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ABC's annual celebration of overstatement, tear-jerking, and gauzy lense effects, Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2005, airs tonight at 10 p.m., and this year's list, while not quite scaling the fascination heights of last year's, is at the very least mildly diverting, especially when your other options are a rerun of Criminal Minds and the Fox local news.

Besides Tom Cruise, who reveals the secrets of his hi-tech midwifery, this year's list includes Lance Armstrong (winning is fascinating!) and his fiancee Sheryl Crow (writing songs calculated to get summer radio play is fascinating, too!). Who else made the cut?

Grammy Award winner KANYE WEST; 11-year-old acting sensation DAKOTA FANNING, who blew audiences away in 'War of the Worlds'; MICHAEL JACKSON's lawyer THOMAS MESEREAU; "Desperate Housewives" star TERI HATCHER; BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY, mother of missing teen NATALEE HOLLOWAY; Oscar winner JAMIE FOXX; and CONDOLEEZZA RICE, the first African American female Secretary of State.

We have to hand it to Walters; no one else can so adeptly juggle a mixed bag like this one, swinging with ease from a vengeful mother sobbing over her daughter's unsolved murder to a gigglefest with America's lil' 'can do' sweetheart. We only wish she would mix up the format a bit and combine some of the personalities: maybe squeeze Kanye on a loveseat next to Condoleeza, drop the "George Bush doesn't care about black people" bomb and let the fireworks fly!