Inaccurate Report

Well, they say there's no accounting for taste, but I think that's just because the world in general has none. Case in point: Drew Barrymore is People Magazine's top choice on its annual "100 Most Beautiful People" list. Last year it was Angelina Jolie.

No. And No.

I'm not saying Drew Barrymore isn't cute - she is. Very. But beautiful? I'm not so sure. Certainly she isn't the number one most beautiful anything of any year, let alone 2007. The trouble is that there's nothing whatever inspiring about her. She's the kind of girl you'd like to be pals with ("with benefits," granted), but she's hardly what you'd call an ideal.

But "pals" is probably what did it for her. I don't understand it, and I probably never will, but a lot of people (in America, anyway) seem to dream of this kind of thing. They want to fall in love with their best friend. Hardly surprising that this culture's beauty ideal would be exactly that: the playful neighbor-girl.

Angelina Jolie, for her part, is a complete non-starter. I don't get what people see in her. They seem to think she's some sort of sultry vixen, but she's really just a cheap imitation of that. It's a totally safe fantasy. Go through all the motions of beauty and the public buys it, but there's nothing truly special here either.

As should have been well-established by now, the most beautiful person currently alive is Jennifer Connelly. Maybe someday before I die we'll see her name on top of one of these lists, but I'm not counting on it - not in a country that thinks Drew Barrymore deserves the honor, anyway. Disappointing.