It’s official — Britney Spears sucks.

After years of struggling in the amateur rankings, Spears vaulted to the major leagues of crappiness with her appearance in “Crossroads,” which cemented her status as purveyor of bad teeny-bopper pop.

But Spears is not alone — in a complete lack of shock, she is joined by Jennifer Lopez, Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie and this year’s obvious “winner” Madonna, for the horrific bomb “Swept Away.”

These five women are the leaders of the pack of worst actresses at the 2002 Golden Raspberry Awards, also known as the Razzies.

This is one of those magical times of year when every critic’s list of worst films is validated, as the worst of the worst are “honored” for their lack of contribution to society at large.

Because a few movies and performances were overlooked by this year’s pack of nominees, I have taken it upon myself to correct this problem by nominating a few of my own.

For instance, while Angelina Jolie should have known better than to do “Life or Something Like It,” it was far from one of the five worst performances of the year, although the remaining nominees — Lopez for “Enough” and “Maid in Manhattan,” Ryder for “Mr. Deeds,” Spears and Madonna — are more than worthy of the distinction.

Instead of Jolie, however, what about Elizabeth Hurley for the travesty known as “Serving Sara”? This is one of those films that should never have been made, especially featuring a vapid model and a male “Friend.”

As for the guys, the nominees include such Razzie vets as Steven Segal (“Half Past Dead”) and Adam Sandler (“Mr. Deeds” and “Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights”), as well as foreign newcomers Adiano Giannini (“Swept Away”) and Roberto Benigni (“Pinocchio”).

Of course, as with the women, this one’s already wrapped up — the terrible triple threat of Eddie Murphy is in a lock to win. With “I Spy,” “Showtime” and “The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” Murphy has proved he lost all sense of comedy and misplaced the talent that made him a star.

But unlike the women, there is no one who deserves to be off this list. Each of these “actors” has more than proven a lack of worth, but there are a few more performances worth mentioning — actors who could also have been solid choices for the list.

Aforementioned “Friend” Matthew Perry went from bad (“Three to Tango”) to worse with “Serving Sara.” In a year when everyone praised Jennifer Aniston for breaking the “Friends” curse with “The Good Girl,” Perry ruined it again with this tale of a process server and his client.

Also deserving mention are a pair of bad movie regulars, Kevin Costner and Dana Carvey. Both appear in outrageously overdone films — “Dragonfly” for Costner and “Master of Disguise” for Carvey — that are much more complex than their respective stories should allow.

These leaves worst picture as the last major category left for scrutiny. Four out of the five films have already been up for at least one of the other two awards — “The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” “Pinocchio,” “Swept Away” and “Crossroads” — but the fifth nominee comes as somewhat of a shock. The overblown “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones” may have featured bad acting (Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman are up for worst supporting actor and actress, respectively) and a rigid romance between the two (nominated for worst screen couple), but there are worse films to be nominated.

Although “Master of Disguise” and “Serving Sara” are worthy of consideration to replace the fifth “Star Wars” film, the nominating committee should have gone with their old standby — the Freddie Prinze Jr. movie, this time being “Scooby Doo.” This film was not only plagued by bad acting and a awful storyline — villain or no, Scrappy should have been restricted to the never-again category — but it had a poorly-animated version of the title character and forced the likes of Prinze and Sarah Michelle Gellar to act opposite it.

With the Oscar nominations coming out today, it’s easy for these dubious distinctions to get lost in the shuffle — and recognizing these films is the only way to keep them from ever being made again.

Todd LaPlace is junior in journalism and The Lantern arts editor. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].