The Top 10 Standout Stars of 2008

The following are not listed in order of importance or for their contributions in 2008, but they all have risen to the forefront of the public's radar in 2008, while some may have been known prior to this year others are entirely new players.

1. Heath Ledger. His star may have risen in 2006 after an Oscar nomination for his role in the gay cowboy film Brokeback Mountain, but without a doubt 2008 was the year for Heath Ledger. It began on January 22, 2008 with his accidental and unexpected death due to an accidental drug overdose of prescription drugs. The world was shocked by the death of this young, promising actor. Six months later one of the last films he shot, The Dark Knight , in which he played the role of the Joker opened to critical acclaim. The aclaim was specifically for his performance in the film and the film turned out to be the fourth highest grossing film worldwide ever. The film made $1,003,448,665 and was by far the highest grossing film of 2008. Also, it garnered much Oscar buzz for Heath's role as well as the overall film. He was nominated by the Australian Film Institute as Best Actor for the role and he was also nominated for a Satellite Award as best actor in a supporting role.
2. Eli Manning. 97.5 million viewers watched the Giants v. The Patriots Superbowl game in which the New England Patriots entered as an undefeated team. If the Patriots won the game they would have the first undefeated season for any team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins. New England entered the super bowl as 12 point favorites and all this led to the most watched Superbowl of all time. The Giants won the game and Eli Manning was named MVP and in the game he threw both of his touchdown passes in the 4^th Quarter leading to a shocking defeat and a huge victory for NYC. In November 2008 Eli was named the NFC offensive player of the month. As far as his personal life, he married his long term college girlfriend (Abby McGrew) in April of 2008 and finally emerged from the shadows of his brother's and his father's fame.
3. David Cook. American Idol has been the most watched television show since 2001 and David was crowned on May 21, 2008 the seventh seasons "American Idol". Following this he has 11 songs debut on the Billboard "Hot 100" chat for the week ending May 25, 2008. He later won a 2008 teen choice award for the best reality/variety star of the year and won an award by The New Music Awards for one of the top 40 male artists of the year. His debut album was recently released on November 19, 2008.
4. Lil Wayne/ Dwayne Carter, Jr. The 26 year olds 2008 album Tha Carter III released in June and sold more than 1 million albums in the first week alone. A staggering number considering the downturn in the music industry with both the sagging economy and the availability of free internet downloads. His most commercially successful song off the album was the song "Lollipop" which topped the Billboard 100 for weeks. July 14, 2008 the Recording Industry Association of America certified the CD two times platinum. LiL Wayne went on to be nominated and win many music award including BET's viewer choice award, MTV VMA's Best Hip-Hop Video, and he won seven BET Hip Hop awards including CD of the year. He also received the most 2009 Grammy nominations for any artist or group.
5. Stephenie Meyer. The Mormon and American Novelist wrote the bestselling young adult's series Twilight. The series sold more than 25 million copies worldwide and was translated into 37 different languages. In November Twilight the movie was released based on the first novel in the series and grossed $69.6 million in its first weekend alone. The movie catapulted the male lead, 22 year old British actor Robert Pattinson, to teen heartthrob status. It also made the film's director, Catherine Hardwicke, to lead the biggest opening weekend for any female director ever. Additionally, Ms. Meyer won the NY Time's Editor's Choice Award and Amazon.com's "Best Books of the decade....so far" awards. She released her first adult novel The Host in 2008 and it remained on the top of the New York Times Bestseller list for 26 weeks.
6. Barrack Obama. Not just any presidential candidate, the 47^th U.S. President elect is also the first African American president. Obama raised more campaign funds than any candidate ever with the total amount nearing $750 million. Another unique aspect of his election was that 67% of 18-29 year old voters supported the Democratic nominee. This was the highest percentage of youth voting obtained by any candidate since exit polling began reporting results by age in 1976. The effect of Obama on the youth vote could be seen across college campuses nationwide on election night.
7. Warren Buffet. Officially the new richest man in the world. After 15 years being on top, Bill Gates has been relegated to number two! Forbes Magazine estimates Warren Buffet's wealth at $62 million, while Yahoo! estimates it is $58 Billion. The richest man was born August 30, 1930 and is an investor, businessman, and philanthropist. He is regarded as possibly one of the world's most successful investors as well as CEO of Omaha, Nebraska's Berkshire Hathaway a conglomerate holding company whose primary business is in insurance.
8. Michael Phelps. "The golden boy" 23 year old Olympic swimmer. He won 8 gold medals in the Beijing Olympics in addition to the 6 gold he had previously won at the Athens Olympics four years prior (as well as 2 bronze). With fourteen gold medals, he has won more gold than any Olympian ever. He also holds seven world records in different swimming events. After helping NBC succeed in getting the attention of millions of viewers, he was named "Sportsman of the year" by Sports Illustrated magazine. He has held the titles "World Swimmer of the Year" since 2003 and "American Swimmer of the Year" since 2001.
9. Sarah Palin. Although many of her views are controversial, there is no doubt that all eyes were on her this past fall after being selected as the first ever vice-presidential candidate for the Republican Party. The Governor of Alaska was unknown by the rest of the country until this time. She became the second female ever to run as vice-president and the first candidate ever from Alaska. The former beauty contest received a BS degree in communications-journalism and worked as a sports reporter after college. She later ran from Mayor of a small Alaskan town called Wasilla and won. She won over the hearts of the religious vote and used the fact that she was a mother to five children. Most notably her youngest son , trig, who was born with downs syndrome. Although she did not win it is rumored that she has been offered very attractive figures to pen a novel and along with Mike Hukabee is a front runner consideration for the 2012 presidential election.
10. Martti Ahtisaari. This name is probably the least known in America, but the 71 year old former President of Finland was the Nobel Peace Price recipient for 2008. Besides being the President of Finland and a member of the social democratic party from 1994-2000 he is also a UN diplomat and mediator. He was a UN special envoy at the Kosovo status process negotiations. During 1977-1981 he served as a UN commissioner for Namibia's independence from the Republic of South Africa. He founded the crisis management initiative with the goal to develop and sustain peace in troubled areas. In 2005 he negotiated peace negotiations between the Indonesian government and a rebel group. After this, he received the 2007 UNESCO peace prize. Mr. Ahtisaari is presently working to find peace in Iraq, Northern Ireland, Central Asia, and the horn of Africa. The Nobel Peace Price consists of a diploma and 10 million Swiss kroner ($1.2 million USD).