It’s that time of year again. While the rest of the country polishes the holiday china, Barbara Walters has awoken from her suspended animation to proclaim from the mountaintops (OK, just her primetime pulpit) the most fascinating people from this past year.
Walters took a risk in hoping nothing “fascinating” happened in the remaining month of 2005, and pressed on with her “Most Fascinating People of 2005” just in time for sweeps week.
But looking back over a year of terrible tragedies and possible pandemics, Babs’ choices seem less fascinating and more flimsy. The rush to air the special before even Dec. 1 became quite clear when evaluating some of this year’s choices.
Just look at her first featured fascinator, 11-year-old actress Dakota Fanning. I concede she worked with several leading hunks and is really, really good at looking terrified. I’ll even admit her 38-year-old woman inside an 11-year-old body is interesting in that sort of really creepy way. When I look back over 2005, however, I think I’ve spent more time fascinated with passing pieces of dust or the new Coke.
At least Walters’ second choice, rapper/speaker-out-of-turn Kanye West, captured the headlines for his impromptu critique of our fearless leader. He was truly fascinating as Walters spoke to him in the same clueless, patronizing tone she used with Fanning earlier. He even went as far as to drop the “F-bomb” to dear old Babsy as they sat precariously beside a mixing board in a recording studio.
Recognize the name Tom Mesereau? You may remember this “fascinating” character as the long-haired lawyer who fought ferociously for Michael Jackson’s innocence in his latest trial. Walters tried really hard to make viewers believe it was Mesereau who was the fascinating facet of the Jackson trial and not MJ himself, his accuser, the accuser’s mother or even sassy juror No. 5. I almost believed it, too, until she asked a question about his hair. That’s where the fascination stopped.
Lance Armstrong, Walter’s next choice, was an easy one, and pairing him with fianc
