Leo DiCaprio, Rosie O’Donnell On Time’s 100 Most Influential List
Posted May 3, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Actor and eco-activist Leonardo DiCaprio and talk show host Rosie O’Donnell are two of several entertainers named in Time magazine’s 2007 list of the top 100 influential people.
On newsstands Friday, the list of newsmakers, political figures, actors and businesspeople making the cut also includes U.S. presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, model Kate Moss, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, film director Martin Scorsese and YouTube founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley.
President George W. Bush didn’t make the list, but his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did.
Also making the cut, Canada’s Maher Arar. Arar’s case made headlines around the globe after he was deported to Syria by U.S. authorities as a suspected terrorist. He spent a year in that country and was forced to endure torture and imprisonment before being allowed to return to Canada.
Maintaining his innocence throughout, Arar was eventually vindicated when it was revealed that the deportation order came in part on erroneous intelligence supplied to the U.S. by Canada. He was awarded C$10.5 million in compensation.
Arar said he was “very honoured” to be included in the magazine’s list.
Barbara Walters, who wrote a piece about her former The View co-host O’Donnell, had nothing but positive things to say about her ex-colleague. O’Donnell announced she was leaving the show in June over the inability to hammer out a new contract with network ABC.
“Last September, we began a thrilling roller-coaster ride,” Walters wrote. “We followed Rosie’s passion and compassion, her feuds and fearlessness, her humanity and humour.”
Scorsese wrote about DiCaprio, praising him as a “true actor.”
Time managing editor Adi Ignatius admits “DiCaprio is another guy a lot of us underestimated as a pretty-boy type.”
Also named in the list: Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Justin Timberlake, Tyra Banks, Cate Blanchett, America Ferrera, Tina Fey, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill and Melinda Gates, Angelina Jolie, and Michael J. Fox.
The list includes 71 men and 29 women from 27 countries.
Image credit: Evan Agostini/Getty Images
