Barbara Walters Presents: 10 Most Fascinating people…Really?

Serena Mercay
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Barbara Walters Presents: 10 Most Fascinating People of 2008, ABC TV

Barbara widely broadcasts who 9/10 of these people are far in advance of the show. It’s a flawed system, for sure. They do it that way to intice people to watch their favorite celeb chat about how fantastic they are, but it leaves only one surprise. This year was wholly predictable since the top pick was Obama. Who else could it have been? Also, much of the interviews were recycled. Yawn.

Here’s the list:

Will Smith – The gist of the interview is: His movies have made 5 billion dollars worldwide, he loves his wife, and he likes being a movie star. No surprises there. She should have asked him about the private school he started (what’s up with that?) and the all-religions church he formed. That kind of utopian philosophy in action makes me think he’s completely out of touch with reality. Or maybe he’s a genius. Only time will tell, I suppose.  

Michael Phelps – He won 8 Olympic gold medals. That’s highly admirable but I wouldn’t consider him fascinating. His interview made my eyelids heavy.

Miley Cyrus – If you like scandalous gossip about tween idols, this was the segment for you. She’s dating Justin Gaston, 20 year old underwear model and aspiring country singer. The most stunning tidbit? Someone gave her a 7 figure deal to write her life story. I assume it will be 70% pictures and contain a multitude of OMGs.

Tina Fey – Okay, this one I can understand. She started at Second City doing improv, was the first female head writer of SNL, wrote iconic teen movie Mean Girls, scored 3 Emmys as writer/producer/star of 30 Rock, and did the most popular political impersonation in recent memory.

Rush Limbaugh – Ugh. 20 million people a week tune in to hear this guy talk? I find it sort of ironic that he’s partially deaf. He just signed a $38mil/year contract with $100mil bonus. During the interview, he scoffed at the recession, said he “refuses to participate.” He hearts Sarah Palin (no shocker there). This is his description of himself: “I am a harmless, loveable, little fuzzball but I am the most unthreatening, tolerant, loveable guy you could ever meet.” Loveable times two? Sounds like a bit of an oversell.

Thomas Beatie – Admittedly, it is fascinating that a female-to-male pre-op transsexual gave birth. Best quote: “I used my female reproductive organs to become a father.”

Frank Langella – You’ve probably seen him in fifty movies but he’s never been a star. His turn as Nixon on stage and screen has warranted much award buzz. Hearing his take on Nixon was refreshingly personal. He called Dick a neurotic guy who tried hard to look strong and wanted to be liked. Langella ended up feeling compassion towards the man.

Sarah Palin – She’s a huntin’, fishin’, beauty pageantin’, everyday gal who sure loves moose chowder. I can’t remember another person who went from the peak of stardom to complete annihilation in 3 months time. Expect a presidential run in 2012. Too bad Babs didn’t score an interview with her. It might have been hilarious.

Tom Cruise – Barbara called him “weathered and wiser” and he certainly looked it. It can’t be easy to be publicly eviscerated for years on end. Something that has always struck me as odd about him: he mainly speaks in monosyllabic words. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to enjoy his new movie since he’s playing a German guy with an American accent. For some reason, that always annoys the shit out of me.

Overall, I was unimpressed with the questions Ms. Walters asked. All the most interesting facts were used in her narrations but not inquired about to the interviewee. Irksome.

“There’s things that I could have handled better.” -Tom Cruise

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 11:38 amand is filed under Specials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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