Barbara Walters’ special “Most Fascinating People” on ABC included pop stars Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert. Both have been making a lot of headlines for their outlandish wardrobe and stage antics. The special aired footage from one of Lady Gaga’s videos in which she is full-on making out with another woman, tongue and all – but not Adam Lambert’s now-infamous guy-on-guy kiss from his over-the-top performance at the American Music Awards (otherwise known as “CrotchGate 09″). Footage from the performance was cut to spare Barbara Walters’ audience from having to relive the horror of… two men kissing!

Adam Lambert was featured on Barbara Walters’ “The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2009″ special on ABC last night — but the most fascinating part, Babs refused to air footage of Lambert’s infamous man-on-man kiss. Walters didn’t shy away from the issue on the ep, making several references to it — but ultimately explaining how Adam “turned the music industry inside out doing things we won’t show you here.”

During one of the first segments on her “The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2009″ show last night, Babs aired a package featuring Lady Gaga locking lips with another female — it was not blurred, it was not censored, it was no big deal.

But later in the show, she made a big deal about the fact that she wasn’t going to show Adam Lambert’s man-on-man kiss at the AMAs.

[From TMZ]

I’m the first to say that I thought Adam’s performance was too much, and I also flinched a bit when Lambert’s camp came out in defense of the performance, saying that there was a double standard at work. I thought the whole thing was just a bad decision. But with this new development, it sure does appear to be a double standard, doesn’t it? ABC clearly doesn’t have a problem with two women making out, but two guys kissing is considered obscene enough to cut from a broadcast? Oh, wait, I forgot – two women kissing is “hot;” two men kissing is “gross,” right? Silly me.

Did anyone notice Babs’ “stern grandma” attitude when talking to Adam about it? She just loves to sit up on her moral high horse, doesn’t she? But let’s not forget, she’s not above messing around with a married guy or stepping on people to get what she wants. I hope when she finally gets off TV, she takes her “soft white light” interview cam and her sycophantic interviewing style with her.

Generally speaking, I couldn’t care less about The View. The only woman on there I have a genuine affection for is Whoopi Goldberg, and the part I like about her is that she really, really doesn’t seem to care what anyone thinks of her. That being said, I do enjoy reading about what goes on behind the scenes on The View, and this new interview is riveting. The ladies sat down for a cover interview with Ladies Home Journal (story via OK! Magazine) and the results were hilarious. Should I be ashamed for chuckling at several different parts of the interview? I don’t care. These women are cracking me up. From Barbara Walters trying to convince the world that big, burly Los Angels police officers are fans of The View, to Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s snotty attitude about people pitying her, this one’s a classic:

The ladies of The View are quite a collection of characters, and it’s no secret that Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck don’t always get along. The co-hosts are all sharing one thing however — the October cover of Ladies Home Journal. Inside they dish on their chemistry, their disagreements and their success.

On the secret of their success:
Barbara: “The chemistry is the most important thing. We have been imitated again and again – by men, by other programs – and the thought is there should be one older person, one comedian, one black person, and one younger person, and that will make it work. And it doesn’t. Our roles on the show have changed and I think we’re better than ever because of this group.”

On disagreeing on set:
Whoopi: “There are times when you think, I shouldn’t have said that, and I’m sorry. But nobody cares if you say something tough – it’s over and done with. They’re like, No, no, no I know what you meant. The next day you’re back on cue. Or five minutes later, after the commercial, you’re back to being the two of you.”
Elizabeth: “We know what triggers the other person, but we also believe what we believe. It’s all up for discussion, and we know we’re all coming back tomorrow. So we love each other even though we don’t always agree.”
Joy: “We are a reality show of the real kind. You watch the Jon & Kate Plus 8 shows, but they’ve been faking things for two years. We have a real show, we are real people and the audience relates to that.”

About the fighting rumors:
Whoopi: “The idea was put into people’s minds before I arrived – that was played up with [former co-host] Rosie [O'Donnell], and it stuck. I think for a while things got more personal than they should have and people glommed onto that. I think people want there to be feuds. But I am too lazy to fight – it takes too much energy to keep it going.”
Elizabeth: “I typically get two comments. One is, ‘I feel so bad for you.’ Or: ‘That has to be difficult to do every day.’ Neither is true, and I don’t enjoy pity. Anyway, the show isn’t as interesting when we agree.”

On memorable guests:
Sherri: “I love the gorgeous men who come through and that I get to put my hand on their thighs. The guys love it. Robert Downey Jr. put my head in his lap. And they kiss you. What kind of job do I have? Every man I love turns around and gives me a kiss. When [Barack] Obama showed up, I was like, this is it, I am done. And Jonathan Rhys Meyers? I am like a predator cougar on that boy. I will hurt you.”

On their male fans:
Barbara: “I don’t think of us as a woman’s show. I was at the Michael Jackson memorial, and these male cops kept saying, ‘I watch your show every day!”
Elizabeth: “My husband, Tim [Hasselbeck, former NFL quarterback] has played for two or three teams since I’ve been on the show, and every team he’s been on, they all watch the show while they’re icing their legs. They sit and watch and try to get what women are about.”

On Barbara’s little-known expertise:
Sherri: “Barbara gives the best single-women advice…about raising my son and relationships. She also gives good advice about sex.”

[From OK! Magazine]

I now love Sherri a little bit for saying Robert Downey Jr. and Jonathan Rhys Meyers were her favorite boys. I just went and watched Jonathan’s last interview on The View (he’s been on several times, so he must love those ladies too), and they’re all drooling over him. And now I am going to try to work “I am like a predator cougar on that boy. I will hurt you” into my everyday conversation this week. One part that OK! didn’t excerpt was where Sherry claims that John McCain’s appearance on the show was not a happy one. Sherri says, “John McCain was not happy with us. I don’t know if he and his wife thought we were just going to bake cookies or something, but we asked some pretty tough questions.” I can’t believe that excerpt got cut out while OK! made us hear about Barbara’s sex advice!

Here are the ladies of “The View” at the New York Times Arts & Leisure Weekend in January. Images thanks to WENN.com .

Just before Elisabeth left The View to go on maternity leave (and give birth to a healthy baby boy), it seems she and Barbara Walters had a huge fight. The fight wasn’t what I expected – it was nothing about politics or the strained atmosphere of The View. No, Barbara and Elisabeth fought about Elisabeth having a messy dressing room. Barbara demanded that Elisabeth clean up the mess before she left on maternity leave. The whole thing doesn’t really reek of professionalism, actually. It sounds like Barbara was really condescending to a very pregnant woman who probably had a hard time bending down and picking anything up. That being said, whatever happened to the nesting instinct? Shouldn’t pregnancy make Elisabeth want to clean up her nest?

Talk about tough love! “View” Big Momma Barbara Walters ripped into expectant momma Elisabeth Hasselbeck just before [she] took off on maternity leave to drop her bouncing baby boy – bitching that her filthy dressing room looks like a Dumpster with a door!

Barbara flipped, says my ABC insider, when she stopped by Elisabeth’s between-scenes lair, found it littered with discarded mags, newspapers, junk mail, clothes, etc and screamed at staffers: “There have been rat problems in this building, but you wouldn’t even be able to find them in this mess!”

Walters called Elisabeth in for a big-girl talk and stormed: “Clean your messy dressing room!” Worse, she insisted Little Lizzie had to tidy up her room BEFORE splitting on maternity leave.

Luckily, Big Momma’s scolding didn’t induce premature birth.

[From the National Enquirer, print edition, Mike Walker's column, August 31 2009]

My biggest “messy” peeve is people who don’t probably dispose of food. That’s the height of grossness for me, people who just leave food laying out, or leave it to rot. But it doesn’t seem like Elisabeth is that person – most of her mess seems paper-oriented, which I can relate to. I’m not a messy person, but I have real problems throwing away magazines. I need to get a better system for my old Vogues and Vanity Fairs, because right now I just have piles of magazines laying around. But they are organized! I have my own system. Don’t yell at me, Babs!

Two of the temporary “replacements” for Elisabeth (while she’s on maternity leave) were just announced today. For much of September, we’re going to be graced by either Meghan McCain, or E.D. Hill. Meghan is the daughter of Sen. John McCain, and she’s been a guest and a guest hostess of The View before, famously telling a weight-critizing Laura Ingraham to “kiss my fat ass!” E.D. Hill is the former Fox News anchor who famously called the Obamas’ fist-bump a “terrorist fist-jab”. So, yeah… these are the women who they get to replace Elisabeth. Should be interesting.

Barbara Walters is shown on 2/4/09. Elisabeth Hasselbeck is shown on 5/5/09. Credit: WENN.com

Eric Bana has been promoting his supporting role in Funny People, and doing some early promotion for his lead role in The Time Traveler’s Wife, which will be out next week in America. He only did a couple of interviews before Funny People release, but many critics and reviewers singled Bana out as the best, funniest part of the film. Funny People’s director, Judd Apatow always claimed he hired Bana for the role because he was such a fan of Bana’s work in Munich (which really is an amazing film, one of Steven Spielberg’s best), and Apatow also claims it came as a complete surprise that Bana was so good at comedy. Bana actually got his start in comedy and stand-up, back in his home country, Australia.

Anyway, Bana went on The View to promote his two films, and it turns out Barbara Walters had gotten her hands on an early screening of The Time Traveler’s Wife. Barbara was beside herself at being so close to her latest girl-crush, and she even asked Bana to strip down live on the show:

American news queen Barbara Walters asked Eric Bana to strip naked on live US television – but he declined. The Australian actor was a guest on Walters’ talk show The View to promote his new romance-drama based on the bestselling novel The Time Traveller’s Wife.

In the film, Bana’s character involuntarily time travels and when he lands in a new time he is completely naked. Walters, 79, watched the movie before today’s interview and was obviously impressed with 40-year-old Bana’s buff body.

“We see more of your backside,” an excited Walters told Bana, stopping mid-sentence to compose herself.

When she regained her breath she simply said: “I had a wonderful time.”

The studio audience burst out in laughter. Then Walters came up with her naked proposal.

“So, I thought maybe you would like to show us now how it is done,” she propositioned Bana. The Melbourne-born and bred actor kept his clothes on.

He went on to admit he was surprised he was naked so often in The Time Traveller’s Wife, which co-stars actress Rachel McAdams and opens in Australian cinemas in November.

“I read all of those scenes and I read the book and I’m like ‘Yeah, he’s butt naked quite a bit but it is PG13 so I’ll never have to take my clothes off’,” Bana said. “Well, I was wrong. Every third or fourth day it was ‘Eric, drop your pants’.”

While Walters was purring on the right side of The View couch about Bana’s naked body, on the left co-host Joy Behar was purring about another of Bana’s traits.

“I love your accent,” Behar told Bana.

“Don’t you love it? It’s Australian.”

For Bana the biggest plus about appearing on the talk show was the knowledge that his mother, Eleanor, could watch back in Melbourne.

“I got big brownie points today because this is her favourite show and she watches it every day,” he said.

[From ABC]

Aw, Eric Bana is so cute when he talks about his mom. Alas, ladies (and a few gentlemen), Bana is taken. He’s been happily married to wife Rebecca Gleeson since 1997. They have two children together: son Klaus (10 years old) and daughter Sophia (7 years old).

In one other piece of Bana news, I mentioned yesterday that the screenwriter of Time Traveler’s adaptation to the screen recently gave an interview that I thought was slightly disrespectful to Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams (who plays “the wife”). Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin claimed that he wanted Brad Pitt (who is one of the producers of the film) to star with Jennifer Aniston as the wife originally. Regardless of the Bermuda Triangle stuff, I found this extremely insulting to Bana and McAdams – they are both gifted actors who should not be anyone’s second choice. My guess is that Brad Pitt bought the rights to the book with an idea that he might star, but ended up giving the part to his Troy buddy Eric, because Brad genuinely thought Eric would do a better job with the material.

Eric Bana is shown shirtless in Troy, thanks to Squarehippies.com, and at events on 4/29, 4/30, 7/20, and 7/22/09. Credit: WENN.com

Elisabeth Hasselbeck is on her way out from The View - whether it’s just for maternity leave, or a permanent change, only Barbara Walters knows. According to Mike Walker’s column in The National Enquirer, Barbara is so sick of Elisabeth’s “shrilly-silly views” and her “looney-toon responses” that she might hire someone else for the “conservative” seat on The View.

I have to say that Barbara lacks imagination. It’s like Barbara has a “conservative = ditzy blonde” equation in her head, because she’s really not stretching out the criteria for Elisabeth’s replacement. Barbara is thinking about… Carrie “Miss California” Prejean! Yes, fresh off her spokesperson deal for the National Organization for Marriage, Prejean is now being mentioned as a possible replacement for Hasselbeck. Not cool, Barbara.

“Adam and Eve… Not Adam and Steve!” That loud scream you heard was terrified Elisabeth Hasselbeck wailing that Baba Wawa – aka Barbara Walters – keeps plotting to bounce her from “The View” because of her shrilly-silly views.

But this time, “Elisabeth really has something to worry about,” said a show source, who revealed that while Dizzie Lizzie’s on maternity leave, Walters will audition, as her fill-in, the right-wing babe on the block – Miss USA runner-up Carrie Prejean, who made national headline with her “no gay marriage” bombshell during the pageant.

And it could turn into a permanent gig for the controversial beauty queen, say show insiders, because Barbara’s seriously fed up with Elisabeth’s coo-coo-conserva-babbble – and her looney-toon responses to co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sherri Shepherd.

When Joy asked, for example, why she kept defending Mel Gibson – refusing to admit he’s a hypocrite for divorcing, despite his much-avowed Catholic faith – the exchange got reeeally ugly.

Said Joy: “Listen, Elisabeth, there’s a self-righteous-ness to the guy.” Shrilled Elisabeth: “Isn’t it self-righteous to call someone self-righteous?”

Groaning like an embarrassed granny, Barbara quietly gasped: “Oh, Elisabeth!” Stay tuned.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, May 11, 2009]

That replacement would not only be cheap, it would be… dare I say it… ageist. Torpedoing the “aging” thirty-something Hasselbeck for the 21-year-old beauty queen is just wrong. Now, it wouldn’t bother me at all to see Elisabeth replaced, but Barbara should actually try to get a conservative voice of some authenticity, education, and sense. There are some conservative women out there that would fit the bill. How about Dana Perino, former Bush White House press secretary? She’s got more sense than Hasselbeck and Prejean combined.

Carrie Prejean is shown at a press conference for the National Organization for Marriage on 4/30/09. Credit: WENN.com Elisabeth Hasselbeck is shown out in NY on 1/8/09. Credit: Fame Pictures

Barbara Walters has had enough with the faux celebrities of today. You know who they are – the girls and boys from reality shows, the one-hit wonders, the actors who “make it” on one well-written role. Barbara allegedly told a friend, who told the National Enquirer, which was then picked up by Showbiz Spy, “I don’t want to be 80 and working the phones to land an interview with one of the nobodies who pass for celebrities today.” Meow, Babs!

Barbara Walters is planning to quit TV.

According to the National Enquirer, the veteran ABC personality has told close pals she will retire when her contract with the network expires shortly.

A source says, “Barbara’s thought long and hard over whether she wants to extend her contract when it expires with ABC this summer.”

“It’s left her with many sleepless nights. ABC sees her as one of its marquee female stars and would like to see her continue, but Barbara’s decided she’s ‘done it all – many times over’ and wants some time for herself.”

“Her career has spanned five decades. She told a pal, ‘I don’t want to be 80 and working the phones to land an interview with one of the nobodies who pass for celebrities today.’”

From Showbiz Spy via Gossip Rocks

Rumors of Barbara Walters imminent retirement have been whispered for years. Some rumors center around the dreaded “she’s too old” complaint. Some of the rumors may come from the woman herself, considering she’s literally been there and done that.

I know some will cry that it’s some sort of anti-feminist conspiracy, but I don’t really think the whole “retirement” issue is about Babara’s gender. She’s the female news equivalent of a Mike Wallace (from 60 Minutes), and people couldn’t wait for Wallace to retire. I really think it’s more about ageism than sexism. It’s more about who is “in touch” and who is “out of touch”, although I do give Barbara a lot of credit for remaining relevant for years beyond some of her male counterparts.

Barbara Walters is shown at the Bride Wars premiere with Cindy Adams on 1/5/09. Credit: Janet Mayer / PR Photos

There is a long list of things I’d rather do than watch the shrieking harpies of “The View.” Gum surgery, Chinese water torture, a Celine Dion concert…the list goes on and on. But plenty of other people are watching the show, because its ratings are higher than ever. That’s why the co-hosts of the show – Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck – are asking for a raise. And of course, they’re going straight to the show’s executive producer and co-star, Barbara Walters, with their demands.

Ratings for “The View” have gone through the roof- and so have the co-hosts’ salary demands!

Although the show’s boss Barbara Walters is thrilled that her 12-year-old production is on the rise, set insiders tell The Enquirer that she’s suddenly found herself with “a mutiny on her hands.” Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck all believe they should be generously rewarded for the newfound success.

Demands from the stars’ agents began pouring into Barbara’s office in early March when Nielsen statistics reported “The View” – which often ranked 10th or lower among daytime programs – climbed to No. 2 among women aged 18-49, says the insider.

The sudden ratings boom is being attributed to Barbara’s decision to expand the “hot topics” segment, about the day’s headlines, which now accounts for half the show. “The View” is now enjoying its most-watched season ever, averaging 4.2 million viewers – up from 2.5 million a year ago.

“Barbara should be beaming because of the show’s recent success, but she’s furious that the other women have been pestering her for a bigger piece of the pie,” says the insider.

“Barbara thinks their new salary demands are outrageous – some are asking for several million dollars – and she told one confidant, “They should all be ashamed of themselves – I’ve never seen such a greedier bunch.’”

[From The National Enquirer print version, March 30, 2009]

Oh, come on. As long as Barbara’s been around at ABC, I’m sure she’s seen a greedier bunch. And I’m sure Barbara is making a nice chunk of change as the show’s executive producer. Why wouldn’t she do the smart thing and keep her co-stars happy? As much as I can’t stand the show, they must be doing something to appeal to the viewers who like them. I suppose some people actually enjoy watching five women sitting around a table screaming and talking over each other. If I want to see that, I can just go hang out at my mom’s house for a day. But the chemistry – or, more accurately, the tension – between the co-hosts must be what’s getting the ratings. Or does Barbara thing everyone tunes in to watch her?

Rosie O’Donnell was on “The Today Show” this morning promoting her new variety show, “Rosie Live,” which premieres Wednesday night at 8pm on NBC. She was inevitably asked about the rekindled feud with Barbara Walters, in which Walters said she resented O’Donnell’s recent statement that there was no camaraderie backstage at The View and suggested that O’Donnell mentioned it for publicity. Walters didn’t refer to O’Donnell by name when she criticized her on air and just said it was someone who had left the show, who she called “lady” in a harsh tone.

According to O’Donnell, her comments about the View just kind of slipped out.

“When you do like 60 interviews in an hour, and every reporter asks you about the View… I do the best that I can. I tell the truth as much as I can with caring about other people’s feelings. You don’t hear the question that the reporter posed. All you hear is the answer…

“‘Are the women really friends? Do you hang out together?’…

“I’m not saying they hate each other, but they’re not hanging out on the weekend.”

Rosie said she admires Barbara and feels bad that she hurt her. She called her a mother figure. She said she doesn’t regret talking about it because “it’s part of my life experience.”

After the big argument with Elisabeth, relationships changed
According to Rosie the day of the big split screen blow out with Elisabeth Hasselbeck in May, 2007 really changed the dynamic on the show. She said “if you watch back there was a lot of camaraderie between us all before that day.”

She said she never meant to hurt anyone and that “I did the best I could for 9 months [on The View] and when it was time to go I left.”

Rosie said she committed to “The View” for one year, and that after the Donald Trump feud she knew she wasn’t going to sign another contract, and said Walters was aware of that. She had about 2-3 more weeks left on the show when she had the big argument with Hasselbeck.

Rosie thinks the split screen argument was planned
Rosie suggested that the producers were trying to milk her argument with Elisabeth for all it was worth:

“The split screen day was tough for me. You know the director, Mark Gentile, takes a long time to just get a single of anything. Do you think that was not planned? Have they ever used a split screen before? Or since?”

Sent Barbara Walters an e-mail saying she never called her a liar
Rosie said she sent Barbara Walters an e-mail before the article in which she said there was no camaraderie backstage was published in the LA Times. She told her she loved her and wanted to make it clear that she never called her a liar about the show. Walters never responded to her other than to call her out on air. Rosie said she loved her, but that love and relationships are complicated.

Update: Here are two promos sent to us by NBC for Rosie’s new show, “Rosie Live”. It looks fun.

Rosie takes questions from an audience of press who doesn’t know who she is:

Rosie O’Donnell and Barbara Walters are in quite the feud – bashing each other publicly on various shows (and the internet). Rosie says Barbara tries to make it look like all the women of “The View” are BFFs off the set when in fact they aren’t. She’s not saying they’re constantly fighting or anything, but they don’t hang out and don’t have the relationships Barbara tries to paint.

Barbara Walters, [Rosie] told reporters on Wednesday morning, “wanted everyone to believe and think and act as if [the women on 'The View'] get along and are really good friends and happy and hang out together, and, you know, that’s just not the reality.

“I’m not saying they loathe each other, but the fact of the matter is, there was not a lot of camaraderie off camera.” O’Donnell famously exited the ABC daytime talk show after months of politically charged bickering with her co-hosts, among them Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who came under scrutiny again in this election year as the show’s only staunchly conservative voice.

But she conceded “arguing about politics is not the best use of my talent.” “I didn’t grow up thinking, ‘I hope I can talk about politics.’ If you watch my stand-up comedy, I talk about my life, my family. It only became about [politics] with the job on ‘The View.’

[From the Huffington Post]

Barbara responded with an angry tirade on “The View,” telling Rosie to “get on with your life.”

Barbara Walters made a dig at former “View” host Rosie O’Donnell on Thursday. “There are some people who have done the show and then for years feel they have to dump on it… I resent it. If the shoe fits, lady, ladies, get on with your lives! We are not perfect. We are not always happy.”

Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck agreed and Elisabeth singled out “one [year] more difficult than others”.

Within seconds Walters was being told in her ear by the control room to “get on with it” and the subject was dropped.

[From the Huffington Post]

Rosie responded to Barbara’s rant with a video blog on her website. She makes a few funny jokes like implying the “lady/ladies” Walters was talking about were really Star Jones and Debbie Matenopoulos. She then plays the line from Eminem’s song “Without Me,” that goes, “Two trailer park girls go around the outside.”

The feud seems to have ended (or is at least paused at this point) with Rosie going on Conan O’Brien’s show and sarcastically joking about what great friends they all are, and how thankful she is to the show. She noted: “Everyone is real good friends. They hang out together. They all go to [TGI] Fridays and have potato skins… I don’t want to dump on the show… to use it for publicity, because I didn’t have a career before that show. I’m very thankful to The View, for the help it’s given me in my life.”

What an exercise in needless melodrama and childish behavior. I don’t want to give them too much credit, but frankly I think both Barbara Walters and Rosie O’Donnell are too intelligent and too capable of doing good when they want, to sink to this level. They both appear petty and small, and it makes me lose respect for them and feel disinclined to listen when they have something worthwhile to say.

As 2008 comes to a close, it’s time for the avalanche of year-end reviews and lists. I’m freaking out over the shrinking number of shopping days until Christmas, and Barbara Walters has already determined who the most fascinating people of the year are.

2008 was pretty un-fascinating, overall. The list is more of an indicator of popular culture than genuine fascinating people.

Some names on the list are obvious, like Olympic record-setter Michael Phelps, failed vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin impersonator and Emmy-winner Tina Fey, and tween queen Miley Cyrus.

Two of the names are questionable. Rush Limbaugh was one of the many blowhards commenting on the election, even encouraging people to vote for Hillary Clinton in the primaries in order to beat Barack Obama, but was he the most fascinating? It’s certainly indicative of what a circus the election was when Limbaugh is more of a draw than one of the few legitimate commentators left.

Frank Langella is a name I recognized as an actor, but I had to search IMDB to figure out why he’s on Barbara’s list. I’m still not sure. He’s an Oscar contender for Frost/Nixon, but that film doesn‘t even open until December 5, the day after the show airs.

Two of the names are just plain WTF. Will Smith and Tom Cruise must have the best publicists in the world, to make the list ahead of actors that actually had break-out years, like Robert Downey Jr., Daniel Craig, or Christian Bale. Will Smith’s Hancock is one of the high-grossing films of the year, but was overshadowed by other films. Tom Cruise had a part in Tropic Thunder, but Valkyrie is getting more talk for its delays than the quality of the film itself. In fact, Suri Cruise should have made the list instead of Tom.

The last two names on the list have yet to be released. I’ll go out on a limb and predict Barack and Michelle Obama.

Barbara Walters 10 Most Fascinating People of 2008 will air Thursday, December 4 on ABC.

If I’ve missed any reasons why these people should be considered one of the top 10 fascinating people in the world, please let me know.

Last year’s list included Victoria and David Beckham, Justin Timberlake, the founders of MySpace, Bill Clinton, J.K. Rowling, Katherine Heigl, Jennifer Hudson, Hugo Chavez and Don Imus.

If I may make some suggestions to Barbara: Viggo Mortensen, Jensen Ackles, Gael Garcia Bernal, and the creators of icanhascheezburger.