TOWER OF POWER for UNFOLD MAGAZINE
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There are as many lists of the top dogs in entertainment as there are arts writers; some favor fame or money, others the ten-page résumé. This particular group of talents is a mix of icons (Halle Berry, Michael Crichton, Bernadette Peters) and newcomers with challenging ideas (Christine Vachon, Ani DiFranco, Chris Rock). Some are household names with seven-digit incomes; others are virtually unknown coupon-clippers. But these writers, publishers, actors, performers and producers have one triumph in common - all of them are influencing and expanding their fields: crashing through racial and sexual boundaries, defining cultures, intrepidly exploring previously untouchable subjects.

Isabel Allende, writer
Niece of Chile's ousted president, Salvador Allende, journalist and professor Isabel Allende wrote her first novel at 42 and was immediately hailed the long-awaited successor to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. A best seller throughout Europe, South America and the United States, 1982's The House of the Spirits weaves magical realism and political history into the moving story of a South American family, the Truebas. Begun as a letter to her dying grandfather, the mythical epic spans four generations and evokes intense emotions. It embodies the Latin American heritage and spirit in the way Mark Twain's Huck Finn captures the American myth. Allende's second novel, Paula, is a moving family memoir written for her dying daughter and a continuation of Allende's unique blend of Chilean history and magic. Both novels, the most popular of Allende's nine, have been translated into 15 languages and are considered the finest in Latin American literature. Her other works include Aphrodite (1997), Eva Luna (1987) and The Infinite Plan (1991). Following closely in the footsteps of Allende, poet, journalist and novelist Sandra Cisneros is documenting the personal and political struggles of the Latina working class in the U.S.. Like Allende's House of the Spirits, Cisneros' House on Mango Street draws readers into the environs of a growing girl - this time in the streets of Chicago. While not the juggernaut that Spirits was, Mango Street gave Latinos a much-needed voice. Cisneros has won an avalanche of literary awards including the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, largely for her 1991 collection of short stories, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories.

Babyface, music producer, songwriter, creator of LaFace Records
If there's a man behind the curtain of pop music, it's this production wizard from Indianapolis. Babyface, born Kenneth Edmonds, has created more goddesses than the Greeks, Aztecs and Ashanti put together. His LaFace Records, established in 1989 with partner Antonio "L.A." Reid, launched two multi-platinum acts within three years - TLC and Toni Braxton, who sold seven million copies of her eponymous debut and snatched the Grammy for Best New Artist of 1993. Two years later he produced (and wrote all but one song for) the smash R&B soundtrack Waiting to Exhale. Not content with his own superstar discoveries, he has also penned classics for such dynamic divas as Madonna, Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Gladys Knight, not to mention Bobby Brown, and Bell Biv DeVoe. And talk about makin' great records - here's one from the Guinness books: Boyz II Men's "End of the Road" (which he wrote and produced) and Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" (which he produced) both broke records for the longest reign on the Billboard charts. His unique ability to capture the female perspective is a marvel; Edmonds is the youngest of six boys! Whether fueled by ambition or pure talent, Babyface has honed his craft since childhood, writing and performing with various funk and pop bands (how he met drummer and future collaborator Reid). His five-album record career - whose latest addition is a Christmas album (1998) - is just a footnote to his remarkable run as a producer and songwriter, which is how he likes it. Only two months into the new millennium, the King of R&B already has four new jewels in his crown; TLC won Best R&B Album for "Fanmail," and Best R&B Group Vocal and R&B Song for "No Scrubs;" Whitney Houston won Best Female R&B Vocal for "It's Not Right, But It's Okay."

Halle Berry, actress
With genes that Calvin Klein would envy, Berry is as talented and tenacious as she is gorgeous. The mixed-race beauty survived an abusive father and Midwestern racism so severe that after being elected Prom Queen at her Ohio high school, she was accused of stuffing the ballot box and had to share the title with a blonde. But Berry had her revenge. She went on to become Miss Ohio and is now a television and film star, model and Revlon spokeswoman with multi-million-dollar deals. Her first small-screen gig was playing a model on the aptly titled Living Dolls, though the show only lasted three months. It was her next role that launched her career, that of Debbie Porter on Knots Landing. That same year (1991) Berry starred in her first films, Strictly Business (though she was almost canned for not being "black enough") and The Last Boy Scout. Admired by the ladies and drooled over by the gents, Berry did a string of movies, including Boomerang opposite Eddie Murphy, Executive Decision, B.A.P.S., Why Do Fools Fall In Love? and Bulworth opposite Warren Beatty. Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, where she played a crack addict, and the hard-hitting drama Losing Isaiah both had an underlying theme of racism Berry knew all too well. Those two dramas earned her credibility in the biz that her several comedies, while successful, did not. She garnered further accolades with her charity work for the National Breast Cancer Coalition and the troops in Sarajevo, including a Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations award for the Cultural Artist of the Year in 1998. Lately she has turned her eye back to the tube, starring in several made-for-TV movies and mini-series. Her performance in Queen, the highest rated sequel in TV history, won her the NAACP Image Award for Best Actress and the Best Newcomer Award from the Hollywood Women's Press Club. Her most recent project is a dream come true: playing the title role in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, an HBO special about the renowned actress who was the first African-American woman to be nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award (for 1954's Carmen Jones). She lost to Grace Kelly, but Berry's portrayal of Dandridge won her a Golden Globe this year.

David Byrne and Peter Gabriel, founders of Luaka Bop and Real World Records
Not content to rest on the laurels of their platinum band and solo careers, David Byrne (of Talking Heads) and Peter Gabriel (of Genesis) have created two of the top world music labels of the '90s. Byrne's Luaka Bop was spawned from his desire to expose the public to the best of Brazilian music. The collection sold so well that Byrne launched Luaka Bop and made three more. He then turned to Cuban music, even flying there to scour their vaults, and released the first contemporary Cuban album in the U.S., a collection by Silvio Rodriguez. The remaining catalog reflects Byrne's eclectic taste: Asian, Peruvian, African, Indian film music, even college faves Cornershop (a mix of Punjabi and Western pop). You can hear his discoveries from forgotten bungalows in South America to the pulsing nightclubs of Spain and New York. Gabriel's Real World was born the same year, 1989, and stemmed from similar desires - to take the sounds of the World of Music and Dance Festival (WOMAD) and spread them around the globe. But where Luaka Bop digs deeply into particular cultures, Real World includes artists from myriad countries. In 1991, its Recording Week hosted 75 artists from 20 countries, recording solo and in various combos. Real World's current line-up includes the techno-tinged Afro-Celt Sound System, and legends Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn and Ananda Shankar.

James Cameron, screenwriter, director, producer
Cameron does it all. No wonder he's the king of action films. As the brains behind Rambo, Terminator 1 and 2, The Abyss, Aliens, True Lies and Titanic (which snagged 11 Oscars and a box office record), Cameron's visions have produced some of cinema's most memorable heroes and villains, action sequences and catch phrases. The computer-generated sea creature of the Abyss was the technical triumph of its time, as were the many white-knuckle scenes from Aliens, both of which won Oscars for best visual effects (Aliens also won for sound effects). Lines like Arnold Schwarzenegger's "I'll be back" and Leonardo DiCaprio's "I'm king of the world!" are as common as "Frankly, my dear." was 50 years ago. Always the industrious artist, Cameron was painting and inventing from early childhood and was even exhibited in a local gallery in his Canadian hometown of Kapuskasing (he even did the pencil drawing of a nude Kate Winslet that Leonardo Di Caprio sketches). As a teen science-fiction nut, he was inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey to dabble in film. But his road to riches took a few detours - including college physics and truck driving - before he landed a job at New World Pictures. After directing the fiasco Pirahna II, Cameron vowed to write every future film he directed, beginning with The Terminator, which he penned at only 28 and made for only $6.5 million. Aliens and Terminator 2 followed, and with those two films - and the millions they grossed - Cameron solidified his rep as a formidable Hollywood talent and special effects guru. He parlayed his financial success into his own effects company Digital Domain, and eventually, his own production company, Lightstorm Entertainment. Cameron's dedication to his films is unequaled; not many directors would sink their entire paycheck for a film into its production, but Cameron did just that to finance the over-budget Titanic - which ultimately earned ten times it's $200-million price tag.

The Coen Brothers and Christine Vachon, filmmakers
Joel and Ethan Coen are either gushingly venerated or abhorred by everyone who knows their films. Joel directs, Ethan produces, and they share the job of writing screenplays that challenge everything the Filmgoing Audience holds sacred. In Raising Arizona (1987) you root for the kidnappers; in Fargo (1996) you laugh at a series of grotesque murders following a botched kidnapping; and not even graduate film students with a road map could make sense of the ethereally weird Barton Fink (1991; Palme d'Or winner at Cannes). Yet Fargo earned them 12 film awards, including an Oscar, Best Director at Cannes and several Spirit Awards. Even when true (the case with Fargo), the Coens' subjects are unthinkable; but it's this seamy, ruthless side of humanity that makes audiences cover their eyes but secretly peek through their fingers. Producer Christine Vachon's indie films share this quality, as they take on casual gay sex, drugs or pedophilia without moralizing or unnaturally dwelling on those aspects. Two of her films, Kids and Happiness, were dropped from distributors for their content, yet were still highly acclaimed and influential. Her other work includes I Shot Andy Warhol and Velvet Goldmine and the book frankly titled, How an Independent Producer Blasts Through the Barriers to Make Movies That Matter. As emerging artists in the uptight mid-80s when controversial films were even more taboo, it is amazing that Vachon and the Coens have been so successful.

Michael Crichton and John Grisham, novelists
With 11 of the 15 bestsellers of the '90s (according to online behemoth Amazon.com), Grisham and Crichton have changed the world of fiction thrillers, both on the shelf and on the silver screen. The two writers have used their in-depth knowledge of particular fields - Grisham in law and Crichton in science and technology - to add depth and accuracy to their white-knuckle novels. Grisham's credits include The Pelican Brief, The Chamber, The Firm, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker and The Client - all of which were made into lucrative films. Grisham's beginnings were not particularly auspicious; he preferred baseball to his studies and gave up on two books before completing A Time to Kill, which took two years to get published. It was his next novel, The Firm, that would launch his career; before it was even published, Paramount Pictures bought the rights for $600,000. Since 1991, Grisham has published a book a year, all bestsellers. Unlike Grisham's several-year rise to fame, Crichton's stellar success was immediate, the natural path of a brilliant and assiduous man. A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard college and med school, Crichton had penned a best-selling novel (The Andromeda Strain, written to pay his tuition) and sold it to Hollywood before he even left school. His mastery of everything from computers to Norse mythology to biophysics is evident in the intricacy of his novels; such genius in both the arts and sciences is rare. Crichton's list of accomplishments is an even longer litany of books-turned-blockbusters: Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Disclosure, Congo, Sphere, The Andromeda Strain, The Terminal Man, The Great Train Robbery and Rising Sun. He also created and produced special effects hit Twister and the unrivaled series E.R., which has won 14 Emmys. Together, Crichton and Grisham have rejuvenated (and dominated) the thriller genre, while adding a new twist - professional expertise.

Edwidge Danticat, writer
Though she's lived in the U.S. since age 12, Danticat revisits and revives her native Haiti through her tales, fusions of modern life and historical headlines. Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994), Danticat's internationally celebrated debut novel, explores the lives of three women caught between their Haitian roots and their desire for freedom in the U.S. Danticat's early years are mirrored in the character Sophie, who, like the author, was raised by her aunt until age 12, then brought to New York. But unlike her protagonist, Danticat thrived in her new surroundings. A precocious talent, she was in print at age 14, only two years after learning her first English words (her first languages were Creole and French). Like Michael Crichton, Danticat was a smash while still a student; Breath, Eyes, Memory was her senior thesis for Brown University. Oddly enough, she only attended the Ivy League school's MFA program because they offered her a scholarship; while she always loved writing, Danticat initially planned to be a nurse. But by 26 another dream was unfolding; she was nominated for the National Book Award on the merits of 1995's Krik? Krak!, a collection of short stories (which also enjoyed a boost as a pick for Oprah's book club). Other Danticat shorts have appeared in 25 magazines and earned her four other honors. The Farming of Bones (1998), the Haitian's latest novel, blends fictive characters and towns with the tragic reality of the massacre by Dominican president Rafael Trujillo's army back in 1937. Though Danticat's works are packed with such painful struggles, her poignant and evocative prose rescues them from utter morbidity.

Ani DiFranco. musician and creator of Righteous Babe Records
While most 20-year-olds were slinging beers and barely making it through economics, Ani Di Franco was starting her own record label. Named Righteous Babe, the decade-old company currently employs 18 staff and crew and has released 14 of DiFranco's albums. Even the distributors, flyer printers and promoters she uses are independent and, in several cases, from her Buffalo, New York neighborhood. She began playing Buffalo coffeehouses at only 15, eventually living in her Volkswagon and touring the country. The labels came scampering after her, but she preferred to remain independent. Think that took guts? She's also sung openly about her bisexuality and recently released a live album of pro-labor folk songs with 65-year-old Utah Phillips. Her success - she has released a record a year (or more) and has sold well over a million albums - is unprecedented and unmatched. Before Nirvana sparked the independent band and label explosion, before Alanis Morissette made it okay for women to be young and angry, DiFranco was circumventing the corporate machine and singing about this on her debut album: "perpetrating counter-culture she is walking through the park / first light ugly and more muscular than the dark / pushing poems at the urban silence."

The Dust Brothers, music producers and mixers
With production credits as disparate as Tone Loc, Beck, Hanson, The Beastie Boys, The Rolling Stones, and Nike and Microsoft commercial jingles, the Dust Brothers can rightly be called the Renaissance Men of Rock (and hip-hop, and funk, and.). As college DJs of the first all-rap radio show in the mid-80s, buddies Michael Simpson and John King were soon asked to oversee projects by Delicious Vinyl artists and rap pioneers Tone-Loc and Young MC. Using a Macintosh computer and hundreds of album samples, the Brothers formulated their own cut-n-paste style that can be heard on the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique and Beck's Odelay, two of the most influential and unique albums of the last dozen years, as well as the many releases inspired by them. Their more recent work with the Stones, teen pop sensations Hanson (who's number one smash "MMM Bop" they produced) and numerous soundtracks proves the guys have the platinum touch with more than just hard-edged hip-hop and funk-folk collages. As their reputation and rundown of A-list collaborations reaches the stratosphere, the pair are working on a Dust Brothers greatest hits album and running their own eight-band label, Ideal Records (formerly Nickelbag Records). The few critics yelling "sell out" for the duo's work on commercials can't be heard above the 120-decibel din of ringing phones and Grammy nominations.

EMusic.com, online music site
This is the sole place to download MP3s by many major artists without feeling guilty, or breaking the law. The first of its kind, EMusic.com is a licensed seller of over 300,000 titles, including stars like Offspring, Ella Fitzgerald, Iggy Pop and Phish. And with exclusive, multi-year contracts with the artists and labels, its not expecting competition any time soon. Download a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan disc or just choose a few tunes at 90 cents a pop. Emusic lets you omit songs you don't want and pay small change for the ones you do (remember: there's no shipping, which is what pads prices at CDNOW.com). Artists even get 50 percent of the sales, something no brick-and-mortar outfit could promise. The only drawback is that you don't get CD inserts. The site is beautifully presented and organized, with a Top 10 MP3 list (another first) and listings by genre, label, artist and new releases. Founded by Robert H. Kohn and Gene Hoffman in January 1998 as GoodNoise, the company has grown so fast that it has already bought Rollingstone.com, DownBeatJazz.com and IUMA.com (Internet Underground Music Archive, the first and biggest repository for independent and unsigned artists). With such a jump on competitors and such credible, high-traffic subsidiaries, Emusic is the future of online music [too presumptuous to say future of all music, I think; people like to browse stores and there will always be several people who can't operate or afford a computer] - integrated, inexpensive, and (gasp) legal.

Karen Finley, performance artist
Finley's success in an art world defined and funded by its shock value is anything but shocking. Her performances can be as hair-raising as a toaster tossed into a bathtub, and while many would sooner endure the latter, her influence is undeniable. This high priestess of high drama has been turned away from nightclubs and publishers alike, stalked and threatened by detractors, due to her brazen candor and her brow-raising way of expressing it. She recently published a book that has Winnie the Pooh and his gang engaging in sado-masochism in order to infuse the cartoon with realism; in 1996 she skewered Martha Stewart-type housekeeping tomes with Living It Up: Humorous Adventures in Hyperdomesticity; she has smeared her naked self with chocolate (as feces) and other foods to symbolize the oppression of women. It is this last stunt that led to the eight-year Supreme Court battle (1990-98) to subject NEA funding to "general standards of decency," a fight that largely defined the decade's attitude toward art. Like Andres Serrano's infamous "Piss Christ" and Robert Mapplethorpe's homoerotic images, Finley's work uses the body in ways that mortify conservatives and garner a hoard of publicity. Whether her pieces (and others') come off as self-indulgent stunts or courageous acts, their value and impact take a back seat to their ability to provoke and offend. From rap group 2 Live Crew's explicit (and multi-platinum) As Nasty As They Wanna Be to the Brooklyn Museum of Art's sacrilegious exhibit "Sensation" to Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses, shocking is now a synonym for significant.

Nadine Gordimer, writer and activist
No one has worked harder than Nadine Gordimer to document the struggles and promote the literature of South Africa. From her first published work at 15, a short story about the racism of her hometown mining community, she has written poignantly and powerfully of black oppression, white ignorance and colonial politics. With over a dozen novels, 200 short stories and countless essays and articles, Gordimer is a primary voice on post-apartheid South Africa - quite an accomplishment for a white woman in her 70s. A member of the overwhelmingly black African National Congress, she has often been at odds with the South African government. Though three of her books were banned in the colonies, though whites have criticized her for threatening their way of life and blacks have charged her with "stealing their identity," she has never abandoned her work or her country. Guest of Honour, The Conservationist, Burger's Daughter and July's People are her most famous works, written in the '70s, but she is still publishing important works like 1998's The House Gun. Gordimer is the first woman since 1966 (and seventh overall) to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (1991). While continuing to write, she also supports the Congress of South African Writers (COSAW), one of the only remaining publishers and literary hubs left in the region. Though most presses have closed due to a lack of proficient readers and adequate funds, Gordimer sees a resurgence of literature focusing on the birth of a new government - a rebirth she herself is helping to create.

Christy Haubegger, founder of Latina Magazine
With Mexican-American blood and the verve of a young entrepreneur, this Stanford Law grad launched the first magazine for Latinas at only 28. A success from its start in 1996, Latina had a circulation of 300,000 the minute it hit the shelves and was named one of the top 10 magazines of the year by Library Journal. The pioneering rag not only features Latina models, celebrities, leaders and Latina-owned businesses, it also speaks the language - every page is in both Spanish and English. Its focus is also geared to issues of particular interest to its readers - abortion, Latino holiday traditions and trade secrets like "how to eat a raw jalapeno without crying." Haubegger, a Latina adopted by Anglos, felt the blonde bombshells on most glossy covers failed to address her culture or reflect her Latin look. Inspired to fill that gap, she wrote a business plan and convinced Edward Lewis, who founded Essence in 1970 as the first magazine for African-American women, to back her. Haubegger's success has peppered her calendar with award ceremonies and luncheons in which she gives keynote speeches. She garnered praise from NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, who named her one of the most inspirational people of 1996, and spoke at the Fourth Annual Images of Women Conference in Texas, her home state. She is now one of the inspiring Latina icons, akin to those who grace her magazine's cover.

Invisibl Skratch Piklz, DJ turntablists
Like rap in the '80s, DJing is finally recognized as a distinct art form, largely due to the prowess of this formidable group from the San Francisco area. A long way from the simpler scratches of pioneers like Jazzy Jeff or Grandmaster Flash, this intricate blend of "chirps, scribbles and tears" has over 300 ways to rub that needle the right - and intentionally wrong - way. Turntablists have become so accomplished and popular that they are now considered artists, not mere DJs. Much of this boost in technique and visibility can be traced to Q-Bert, the undisputed King of Scratch and member of Invisibl Skratch Piklz. After winning the famous Disco Mixing Club (DMC) 1991 USA competition and the 1992-1994 DMC World competitions, Q-Bert and fellow Pikl Mixmaster Mike were asked to step down (and judge the events instead) so that some other blokes could have a shot at the titles. In 1998, they were inducted into the DMC DJ Hall of Fame and each released solo albums. Mike's work with the Beastie Boys that year brought scratching into the mainstream after over a dozen years. The talented (but overshadowed) Yogafrog, Shortkut (four-time competition winner) and D-Styles round out the Skratch band.

David E. Kelley, television producer and writer
The Spielberg of the small screen, Kelley creates the shows that keep the world's eyes glued to the tube. Though he set out to win court cases instead of Golden Globes, the Princeton graduate soon left practicing law to write about it. After penning a screenplay that became the 1987 hit From the Hip, Kelley began story editing for the hit series L.A. Law. But his breakthrough came in the shows he produced himself: the small-town Picket Fences ('92-'96), the hospital-based Chicago Hope ('94 on), and the law dramas Ally McBeal and The Practice (both created in '97). One of the most dedicated and prolific writers in television, Kelley often penned scripts for two weekly shows at once. He took time off before the premiere of Ally and The Practice only to write the 1996 film To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, starring his wife, Michelle Pfeiffer. His characters and stories are fresh and memorable largely because Kelley digs below the stereotypes and hackneyed plots that plague most shows (Aaron Spelling could take some notes from Mr. Kelley). Picket Fences, about a small town in Wisconsin and one of its families, dealt with several of the more serious moral issues that divide cities - school busing, racism and teen sex. Ally McBeal's beautiful, dark-suited lawyers have awkward relationships, all-too-familiar interior monologs and childlike insecurities that are their own worst enemies. It is Kelley's unusual mix of talent, ambition and insight into character that has won him numerous awards, including a Peabody, a Golden Globe and several Emmys.

Los Munequitos de Matanzas, Cuban musicians and dancers
While most rock bands can't keep it together for more than a few years, this rumba group has kept Cuban hips swiveling since 1952, though the line-up has seen many changes in the last 48 years. Considered the most important rumba band in Cuba, the African-influenced Munequitos began as eight percussionists playing dishes and bottles at a bar in Matanzas, Cuba, and soon after at nearby fiestas in the barrio. The current incarnation includes 13 members and three generations, all lead by Diosdado Ramos Cruz. Having graduated from pounding tableware long ago, the group consists of dancers and musicians who play traditional percussion instruments like the claves, guaguas and marugas and batas. Over this backbone, singers begin a call-and-response duet that ends with impassioned scat singing by the lead vocalist. The group has released 13 albums and 26 singles since 1953, the most popular being 1993's Rumba Caliente, a mix of two previous LPs and label Qbadisk's all-time best seller. Over the last decade, the group has toured the world, from Germany and England to South America and Canada, and with five U.S. tours since '92, it is finally making a name for itself in the States. Thanks to the Munequitos, the three forms of rumba - el yambu (slow, danced by couples), la columbia (danced by men only) and el guaguanco (modern urban) - are alive, well, and in demand wherever the head gives way to the hips.

Pam Nelson, Girl Press founder
With book megastores multiplying 'round the globe and giant publishing houses competing to stock 'em, the indie publisher could evaporate like morning fog. But with low overhead and selected outlets for their products, some are proving that they can survive in the shadows of Borders Books and Random House. These upstarts are free from the financial pressures of the big boys that often cling to big sellers, sanctioned subjects and novels ideal for movies and television series. Small presses give a voice to new writers, unorthodox ideas and niches left unexplored. Pam Nelson founded Girl Press in 1997, noting the lack of inspiring reading for girls too old for The Babysitters Club but not quite ready for The Scarlet Letter. With titles like Cool Women: The Thinking Girl's Guide to the Hippest Women in History and Girl Boss: Running the Show Like the Big Chicks, Girl Press gives teens a taste of fabulous femmes past and a glimpse of their own bright futures. Other recent and planned books explore 'zine culture, self-made films and fem-friendly adventures in Hollywood and New York. Nelson, age 35, practices what her catalog preaches; she left a 10-year stint on Wall Street and crossed the continent to pursue another dream, making "slightly dangerous books for girl mavericks." It has paid off; the Ms. Foundation chose Girl Boss as the official book for Take Our Daughters to Work Day, the American Library Association nominated Cool Women as one of the Best Books for Young Adults in 1998, and she has gotten an avalanche of thumbs-up press. Not bad for a chick.

The Onion, spoof newspaper
As if most media sources aren't enough of a joke already, the pranksters at The Onion have made a career of hoax headlines. With a print edition, website, best-selling book and radio spots on the Westwood One network, the satirical weekly has risen from a college hobby to an international phenomenon. NBC is even planning a special on the paper, whose Internet-fueled success belies its not-so-sweet name. Begun by University of Wisconsin student Scott Dikkers in 1988, The Onion is now the most popular spoof around, with 400,000 print and 500,000 web readers each week. Its first book, Our Dumb Century: 100 Years of Headlines from America's Finest News Source, sold out its first printing of 85,000 copies four days before its release on April Fool's Day of last year, and publisher Crown Books was forced to print a last-minute second batch. Not for the faint or heart or devoid of humor, the deadpan rag offers headlines such as "ACLU Defends Nazis' Right To Burn Down ACLU Headquarters" and ads like "Tommy Chong's Urine Luck," guaranteed to help you pass any drug test. The website, launched in 1996, even has a spinoff, the AV Club, complete with its own features; current columns include "The Least Essential Albums of the '90s" and the ongoing "Justify Your Existence," in which bands are asked why anyone on earth should buy their albums. Though it's all in good fun, the underlying tone of the articles is scathing criticism of USA Today-style graphics and shallow coverage, self-important journalists and tyrannical media giants. Though the paper also pokes fun at the stupidity of the reader, they're too busy laughing themselves silly to notice.

Don Passman, entertainment lawyer
The writers of the Holy Bible are many and mysterious, but the scribe of the Music Bible is one Donald Passman, the industry's most successful lawyer and author of All You Need to Know About the Music Business. It's clear from Passman's Good Book, read religiously by every mogul in the biz, that the Harvard Law School cum laude grad knows his stuff. If that's not proof enough, his resume - which includes the two biggest mega-deals in rock's history (Janet Jackson's $70 million and R.E.M.'s $80 million signings) - ought to suffice. Passman's other clients include Quincy Jones, Tina Turner, Bryan Adams, Mariah Carey and Bonnie Raitt. Though music lawyers were unheard of when Passman was in school, he combined his plans to enter law with his long-term love for music (he was in bands in law school to let off steam). Today, Passman teaches a music business course (that follows the outline of his book) at the University of Southern California Law School's Advanced Professional Program. Far from the egomaniacal shark many assume he must be, Passman is known as a shrewd but good-hearted guy who plays the banjo, guitar and piano and enjoys playing chess. His fiction debut, psychological thriller The Visionary, was published last June to rave reviews.

Bernadette Peters, Broadway actress and singer
From New York's Carnegie Hall to the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, this multi-talented singer and actress has conquered every corner of the stage and screen. At the tender age of 3 ½, Peters was already charming TV viewers, and by her teens she was touring with a national theater company. Only one year after her 1967 Broadway debut at 19, Peters had won the prestigious Drama Desk and Theater World awards and established her adorable self as one of the stage's premier talents. She went on to play Drama Desk and Tony Award-winning roles in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and Dance and was nominated for Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park with George (with Mandy Patinkin). While best known for these luminous live performances, Peters has also done 14 films, four solo albums and countless television appearances ranging from high-brow PBS specials to The Carol Burnett Show and The Muppets. The youngest member to be inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame, Peters has also nabbed the Sara Siddons Actress of the Year Award and Harvard's Hasty Pudding Woman of the year. She is just now starring in the award-winning Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun, whose soundtrack was nominated for a Grammy.

Parker Posey and Christina Ricci, actresses
Known as the Queen of the Indie Scene, Parker Posey is one of the busiest and most admired gals in Hollywood - though the films she works on are anything but "Hollywood." Many moviegoers have never even heard of Posey, who - until her current part in Scream 3 - as steered clear of mainstream blockbusters in favor of audacious art house and indie films. Since 1993 Posey has done an astounding 28 movies (plus a few TV gigs and minor roles that were uncredited or cut), acting in as many as five projects per year. Her most famous role, as a mentally imbalanced sister in 1997's acclaimed but twisted drama The House of Yes, earned her a Golden Satellite nomination and a Sundance Film Festival award of Special Recognition. Other Posey favorites include Basquiat, SubUrbia, Drunks, Dazed and Confused, Party Girl and Waiting for Guffman. If Posey is indie royalty, the definite lady-in-waiting is Christina Ricci, whose unorthodox choice of roles proves she's as gutsy as she is talented. Despite earlier kiddie films like the Addams Family and Casper, Ricci has shined in dark dramas like The Ice Storm and Sleepy Hollow, as well as hip flicks like John Waters' Pecker, Buffalo '66, The Opposite of Sex and 200 Cigarettes. While many child stars fade into obscurity or drug use, Ricci - whose career began at age 10 opposite Wynona Ryder and Cher in Mermaids - has managed to stay on-screen and on-track.

Judith Regan, multi-media mogul
For better or worse, Judith Regan is one of the most powerful people in publishing, and she is climbing the rungs of the TV and film ladders too. A one-time VP and senior editor at Simon & Schuster publishers, she left for the greener pastures of Rupert Murdoch's media empire. The gutsy go-getter asked Murdoch for her own TV show on the Fox News Channel and her own publishing and production companies. She got them, and has of late managed to snare a few film deals to boot. A prime example of '90s sensationalism, (which shows no sign of disappearing), Regan's extensive list of credits reads like a tabloid's dream table of contents - not surprising, considering she once worked for the National Enquirer, Geraldo Rivera and Entertainment Tonight. She has edited books by Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, Douglas Coupland and Kathie Lee Gifford; her imprint, Regan Books (part of HarperCollins), has published a spoof bio on Monica Lewinsky (after failing to work out a deal for the real thing), as well as books on how to lose weight, get filthy rich, "disappear" to circumvent creditors and other nuisances, achieve true happiness, cheat your way into a diploma and look like your favorite celeb. And don't forget the gripping tales of Sonny Bono and rockers Marylin Manson and Meatloaf. While it's not a list of literary luminaries, Regan's roster is one of the most profitable in the biz and has undoubtedly made her a few million.

Chris Rock, comedian
A disillusioned high school dropout at 17, Chris Rock turned to the comedy circuit and was instantly hooked. He honed this newfound talent and first love at clubs around the country, then as a regular on Saturday Night Live (1990-93) and appearances on In Living Color. Seven years later, Rock is now host of his own HBO show and widely known as the funniest guy in the galaxy. He's been in 14 films, including Dr. Doolittle, New Jack City, Lethal Weapon 4 and Dogma (the film's hilarious highlight as the 13th disciple); he's hosted the Grammys, extolled the virtues of 1-800-COLLECT and authored the best-selling book Rock This! Yet it is still his scathing stand-up that makes him a standout entertainer and social commentator. Performances like Bigger & Blacker and Bring the Pain take no prisoners in their satire and analysis of urban, white and black culture. Rock is not afraid to piss off the PC police with nervy quips like, "Black people don't give a damn about welfare reform. Niggers are shaking in their boots," and "Niggers always want credit for something they should be doing. "I take care of my kids.' You're supposed to take care of your kids!" (To Rock, of course, "niggers" come in all colors.) While most racially conscious comics are still joking about how white men dance and black women speak their mind, Rock is tackling the touchy issues that even so-called "edgy" comics shy away from. The fact that he not only gets away with it but also does so as a mainstream entertainer proves his status as a Grade A, balls-out comedic genius.

Mark Romanek, video and film director
As TV and films increasingly copy the quick-cut, surreal vibe of MTV videos, video directors are gaining influence and credibility in the art and film worlds. Many have a signature style or reputation as innovators, ideas formerly reserved for the likes of Tarantino or Scorsese. Romanek's lengthy list of credits includes some of the most costly and high-tech (Madonna, Michael and Janet Jackson, En Vogue, Lenny Kravitz), beautiful and controversial (Nine Inch Nails, Fiona Apple) clips ever made. In 1997 MTV gave him its highest honor, the Video Vanguard Award. Several of his works have won Clio and Grammy awards as well. Having conquered the video realm, Romanek recently ventured into other media: he published a book of video stills in late 1999 and has also directed two new feature films, Paradise Falls and Urban Townies. Poised to fill Romanek's platinum shoes is Spike Jonze, another video-turned-film director with equally impressive creds but an opposite style. Jonze has made landmark videos for the Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Weezer, R.E.M. and The Breeders, but uses nostalgia-fueled humor rather than high-gloss dreamscapes as his backdrop. His debut as a film director, 1999's Being John Malkovich, is a daring and complex film that challenges our notions of a fixed identity.

Kevin Spacey, actor
From Juilliard to the New York Shakespeare Festival to Broadway to Hollywood, Kevin Spacey has challenged himself and his audience from his first forays into acting. Other performers may have bigger paychecks and wider name recognition, but no one has played more fascinating characters than the immortal Roger "Verbal" Kint (aka Keyser Soze) in The Usual Suspects or the frustrated everyman Lester Burnham in American Beauty, a jarring film about the hollowness of the materialistic American Dream. The projects Spacey chooses are consistently intelligent and edgy, daring the audience to think, to be uncomfortable - something many stars don't bother with when they can make millions from the likes of Happy Gilmore. This Academy Award winner prefers complex dramas like L.A. Confidential, Seven, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Outbreak and Glengarry Glen Ross. His shady sense of humor, which seeps into most of his roles, makes you holler and squirm at once. Though Spacey's primary focus is film (he has been in nearly 30 and has three coming out this year alone), he's also conquered many a stage with performances in Henry IV (his professional debut), Ibsen's Ghosts, The Mousetrap, Lost in Yonkers (for which Spacey won a Tony) and The Iceman Cometh (which earned him a Tony nomination and other four awards in 1999). In possibly the most fitting recognition of Spacey's work, The Sundance Festival, another symbol of courageous filmmaking, awarded him the Piper-Heidsieck Tribute to Independent Vision this year.

Twyla Tharp, dancer and choreographer
A student of the legendary Martha Graham at the American Ballet Theater School, Twyla Tharp became a dance diva in her own right by fusing traditional ballet and jazz with whimsical and avant-garde moves. Though her mother had Tharp in ballet shoes by age four, it was her extra-curricular classes during college that convinced her she belonged on the stage. After spending two years with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, she left to form her own troupe of five women in 1965 (two men joined in 1969). In the early '70s, Tharp's grueling hours and meager earnings began to pay off; she choreographed pieces for the Joffrey Ballet as well as Mikhail Baryshnikov, who starred in Tharp's Push Comes to Shove. Equally comfortable with several styles of music (Push Comes to Shove threw together music by ragtime king Scott Joplin and Mozart), Tharp got her first high-profile gig in 1971 choreographing Milos Forman's kitchy musical Hair. Two years later she staged The Catherine Wheel, a dance production with music by Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. While she focused on stage performances like Eight Jelly Roles and The Bix Pieces during the '70s, the '80s saw Tharp branching out into mainstream film. She choreographed scenes for Amadeus, White Nights and Ragtime. In 1985 she wowed television viewers with Baryshnikov by Tharp, which snared three Emmys for outstanding choreography writing. Despite publishing her autobiography in 1992, Tharp's legacy is still in the making; she and remains one of the most sought-after choreographers in dance. Black influences?

Viz Communications, Japanese comics publishers
From avant-garde art and album covers to cartoons and kitch, Japanese comics (manga) have spread like kudzu into the most unlikely areas of pop (and even high) culture. CD and book stores have added multi-shelf graphic novel sections. It is one of only a few Japanese diversions that have made their way west. The style - voluptuous females, huge, dark eyes, sharp detail and futuristic settings - is instantly recognizable among kids and hipsters alike. And then there's Pokemon. The main source of this deluge is the San Francisco-based Viz Communications, with 150 titles, four sales records for comics and video (Dragon Z, Ranma ½ and two for Pokemon) and a scattering of cable shows. Its strangest coup is a readership split fairly equally between boys and girls. The top-sellers of English-language anime (Japanese animation, also called Japanimation) and manga, Viz has the deceptively-complex job of translating the comic books and cartoons of Shogakukan, its colossal parent company in Japan. Though plot lines (action, romance, sci-fi) and basic structures (story boxes with text) are similar, the folks at Viz have to tweak several elements to keep the characters from sounding like awkward tourists. First, the pages must be flipped, because the Japanese read from right to left. Next, translators must rework not only the regular language, but the idioms and sound effects to fit an American audience. For example, Japanese say "foo foo foo" instead of "ha ha ha." There are also characters one would not find in American comics - Ranma is both man and woman and can change at will. Viz's efforts bring a bit of unfamiliar soil to English-speaking audiences in a time when most culture moves from west to east.

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