TIME: Almanac 1995

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<text id=93TT2568> <title> Jan. 04, 1993: The Best of 1992:People </title> <history> TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992 Jan. 04, 1993 Man of the Year:Bill Clinton </history> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> PEOPLE, Page 72 THE BEST OF 1992 </hdr> <body> 1. Princess Di Next time Oprah needs a classy Exhibit A for a show on "Women Who Escape Stifling Marriages," she'll know whom to call. If three 1992 bios are to be believed, Di's fabled marriage to Prince Charles dwindled into misery so great it led to bouts of bulimia and suicide attempts (not to mention rumored dalliances on both sides, complete with saucy telephone tapes). It all ended with a courtly separation announced in Parliament by British Prime Minister John Major: Di may no longer crown Charles' happiness, but she's still a princess with a prayer of becoming a Queen. 2. Woody Allen The movie world's comic existentialist put a new spin on family values, taking up with the 21-year-old adopted daughter of his longtime consort and co-star, Mia Farrow. A bitter Mia countered with an ugly custody battle over other children, plus charges of child abuse. The tabloid tumult didn't play as well as expected at the box office: despite often disconcerting similarities to the seamy offscreen rift, Allen's dark, disturbing Husbands and Wives faded all too quickly. Sometimes life is brief and art is even briefer. 3. Madonna Her new album Erotica wasn't, and her needlessly strenuous exercise in soft-core self-promotion, Sex, only demonstrated that for this increasingly marginal boy toy, the ultimate aphrodisiac is p.r. The album's sales didn't measure up, but Sex, with its shamelessly derivative photos of Madonna and partners in positions that looked like backroom Jack LaLanne workouts, is bidding to be the all-time best-selling illustrated book. Once curious, forever sated. Career advice: Shut up. And get dressed. 4. Rush Limbaugh Deride and conquer. Not content with 14 million listeners to his midday radio harangue against all things liberal, this laughing gasbag of right-wing Republicanism became a multimedia motormouth. His invasion of late-night TV left the pricier competition dented; Whoopi is still whimpering. His book The Way Things Ought to Be sat at the top of the best-seller list before and after Madonna peddled her Sex. Memo to the G.O.P.: Rush in '96? 5. Barbra Streisand By aggressively endorsing an Aspen boycott after Colorado adopted a measure banning homosexual-rights bills, Streisand managed to keep some celebrities off the slopes. But her overblown snow job (the city of Aspen actually voted against the resolution) may have made her new enemies in Hollywood. She did make two friends, though: tennis ace Andre Agassi--they flirted at the U.S. Open--and Sony, which signed her to a long-term deal worth at least $60 million (to sing, not give speeches). 6. Bobby Fischer The moody chess master, coming out of self-imposed exile 20 years after beating Boris Spassky for the world championship, played a highly hyped rematch in, of all places, war-torn Yugoslavia. Spassky was creamed, 10 games to 5, but still picked up $1.65 million. Fischer's winnings ($3.35 million) may go to lawyers: Uncle Sam wants to checkmate him for violating sanctions against Yugoslavia. Fischer's next move? Sell film rights to his life story, which could be called Stale Mate. 7. Ice-T Not everyone bought the First Amendment argument. Not Charlton Heston. Not Oliver North. And certainly not the boys in blue. The controversial rapper's violent antipolice anthem Cop Killer (sample lyrics: "I'm 'bout to dust some cops off...Die, die, die pig die!") sparked debates, protests and boycotts. Finally Ice couldn't take the heat, so he yanked the tune from his album Body Count but promised to offer the single for free at concerts. 8. Sinead O'Connor In retrospect, her 1992 album Am I Not Your Girl? should have been titled Am I Not Your Singing Conspiracy Theorist? Sinead explained why she ripped up a picture of the Pope on live television by claiming that the Catholic Church is "responsible for all of the destruction we see in the world today." That position seemed overstated even to aging hippies, who helped boo the bold, bald one off the stage at a Bob Dylan tribute. 9. David Letterman With a $14 million-plus offer from CBS, Letterman could afford to stay above the fray as other post-Carson contenders wrestled for the late-night mantle. New Tonight show curtain parter Jay Leno took it on his giant jaw from critics and from rival Arsenio Hall, who threatened more literal bodily harm. Canceled host Dennis Miller trashed Leno's booking tactics, and NBC canned Leno's producer. Jay could be next: to keep Letterman, who was passed over for Carson's job, NBC would have to dump Leno. Somewhere, Ed McMahon is laughing. 10. Howard Stern To radio's naughty boy, the most obscene three-letter word is FCC. Government broadcast censors fined Stern's bosses $600,000 because the shock jock's defiantly obnoxious humor allegedly offended "community standards." But since Stern's morning show is No. 1 in New York City, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, he is obviously appealing to community standards there--even as he stretches, mutilates and lowers them. If millions of commuters want to listen to a striptease, that should be their problem, not the FCC's. </body> </article> </text>