Who are the world's least influential people?
Time has released its list of the 100 most powerful people — but the magazine's columnist Joel Stein is more intrigued by those at the other end of the scale
In its annual TIME 100 issue, Time Magazine profiles the people who "most affect our world" — with Sarah Palin and Lady Gaga leading the way in 2010. But accompanying the release of this year's list is writer Joel Stein's irreverent ranking of the least influential players on the world stage. Here, a sampling from Stein's catalog of non-notables:
Eric Massa
Ex-Congressman
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"It's hard to be influential when you have no clue how the world works. You don't explain how ungay you are by saying that you just were having tickle fights with the guys you live with, like you did when you were in the Navy. Liberace was more subtle."
Rue McClanahan
Actress
"Betty White has usurped all the power from remaining Golden Girls."
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Tom Anderson
Founder of MySpace
"Have you clicked on MySpace lately? It's like you wandered into some section of Las Vegas so seedy it should be in Tampa. You can get venereal diseases just from logging on."
Mayumi Heene
The mother of "Balloon Boy"
"Any wife who can't talk her husband out of that plan really has no influence."
Taipei 101
Until recently, the tallest building in the world
"On January 4, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai made the Taipei 101 irrelevant. You think little boys read the Guinness Book of World Records and ask their dads: 'One day, do you think I can go to the top of the second-tallest building in the world?'"
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