Glamour’s Women of the Year: Witherspoon, Jenner, Copeland

Caitlyn Jenner, Reese Witherspoon, Misty Copeland and five women touched by the South Carolina church massacre and lauded in the aftermath as “The Peacemakers of Charleston” are among this year’s honorees as Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year.

Victoria Beckham, billionaire entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes, Planned Parenthoood’s Cecile Richards and the women’s FIFA soccer Team USA round out the Class of 2015, announced Thursday. They will be honored at a gala on Nov. 9 at Carnegie Hall.

Witherspoon was selected for the magazine’s December cover, to hit newsstands Nov. 10, while Jenner, Copeland and Holmes will be pictured on foldout covers.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the awards celebrating the achievements of diverse women in entertainment, fashion, politics and business. Amy Schumer will open the ceremony that draws a star-studded crowd each year. Former honorees Madeleine Albright, Serena Williams and Billie Jean King will be among the guests to help mark the awards’ quarter-century. Jennifer Hudson and Ellie Goulding will perform.

The honorees announcement came just a few days after word of Jenner’s inclusion leaked, prompting a backlash on social media with criticism of her inclusion as a transgender woman of wealth and privilege. Some apparently thought Jenner was THE woman of the year, as opposed to one of many.

“Where there is hateful chatter on Twitter, there is just as much, if not more, love and support. We prefer to focus on the positive,” Jenner said through a spokesman ahead of the announcement.

Cindi Leive, Glamour’s editor-in-chief, said in an interview that criticism of Jenner’s inclusion “certainly gives you an appreciation for the hostility to the trans community that still exists out there.” The awards, she said, are intended to honor diversity among women leaders and trailblazers who are as “diverse as the population of women in this world.”

“We’re proud of that and we’re proud of what Caitlyn Jenner has done to illuminate what so many in the trans community go through,” Leive added.

Actress Laverne Cox, also a trans woman, was among last year’s honorees.

To mark the 25th anniversary, the Empire State Building will be lit in Glamour’s signature pink the night of the awards, and Mayor Bill de Blasio will proclaim Nov. 9 the Women of the Year Day, the magazine said.

Rod Stewart’s son makes name for self in hockey

Rock superstar Rod Stewart is well-known for his love of soccer, especially the Celtic Football Club in Glasgow, Scotland.

Hockey, it turns out, is another matter.

“All he knows is if my team scores. That’s about it,” said his son, Liam Stewart. “I was like, ‘Dad, that’s all you need to know – if we win or if we score.’ ”

Liam Stewart, 21, is the newest addition to the roster of the Alaska Aces, an ECHL development league team affiliated with the Minnesota Wild of the NHL. The 6-foot-1, 181-pound forward was traded to the Anchorage team from Missouri in early October after playing the past four years for the Spokane Chiefs.

Liam Stewart was born in London to Rod Stewart and his then-wife, supermodel Rachel Hunter. After the couple split, Liam grew up in the Los Angeles area with his mom.

He said his famous dad never pushed him to get into soccer, but he still played the sport until he was 13 or 14, when the hockey bug bit him.

“I just wanted to play hockey, and that’s what got me here today,” Liam Stewart said during an interview following practice last week at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.

Aces head coach Rob Murray said from a coaching standpoint, Liam Stewart’s pedigree is a nonissue.

“He’s just another hockey player on my team, and he’s got to do what he needs to do to make us successful,” Murray said.

That’s good news for Liam Stewart, who said he wants to make a name for himself without relying on his parents’ fame or wealth.

When he played in Spokane, he wasn’t treated differently.

“I was known as ‘Stewie’ around the rink, like I was just another guy,” Liam Stewart said.

Murray said everyone on the team is trying to forge their own identity, including Dean Chelios, whose father, Chris, was a famous NHL player.

“These kids are trying to make it on their own. They’re not worried about who they are or where they came from,” Murray said. “They all want to be hockey players, and they want to do it on their own merits.”