The Best and Worst People of 1994

1 Mr. and Mrs. Michael Jackson. Who could have predicted that the world-famous man-child would someday renounce his bachelorhood? While still under investigation for allegedly molesting a 13-year-old boy, the self-designated King of Pop married Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of the King, in what many perceived as an attempt to cleanse his tarnished image. However, only a few months after the newlyweds kissed steamily at the MTV Video Music Awards, gossip columnists buzzed that the marriage would soon be nullified, a rumor the Jacksons deny.

2 Roseanne and Tom Arnold

They perfected the Hollywood divorce as hideously indecorous spectacle. There were public shouting matches, nasty accusations leveled and retracted. Yet the couple apparently suffered few lasting emotional wounds: Tom is now engaged to a college student; Roseanne will soon marry her Tom-sized chauffeur-bodyguard.

3 Prince Charles

Having given up playing polo, he took up a more American pastime: public confession. On TV and later in a biography, the Prince admitted to infidelity and whined that his father had bullied him into marrying Princess Di. Innumerable articles asking, "Whither the British Monarchy?" followed.

4 Paula Jones

Not exactly Audrey Hepburn, but sort of attractive in her low-rent way, she was this year's bimbo-with-an-agenda. Claiming that President Clinton had made unwanted advances toward her years ago, Jones sued him for $700,000. In a classy move, a former boyfriend supplied nude photos of her to Penthouse.

5 Hugh Grant

He arrived as neither a leather-jacketed Johnny Depp knock-off nor a mall-stud Tom Cruise clone. Instead, the Londoner brought urbane sex appeal back to the screen. Womankind swooned at Grant's portrayal of a befuddled, beguiling wit in Four Weddings and a Funeral.

6 Brian ("Kato") Kaelin

A punch line to so many O.J. jokes, the overly moussed aspiring actor was the most memorable witness during Simpson's hearings. A caretaker at the football star's L.A. estate, Kaelin unintentionally lightened the grim proceedings by testifying with a surfer's vapidity. Throughout, one imagined his agent thinking, "If there's a God, Baywatch will call."

7 Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford

After months of aggressively denying that their relationship had foundered, celebritydom's most fetching couple admitted to a split. Last May they bugled their love for each other in a $30,000 newspaper ad and scoffed at separation rumors even as each of them was photographed with other stunning companions.

8 David Caruso

With his bartender good looks, the NYPD Blue star became TV's reigning Everyguy sex symbol. But his dreams were grander. Caruso shocked fans when he left the show after just one season to pursue movie stardom.

9 Courtney Love

Alternative rockers are notoriously mopey, but Love's husband Kurt Cobain took the attitude to a tragic extreme and killed himself with a shotgun. Months later, Love revealed the couple's horrifying original plan: to commit a double suicide following the birth of their daughter.

10 Nadja Auermann

A former Berlin waitress, the statuesque bottle-blond owes her success to the decision by the fashion industry that Valkyries sell clothes better than do waifs. In an impressive coup, she was on the September cover of both Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.