The Guessing Game

People'a annual "Most Beautiful" issue comes out this week, so the big guess is, who will editors designate as the world's most beautiful woman? In the lead-up to the big reveal, they've been counting down seven women who "made the list," which tells us that Oprah, Carrie Underwood, Mandy Moore, Viola Davis, Emma Watson, Teraji P. Henson and Chrissy Metz will *not* be the main cover girl. Who will? I have no idea and not very many good guesses. Beyonce (pregnant with twins,) Meghan Markle (dating Harry) and Gabrielle Union (a memoir coming out) are my best guesses. Caitlyn Jenner also has a book coming out and a 2nd interview with Diane Sawyer this Friday night. Does People have the nerve to go there? Probably not. Another possibility is Melania or Ivanka Trump but People might not want to go there, either.

The new cover will be online Wednesday morning. In the meantime, you know I like lists, so here's a cool list of past Most Beautiful cover picks, and yes, occasionally it's been a man. They've also tweaked the headline over the years.

From 1990 through 2001, the headline read "The 50 Most Beautiful People in the World," starting with Michelle Pfeiffer:
 

1990 Michelle Pfeiffer
1991 Julia Roberts
1992 Jodie Foster
1993 Cindy Crawfod
1994 Meg Ryan
1995 Courtney Cox
1996 Mel Gibson
1997 Tom Cruise
1998 Leonaro DiCaprio
1999 Michelle Pfeiffer
2000 Julia Roberts
2001 Catherine Zeta-Jones

From 2002 through 2005 the headline read simply "50 Most Beautiful People" (except for Nicole's cover, which has a *The*)

2002 Nicole Kidman
2003 Halle Berry
2004 Jennifer Aniston
2005 Julia Roberts

For 2006 through 2009, People went double-or-nothing, with headlines that said "100 Most Beautiful"


2006 Angelina Jolie
2007 Drew Barrymore
2008 Kate Hudson
2009 Christina Applegate

For Jennifer, Beyonce and Gwyneth, People went all out with "World's Most Beautiful Woman"


2011 Jennifer Lopez
2012 Beyonce
2013 Gwyneth Paltrow

For Lupita in 2014 it was back to "50 Most Beautiful"


Then for Sandra and Jennifer in 2015 and 2016, it was back to 'World's Most Beautiful Woman""


2015 Sandra Bullock
2016 Jennifer Aniston

To do a little demographic sorting, three men (Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio) have gotten the cover gig, and Gibson and Cruise have also been called the Sexiest Man Alive. Cindy Crawford was on a "Sexiest Couple" cover with her first husband, Richard Gere. Julia Roberts has three "Beautiful" covers and Michelle Pfeiffer and Jennifer Aniston have two. Three of the women have been married or engaged to Brad Pitt (Paltrow, Aniston and Jolie.) Three of the women (Halle Berry, Beyonce and Lupita Nyong'o) are black, and one, Jodie Foster, is gay.

Who gets the cover this year? We'll know tomorrow. You can see all the Most Beautiful covers here.