Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2009 - Wednesday December 9, 10 pm, Global/ABC

Babs' annual love-in raises the bar a little this year - or is it just that 2009 was a really bizarre year? The short list includes four people I would confidently call lunatics (though some use their crazy for good and others for evil) including Sarah Palin, Adam Lambert, Kate Gosselin and Lady Gaga. Tyler Perry is also on the list and I can't wait to see how Walters handles him. Tyler, if you are reading this, I beg you to do the interview in Madea drag. Brett Favre and Glenn Beck from the world of sports round out the published list. The top three fascinators will be revealed during the broadcast. Who wants to do a pool? My picks are Robert Pattinson, Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey.

Having been weaned on sitcoms in the early 1980s, I was very disappointed when I finally got old enough to work in an office setting. I was led to believe that every workplace was a hotbed of sexual tension. I took it as a matter of course that the person working next to me would be a smoking hot twenty-something with whom I'd have a long, drawn-out flirtation resulting in several seasons of "will they/won't they" discussion. Whether it was a bar or a detective agency or a special branch of the FBI, I expected a beautiful member of the opposite sex and lots of sexual tension.