1994 The Year In Review: People/Entertainment

These are the top people and entertainment stories of 1994

1. Bigger than Bart What better media fodder than a fallen hero? O.J. Simpson kept us glued to the tube from plodding Bronco ride to even slower-paced pretrial hearings, and made minor celebrities of a host of hangers-on (OK, A.C., your 15 minutes are up. C’mon in, Kato!).

2. An odd ring to it

That Peter Pan of pop, Michael Jackson, flew from child molestation charges straight into the arms of Elvis’ daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, in the most peculiar pairing since fried peanut butter and bananas.

3. Oscar is as Oscar does

Cartoonish “Forrest Gump” raked in almost $300 million to become the fourth highest-grossing film of all time, but barely outpaced the year’s actual animated blockbuster, “The Lion King.”

4. Leaving a Hole

Bored and old at age 27, his spirit broken despite fame and fatherhood, Seattle grunge guru Kurt Cobain stuck a shotgun in his mouth and bought a one-way ticket to Nirvana.

5. Coming up Rosie

Roseanne dumped dorky Tom Arnold (and any hint of a last name), endured two trashy TV bios and ended the year in a positive vein, preggers in vitro by bodyguard Ben Thomas.

6. Encores, en corps

Barbra Streisand performed live for the first time in 27 years, while the reunion bug bit the Eagles, Pink Floyd, former Led Zeppelin mates Jimmy Page and Robert Plant and even the Beatles (thanks to modern studio magic).

7. Calling Dr. Nielsen

NBC’s new Michael Crichton-created medical drama “E.R.” cracked television’s top 10, sending CBS competitor “Chicago Hope” scrambling into the time slot formerly occupied by “Northern Exposure” (left on life support by Dr. Fleischman).

8. A royal flush i

Admitted affairs? Prank phone calls? The crown jewels on page one of the tabloids? Just when we thought the House of Windsor couldn’t get any weirder, Charles and Di refused to die - or divorce.

9. Video violence

Quentin Tarantino captured critics’ hearts (and turned some stomachs) with the wickedly witty “Pulp Fiction,” while Oliver Stone tortured Tarantino’s screenplay for “Natural Born Killers” into a parody of a parody.

10. (Tie) Like a sailor

David Letterman ended 1994 as Rolling Stone magazine’s Man of the Year, but the late-night talk king kept looking for a rock to crawl under in March when Madonna made Bevis and Butt-head look mature during her much-bleeped, panty-waving performance.

Selling the silver

Instead of Ten Years After, brown acid and Wavy Gravy, the 25th-anniversary Woodstock ‘94 dished up Nine Inch Nails, mud and enough naked commercialism to make Madonna blush.