People

PRESIDENT BUSH TOPS YAHOO! 'BEST' LIST

Recently the online provider Yahoo! polled its users, asking them to nominate a Person of the Year. The results are in. President Bush sits at the top of the list. As much as that is good news for the chief executive and many who are backing him in this time of national crisis, he might not be thrilled to know that in the No. 2 position is someone at the other end of the personality spectrum ... Eminem. The rapper-turned-actor, who represents as much rebellion as Mr. Bush does traditional values, got 12.2 percent of the votes. Bush got 36.2. The secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, placed third, getting 9.6 percent of the voting. Rounding out the top 10 is an eclectic group: The Osbourne Family, of reality TV fame; Secretary of State Colin Powell; Britney Spears; Howard Stern; J.K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter books; tennis great Serena Williams and baseball's Barry Bonds. This is the first time for the Yahoo! poll. The company says it plans to make it an annual thing.

SPEAKING OF ECLECTIC LISTS ...

As interesting as is the Yahoo! list of People of the Year, even more interesting is the list just released by the National Film Registry. That august preserver of this country's celluloid heritage has added 25 more films of note. The list is about as complex as you can get. Among the films being recognized is an early examination of the coming of sound to the movies. It's from 1925 and is called the "Theodore Case Sound Test: Gus Visser and his Singing Duck." Traditional movies are also there, of course. Here are some of them: "Alien" (1979); "All My Babies" (1953); "The Endless Summer (1966); "From Here to Eternity" (1953); "In the Heat of the Night" (1967); "Lady Windemere's Fan" (1925) and the slightly stomach-turning movie to demonstrate a new film technique, "This is Cinerama" from 1952. But the movie that's on the new list that seems to have grabbed the attention of most of the media is "Spinal Tap," that wonderfully avant garde mockumentary from 1984. The registry is a production of the Library of Congress. If you want to look at all the films put on that list since it started in 1989, go to any search engine and type in "national film registry."

SECOND GENERATION 'BAND' MAKING MUSIC

Two second-generation musicians, both children of members of the famed Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, are seeing if they can use their musicianship and connections to make their own music and to get a record contract. Reports surfacing in Nashville show that Jaime Hanna (whose father is Jeff Hanna, founder of the group) and Jonathan McEuen (his dad is John McEuen, the band's banjo player) have known each other for all of their lives. Each has played in several bands around the Nashville area. They claim that when performing as a duo they have a sound quality not unlike the Everly Brothers. Their "sound," they report, is "somewhere between California rock and traditional country music, the kind displayed in their parents' 'Circle' albums." Now they are trying for a record deal. No word on what they might call themselves if the deal goes through.

ELLEN DEGENERES ... MASTER AD LIBBER

You have to say one thing about Ellen DeGeneres, she's never at a loss for words. Discounting the career ups and downs she suffered by coming out of the closet on national television, she remains one of the media's most cool, collected and articulate funny people. As a matter of fact, the late Vernon Scott -- for half a century United Press International's Hollywood reporter -- once said that she should be the one to host the Oscars. Recently Ellen was in North Carolina, attending a movie premiere. Several journalists in the crowd, seeing DeGeneres, assumed that a star of her magnitude could only be there if she were one of the stars of the film. They began surrounding her and asking questions. She didn't miss a beat. Calmly informing the members of the press that she was only there to watch, she continued with the banter. She tells E! magazine that she has never had problems dealing with people. Much in the vein of Ed McMahon, she's never met a stranger and just loves to talk.

WHAT A PLACE TO BE STRANDED

It must have been a thrill for Joe Guercio to have been a former orchestra leader for Elvis Presley. The memories are the kind of things from which books are made. But since the death of the King, Guercio has had to endure some really bad imitations of Presley by a slew of Elvis impersonators ... some great, most really bad. Now the news provider country.com says that during a recent airline flight one of those really bad ones happened to be in the cabin. Not only that but the really bad Elvis was serenading his mother on her birthday over the plane's intercom system. Later on the flight Guercio, who was Presley's chief conductor during his performances in Las Vegas, confronted the impersonator. "You must really love Elvis?" he asked. "Yes, I do all his songs," was the reply. Deciding not to cause a scene, Guercio didn't identify himself nor did he give the young man a critique of his "performance."

CLEDUS JUDD TO TRY MINI-ALBUMS

In recent years many political pundits have charged that some politicians run their lives and their campaigns on a minute-by-minute basis by looking at polls taken among the electorate. And with the coming of the electronic media, many of those polls are available within hours. This instant-ness, though, is not available to people who produce comedy record albums. By the time they are able to put together 13 tracks for an album, some of the material might be outdated already. One of the nation's foremost makers of parodies of the work of others is Cledus T. Judd. In an innovative marketing plan just announced by the entertainer, Judd will begin to produce a series of what might be called mini-albums. These CDs would have only six cuts. The first out, according to Country Music Television, will be "A Six-Pack of Judd." What this means is that the comedian will be able to do his parodies of new songs while those songs are still new. The first set of six will feature a song called "Who's Your Mama?" ... a take-off on Toby Keith's "Who's Your Daddy?"

UPI DAILY SURVEY QUESTION NO. 483

Since the results of today's survey will be printed on Christmas, here goes: "What are the best five Christmas or holiday gifts you've ever gotten?" Put BEST in the subject line and send to [email protected] via the Internet.

RESULTS OF QUESTION NO. 478 (TRAFFIC)

Last week we asked what was the longest trek you made home for the holidays. From a random look at the incoming mail, here are some of your most amazing replies: Brenda T says she went 1,400 miles to get home for the holidays. Peggy tells of a complicated trip in which she had to "connect the dots" to pick up family and grandchildren. A hundred miles to the first place, another hundred to the next and so on. Additionally, she says that the trek was often done several times a year ... accident-free. And this one may take the cake. VickiS reports that she once flew from Bermerhaven, Germany, to Fort Worth. Alone. Well, nearly so. She had two toddlers in tow. NEXT: Baubles, Bangles and Beads.

THE HONORS BEGIN IN ONE WEEK

On Christmas day we begin printing your stories about unsung heroes in your town or your life. There's still time to send one in. Send to [email protected] with HONOR in the subject line. GBA