering and endangering the welfare of a child. She was released on $1,000 unsecured bail and a listed number could not be found for her.

Capt. Tim Stump says Oneal told police she has allowed her son to drive in a field since he was 5. Stump says she said the boy begged her to let him drive the quarter-mile to school.

According to court records, numerous witnesses saw the boy pull into the parking lot of his elementary school in Dover Tuesday morning and get out. Police say his mother, 34-year-old Tammy Oneal, drove away.

I know tailoring is key and the fabrics are couture and there's nothing like the real thing, but these three looks are just as great and fine to have dinner or a cocktail at The Ivy in or if you happen to bump into Brody Jenner at a party.

Purchase Info: Buy it here.

Every once in a while, I like to take a walk on the wild side of fashion. I abandon my Barneys, Bergdorfs and Bloomies for something sinfully delicious: MANDEE!

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- Pink stretch jersey

- Model's height is 5'11"

- Sized 0-10

- One shoulder caftan style

- Gold Halston logo brooch at shoulder

Halston Heritage Pretty Poncho Dress, $50

- Mini length.

I have to say, this was one of my favorite sexy looks this summer as well as the Sex in the City 2 look. I just thought it was clean, pretty, vibrant. I loved the insane turban Patricia Field styled on Sarah Jessica Parker's head and the sweet bag. But that was a costume, so how do you work it for real life? This one shoulder dress is popular on almost everyone and this past spring, summer almost everyone has worn one shape or style in different colors and fabrics. The trend isn't so much of a new thing but what is new the challenge is to figure out how to accessorize it.

By Sasha Charnin Morrison for UsMagazine.com. To read more of the Recessionista blog, click here.

PRODUCT DETAILS

- 37" from top of shoulder to hem

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LOS ANGELES (TheWrap) – HBO has optioned Laurie Sandell's new Bernie Madoff biography "Truth and Consequences: Life Inside the Madoff Family" to mine as source material for its upcoming project about the infamous swindler, a source familiar with the project confirms to TheWrap.

It's expected that De Niro will play Madoff, who bilked thousands of investors out of an estimated $18 billion.

Hollywood Reporter first published the news.

The film, which is being produced by Robert De Niro and his Tribeca Productions partner Jane Rosenthal, will also be based on Diane Henrique's Madoff bio "The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust."

With the deal, the show is now cleared to air in more than 55 percent of the country.

"Jeff developed his listening and storytelling skills on the primetime hit 'Survivor,' and his hosting appeal was cemented on 'Live With Regis and Kelly' and 'Larry King Live,'" Nogawski said. "Jeff has the ingredients to become an instant asset to stations and provide a strong lead in to their newscasts."

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – "Survivor" host Jeff Probst's upcoming syndicated talk show has taken a big step toward its fall 2012 release, striking a deal with NBC owned and operated stations, producer/distributor CBS Television Distribution announced Thursday.

All told, the syndicated talk show has been placed in 16 of the 20 major markets, via stations owned by CBS Television Stations, Gannett Broadcasting Group, Post-Newsweek Stations, Bello Corp., Cox Television, Scripps Howard Broadcasting and LIN Television.

The show "will cover topics ranging from relationships and family dynamics to newsmakers of the day to families and individuals facing challenges," according to CBS Television Distribution.

Outrage caused the video to be withdrawn from a November 2010 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, a Smithsonian museum in Washington, after Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, described it as anti-Christian "hate speech."

The museum said the artwork is "an expression of the artist's outrage at indifference to human suffering during the early years of the AIDS crisis."

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Greg McCune)

"We strongly encourage anyone who has concerns about Hide/Seek to visit the museum and view it in person," the museum said in a statement.

"What gets lost in all of this brouhaha is how thoroughly informed he is by a Catholic iconographic tradition and how he is reinvigorating it to describe new social realities," Katz said of the artist in an interview. "This is a work of art of great complexity and sensitivity."

The Brooklyn Museum was the target of similar complaints in 1999 over a painting of the Virgin Mary by British artist Chris Ofili, which included elephant dung and pictures of naked buttocks.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Brooklyn Museum said a controversial video artwork of ants crawling on a crucifix will be displayed this week despite complaints that it is anti-Christian and may endanger the institute's public funding.

Andrew Lanza, a Republican state senator who also co-signed the letter, called for a boycott of the museum and the resignation of its director, and said the museum's public funding should be withdrawn.

As in 1999, the museum was resolute this week, saying Wojnarowicz's film will be among many in the exhibit "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture". The show explores the role of sexual identity in modern art, and features many works by "often-marginalized" gay and lesbian artists, the museum said.

The Brooklyn Museum, scheduled to exhibit the video starting this Friday, said it would go ahead with its plans despite strong opposition from the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and some lawmakers.

The letter was co-signed by Michael Grimm, a Republican congressman from New York, and five other state and city legislators from New York's Staten Island.

A version of the artwork was subsequently acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Molinaro has not seen the work in full, nor does he plan to, a spokeswoman said.

Jonathan Katz, a co-curator of the exhibition, dismissed criticism by those who had not seen the film as "intellectually bankrupt." He said the work belongs to a centuries-old artistic tradition of using the imagery of Jesus Christ's crucifixion as a metaphor for human suffering.

"This is an outrageous use of taxpayer money by the nation's second-largest art museum and an obvious attempt to offend Christians."

"This is not art, this is Christian-bashing," James Molinaro, the Staten Island Borough President, said in a letter sent on Monday evening to Arnold Lehman, the museum's director.

"Wait Wait" has been a popular staple of NPR since 1998 with more than 3.2 million weekly listeners. The tie-up with BBC America is the latest in the cable TV channel's efforts to develop original programing to complement its menu of British TV imports.

National Public Radio (NPR) and BBC America said on Wednesday they had joined forces for a "2011 Year in Review" TV show in December that will look at the year's top stories from both American and British points of view.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

"The comedy panel show has been a staple of British television and 'Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!' is the gold standard of the format on radio in the US. This year-end special offers the perfect opportunity to join forces with our friends at NPR," BBC Worldwide manager Perry Simon said in a statement.

"I think its television debut is long overdue and I can't wait to see what Peter, Carl Kasell and the team look like," Simon added.

The December 23 TV show will feature host Peter Sagal, comedians Paula Poundstone and Alonzo Bodden, along with as yet unnamed British comedy talent. It also will be broadcast on NPR radio stations on the weekend of Dec 24-25.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The satirical radio news quiz show "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me" is coming to television for the first time in a year-end special with a British twist.