Every December, Barbara Walters reveals her list of the Ten Most Fascinating People of the Year, releasing the runner-ups ahead of time and saving the official Most Fascinating Person for her primetime special, which is always a big surprise, since no one could have ever guessed that, say, President Obama would be the most fascinating person of 2008. This year, the special will air December 14, and yesterday Walters released seven of the luminaries she plans to feature (in no particular order -- yet):
Pippa Middleton
The Kardashian Sisters
Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Katy Perry
Derek Jeter
Donald Trump
Simon Cowell
What we've got here is three men (Cowell, Trump, and Jeter) who could have been on the list any time in the past ten years, yet haven't done anything all that fascinating this year -- Cowell's X Factor has sort of been a bomb, Trump's bid for a presidential nomination was a sham, and Jeter...did what? Dated celebrities and played baseball, same as he always does? We've also got two actors (Stonestreet and Ferguson) who became famous for playing a gay couple on TV last year, and a singer who...look, I've got no beef with Katy Perry, and I know she recently tied Michael Jackson's record for most number one singles released from the same album, but the three biggest singles off of Teenage Dream (the title track, "California Gurls" and "Firework") were, again, released last year, and it seems like you would want to highlight a singer whose career is currently associated more with 2011, like Adele or Nicki Minaj, no? Because at the top of the list, you've got four people (all three Kardashians, plus Pippa Middleton) who are famous for doing nothing, which is rather fascinating, but probably not in the way Barbara intended.
Now, to be fair, I'll admit that the Kardashians' presence on the list actually makes the most sense to me out of the entire group, because as maddening as I may find them and their fame, a significant portion of the American public is fascinated by them -- there's no other word for it -- and with all the wedding shenanigans of the past few months, this year is as good as any to put them on the list. Pippa Middleton, meanwhile, really is an egregious choice, because other than being the sister of the potential future consort to the King of England, and wearing a tight dress to said sister's wedding, what the hell else has she done? Kate Middleton is sort of fascinating, in that she was a commoner who married a prince and went on an American tour with him this year and has generally brought more positive attention to the royal family than they've had in a long time, but she was on Barbara's list last year, so why not pick somebody completely different, rather than throwing her sister into the mix? Mind you, I don't fault Pippa for this debacle; I fault Barbara Walters, because the weird way she decides who's fascinating and who isn't is starting to become more embarrassing than that time she asked Katharine Hepburn if she were a tree, what tree would she be?
Destination: HORROR.
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