The Best & Worst Of The Year

No word games or legalisms here. No “it depends on what your definition of best is.” We say just the finest, ma’am. And in the realm of CINEMA, that means TOM HANKS, who follows up his Mark McGwire performance in Saving Private Ryan with a Sammy Sosa for the holidays. In TELEVISION, it means a goodbye from the nation’s most beloved faux talk-show host. (Sorry, Magic.) In DESIGN, a cool house by Koolhaus. In MUSIC, a magical, defiant album by the woman formerly known as a Fugee. In THEATER, an angry drama from a member of the latest generation of angry young men. In BOOKS, a novel that floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee, and a biography of the man who pioneered that style. In SPORTS–well, duh. (Sorry, Michael; sorry, Yankees.) And then there are the year’s best PEOPLE, or at least the year’s most quintessential: 15 who got their 15 minutes. So turn the page already. What are you waiting for, a censure option? We’ve got that too.