Dear Gossips,
TIME has released its annual list of 100 Most Influential People. The categories are: Titans, Pioneers, Artists, Leaders, Icons. So who’s a Titan?
Beyonce, of course.
To me, what’s been most interesting on this list isn’t necessarily who’s on it but the people who are chosen or have volunteered to write the piece that accompanies the entry. Beyonce’s, for example, was written by Sheryl Sandberg. Pharrell, who is also a Titan, was honoured by Justin Timberlake – who did it last year for Jimmy Fallon and made it all about himself (click here for a refresher). JT managed to restrain his ego this time.
Under the Icon category, we find…Carrie Underwood. Ohhhh…kayyyy. Underwood is an Icon alongside Donna Tartt who just won the Pulitzer for The Goldfinch. God, The Goldfinch. There were times when I was reading The Goldfinch when I would just look at the page like, ARE YOU KIDDING ME HOW ARE YOU THIS GOOD, HOW, HOW, HOW!?!?
I’ve made my way through a quarter of the list this morning and my favourite so far has to be what Colin Firth wrote in support of Benedict Cumberbatch’s inclusion on the list:
“When I was about 25 years old, I worked with two very good actors. The encounters were brief, but I’ve remembered them both with great admiration. Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton both embodied qualities which one is fogyishly tempted to look at with nostalgia. Along with very considerable talent, they had elegance, glamor, wit, kindness and decency.
I didn’t know at the time that they were married or that they had a son of about 10 who was quietly gestating all the same attributes. And now, 30 years later, the boy has been let loose. He has taken the form of Benedict Cumberbatch.
His parents’ qualities are on rampant display. It’s rare to the point of outlandish to find so many variables in one actor, including features which ought to be incompatible: vulnerability, a sense of danger, a clear intellect, honesty, courage — and a rather alarming energy. I take no pleasure in feeling humbled, but there’s no getting around it.
He must be stopped.”
He’s delightful, non? Firth, I mean. Obviously.
Click here for the full TIME Most Influential list.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
PS. Chicago! Hope to see you tonight at Anderson’s Bookshop! Come squawk and gossip!
