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The editors for the publication revealed the shortlist Monday morning, with the Person of the Year being named Wednesday.
By Alex Weprin
Media & Business Writer
Hollywood has a strong presence on the shortlist for Time‘s 2023 Person of the Year.
The magazine and global media brand announced the finalists for its annual Person of the Year Monday morning. The 2023 honoree will be officially announced Wednesday morning.
Among the finalists this year are the Hollywood strikers at the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, Barbie and Taylor Swift.
Time notes that the Person of the Year is the “individual, group, or concept that has had the most influence on the world throughout the previous 12 months,” and is not necessarily about someone who is good, bad or powerful, but rather a reflection of influence.
But its hard to argue with any of those choices, given Swift’s emergence as a global musical icon, selling out stadiums around the world; the success of the Barbie movie and its transformative take on the classic toy, or the impact that Hollywood’s labor unions have had in transforming the industry this year.
Other 2023 finalists include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, King Charles III, Fed chairman Jerome Powell, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Trump prosecutors.
In 2022, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky and the “Spirit of Ukraine” took top honors, while Elon Musk was named Person of the Year in 2021. President Biden and Vice President Harris were the 2020 recipients.
While journalists and tech moguls like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos have been in the mix over the years (Bezos was Person of the Year in 1999 and Zuckerberg in 2010), entertainment figures have generally been less represented over the years, with political figures or investors often beating them out. Ted Turner, it should be noted, was Person of the Year in 1991.
In recent years Time has expanded its Person of the Year list to include sub-categories for “hero of the year, “entertainer of the year,” innovator of the year” and other areas.
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