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A couple Harry Potter stars have made The 100 British celebrities who really matter by Piers Morgan list! (as usual WHERE IS RUPERT!?)
6 ROBERT PATTINSON
This is quite a simple one. Pattinson’s the handsome young star of the Twilight films, beloved of teenage girls and other moody types. That fact makes him a nailed-down cert to be the most sought-after British movie star of 2010.
And that, in turn, makes him ‘matter’. The only problem for Pattinson is that, as my grandmother always likes to say, ‘One day you’re the cock of the walk, the next you’re a feather duster.’ And nowhere is that more true than in good old Tinseltown. So I wish him well, but urge him to watch his back.
And not just because of the millions of girls all over the world who’d like to attach themselves to his shapely shoulders as a matter of urgency.
33 STEPHEN FRY
It really pains me to include this grandstanding, self-satisfied old Twitter bore so high up my list. His haughty, worthy, self-righteous, morally superior and utterly inane daily witterings are as cretinous as they are unreadable. But you simply cannot deny the significance of someone who has 1.2 million people addicted to their every movement, even if he is on a temporary hiatus while he writes a book. If this is the social networking age, then, depressingly, Fry is the current British king. But it’s not, thankfully, a kingdom I ever intend to reside in.
62 DANIEL RADCLIFFE
The maths here is simple. He’s Harry Potter, and those films have collectively grossed more than most in history. Nobody is indispensable, but Radcliff e has made the lead role so uniquely his that it’s impossible to imagine anyone else playing it. Which is pretty irrelevant anyway, really, because there won’t be any more films after he finishes work on the forthcoming two-part finale. What’s going to be of much more importance to Radcliff e is what he does next. Is he going to be typecast as geeky Harry for the rest of his career, unable to be taken seriously as anything or anyone else? Or will he manage to shake o ff his gown and reinvent himself in a completely diff erent way? Watching his development as an actor will be fascinating, and his future place on this list will be determined by what decisions he takes.
63 EMMA WATSON
When I was in China recently, filming an ITV documentary on Shanghai, there were very few British stars on the billboards. But one face I saw a lot was young Ms Watson, beaming down from massive Burberry hoardings.
Further investigation revealed that she is our single most popular female export out there, thanks to the huge popularity of Harry Potter. And trust me, if you’re big in China right now, then you’re about as big as it’s possible to be.
And that’s power. She’s also growing very rich, very fast, with an estimated fortune of more than £10 million.
And she was recently placed sixth on the Forbes list of ‘Hollywood’s Most Valuable Young Stars’. She’s also single, which makes her comfortably the most eligible young lady on my list. Form an orderly queue please, gentlemen.
86 DAVID TENNANT
I’ve never met him, I know absolutely nothing about him, and I doubt these two facts will ever change. But if you’re a hit as Doctor Who in this country, then you matter. Rather more irritatingly, from a personal point of view, Tennant was on TV even more than me at Christmas. Which is the main reason he’s down so low on my list.
88 KENNETH BRANAGH
The last time I saw Branagh, he was emerging from a workout with the same 6ft 7in Austrian torturer I use in LA. Once he’d got his breath back, we exchanged banter about the importance of a good physical state if you work in American TV or films. ‘It’s such bloody hard work out here,’ he moaned, accurately.
‘And the only way to cope with the long hours is to put yourself through this hell three times a week!’ Yet he does it, because he wants to stay right where he is – as one of Britain’s most successful entertainment exports.
He’s not as big a celebrity as when he was married to Emma Thompson and acting’s golden couple dominated the tabloids. But he won’t be shedding tears about that. What he remains is an outstanding talent who on his day can blow the socks off any other living British actor.
97 JK ROWLING
She’s sold over 400 million copies of her Harry Potter books, and also the movie rights for some of the biggest-grossing films in history, creating a global brand that’s worth an estimated £7 billion, making her over £500 million personally; she’s won squillions of awards; and she was even named the 48th most powerful celebrity in the world by Forbes magazine. So Ms Rowling definitely matters.
She would hate to be called a celebrity, and guards her private life intensely, so she doesn’t play any part of the celebrity game. And that’s why I’ve marked her quite far down my list. But by encouraging children to read, feel inspired and be creative, she has had a greater impact on the world than most of the other names on it.
Filed Under: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, JK Rowling, Robert Pattinson, Stephen Fry |
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