Maria Rybakova
Autumn started with celebrity ratings. Vanity Fair followed Forbes in compiling a list of the world's most influential people, putting Vladimir Putin at the top and forcing previous leader Rupert Murdoch down a spot.
This is the first time that Mr Putin has appeared on the Vanity Fair list, which is based on wealth, power, and vague "immaterial assets", by which anything might be meant. It might be Russian energy resources in his instance.
The magazine considers Mr Putin to be the top Russian politician, even several months after Dmitry Medvedev became President. His public rating further rose with the South Ossetia drama, when he challenged the United States. Even though the magazine lays the blame for the Ossetia war on Russia, with Putin's hawkish foreign policy that caused the world to fear for another Cold War, it compliments him on reviving Russian defence, pride, and global impact.
Another Russian on the list, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, made a leap from last year's 30th to 8th. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch came in second to Putin, and the Google troika-Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt-third. Also on the list are the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger, fashion designers Donatella Versace, Giorgio Armani, and John Galliano, the Jolie-Pitt movie icon couple, and Vogue's Anna Wintour.
There are politicians on the list, too, apart from Mr Putin-Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Arnold Schwarzenegger. George Bush was conspicuously left out.