Simply Fascinating

In this extraordinary news-rich year, Barbara Walters had no trouble finding the 10 most interesting names in entertainment, politics, sports, science and business to profile on her ABC News special, “Barbara Walters Presents the 10 Most Fascinating People of 1998.”

The special, which airs Tuesday night at 10, features interviews with “Ally McBeal” shooting star Calista Flockhart; Oscar-winning “Titanic” director James Cameron; comic Chris Rock; ex-Spice Girl and United Nations ambassador Geri Halliwell; talk-show host Jerry Springer; U.S. senator and astronaut John Glenn; Microsoft’s Bill Gates; home-run giant Mark McGwire; and Academy Award-winning superstar Tom Hanks. Capping the night will be Walters’ pick for the “most fascinating” person of 1998, which she’s keep under wraps for now.

One of the most highly acclaimed journalists on television--she’s interviewed every president since Nixon and won a Peabody for her 1995 interview with Christopher Reeve--Walters anchors ABC’s Sunday edition of the newsmagzine “20/20” with Diane Sawyer, as well as the long-running Friday installment with Hugh Downs.

Walters chatted about her latest special over the phone from an editing room where she was working on her recent interview with Michael J. Fox about his Parkinson’s disease.

Question: As the years go by, is it easier or more difficult to find people who are truly fascinating?

Answer: We picked fascinating rather than most important or best known because we wanted it to be people who fascinated people. I think this is our best and possibly our most entertaining list. The people just jumped out at you. Other years, [we said] “Gee, who do we do?”

*

Q: Any hints on your most fascinating pick--Kenneth Starr or Monica Lewinsky, possibly?

A: Well, we’ll see. It is the only one where we said: “Should we do this one, or that one?”

*

Q: Jerry Springer was an unusual choice.

A: That is one we debated about because we thought of doing Oprah. It was so much Oprah’s year, but it was also the phenomenon of Jerry Springer. With Jerry, we concentrated more on him and less on the show.

*

Q: Like Jerry Springer, many of those you’re featuring in the show have been in the limelight so much this year. Iss it difficult to get a fresh take?

A: To a degree. I just interviewed Tom Hanks this Monday. This is the third or fourth time. He is so open and he gives you so much . . . but it does make it so difficult when he’s done so many interviews.

In the past, we’ve had unknowns. But there is nobody this year that isn’t known. I could have done John Glenn, Calista Flockhart and Chris Rock and had a show. It is one of the few times when our biggest problem is editing them down.

*

Q: Were there any surprises among your subjects? Was James Cameron, for example, humble?

A: He was very nice, very at ease. I had heard all of these stories [about his ego] and I asked him about it and the whole “King of the World,” which a lot of people don’t realize [is a phrase that] came from the film. I think the only thing that worries him and it’s something to think about: “What do you do next? Where do you go after this?” It was an interview that could have run much longer.

And Geri Halliwell, I never met her and I thought, “Where do you go with this?” She was very interesting and intelligent. She wore a little little plain black dress. People did not recognize her when we walked in the street.

*

Q: Do you do handle most of the interviews yourself?

A: Besides John Glenn, the only other one I didn’t do myself was Mark McGwire and that is because it was just done this week. If it had been earlier, I would have done it myself, but I had Michael J. Fox this week.

*

Q: With so many newsmagazines currently on the air has it become more difficult to get stories and guests?

A: There is much more competition. I really hate the business of the “big gets.” If I ever leave this show [it’s because] I have to get another “big get.” But yet, just when I think I am going to take a breather, up comes Michael J. Fox, for example. He decided he was going to do one print interview and one TV interview and called me.

One of the things that is very pleasurable for me, and I couldn’t have predicted that we would have worked together, is the Sunday show that Diane and I do together. We always liked each other, but we didn’t know each other. It has been so easy; it has made no waves at all. We have a kind of, I think, respect and understanding and it has made both of our lives easy because we can talk about the pieces we are doing. We are not competing.

“Barbara Walters Presents the 10 Most Fascinating People of 1998” Tuesday at 10 p.m. on ABC.