So, to review, these are the names that jump out as dead-on (and not seriously argued against):
Sandra Bernhard
Yoko
Barbara Walters
Tom Green
Carson Daly
Rosie O’Donnell
Steve Guttenberg
Bonnie Hunt
Drew Barrymore
Sarah Jessica Parker
Mr. T
Ricki Lake
Sondra Locke
The domination of this admittedly subjective list by women should not be viewed as misogynism, IMO, as much as to my trying to weed out those people whose careers I feel to derive from their physical attractiveness, where I tried to give the benefit of the doubt. (I don’t find Fabio or Antonio Banderas hot, but I’ve got to assume that there are women who do.) I felt much more comfortable eliminating men on this basis, but if a women is unattractive to me, I felt comfortable declaring her to be physically unattractive in general. (I think Steve Guttenberg may be attractive to certain women, too, but no one said so, so I left him on the list.)
Anyway, does anyone want to argue that the above list contains someone whose successful career makes sense?
I’ll take a stab at a few: Yoko married John. Isn’t that enough?
Tom Green is willing to go all out in gross-out and annoyance. It can be mildy amusing. It’s not so much that he’s good at it. Just that he’s willing to do things that others aren’t. (Waking up japanese businessmen in one of those filing cabinet hotels comes to mind.)
Drew Barrymore, I like. I think she’s a middling to decent actress, and very very cute, when she’s not being skanky. She was great in the Wedding Singer, and up to par in Charlie’s Angels, and the best part of Scream.
Mr. T. Really, the world needs Mr. T. He’s got Charisma. Who else could “play” the parts he has in the A-team and Rocky. He was mainly just himself, but who else could be?
i have to strongly second whitney houston. and here is one not yet covered…lenardo dicaprio…his looks aren’t quite right, and also his acting is a bit strained…also, on j love hewitt…didn’t she go on one of those hirrid diets and her knockers shriveled down to zero? she looks terrible nowadays…
I never understood this ‘queen of nice’ thing, either. Didn’t any of these writers watch her stand-up act? She had a caustic edge, like Roseanne.
As for the rest, so long as they’re bringing in the bucks, I can understand why someone will invest in them. What confuses me are the “journalists” like Geraldo Rivera and Connie Chung. Unlike Barbara Walters and Larry King (whose success can be measured in ratings), these two news clowns are known more for their foolish performances than any accomplishments. And is there one drool-sucking slack-jawed news hound who would see an ad promoing their latest stunt and say, “Hot damn! I gotta be there for that!”
I think Leo’s earlier work was pretty good. He was great in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” and “Basketball Diaries.” He just tanked after “Titanic,” though. I can’t remember what it was, but I saw him in something after that and thought “umm, couldn’t he, at one point, act halfway convincingly?” He’s kind of icky now, too.
Gotta agree first and foremost on Sandra Bernhard. That was the name that came to mind immediately when I saw the thread title, before even reading the thread!
And while she’s not much of a star now (save for her recent 15 extra minutes of fame doing a Playboy layout), how about Tiffany, the shopping mall tour queen of the mid 80’s? Everything she did was a copy of somebody else, even down to dance moves stolen from other singers’ videos. How did she even happen?
On Whitney Houston – well, she has two songs. The fast one and the slow one. They both suck.
Ditto on Ellen DeGeneres. News for you, El. It wasn’t because you’re gay. It was because you and your show were not funny. Shows like “Will and Grace” made it because they are funny, not because you paved the way.
Have you considered Lasik surgery, or perhaps even contact lenses?
I have absolutely no idea why these two are concidered so great, both at home in Sweden and abroad. They share the charisma of a bagful of potatoes and their acting abilities is on par, be it in Swedish or in English.
