| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
|
| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
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Mitt hits pages of 'People' magazine
Olympic leader shines with the beautiful people
By Lisa Riley Roche
Deseret News staff writer
You'd expect to see movie stars like Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington on People magazine's latest list of the "50 Most Beautiful People." Maybe even a few sports figures, like Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno.
But former Olympic chief Mitt Romney?
A special issue of the weekly magazine expected to hit newsstands today practically gushes about Romney, 55, calling him "arrestingly handsome" with a "blinding smile" and saying his critics "like to paint the 6'2" 'Mormon' as a too-perfect Ken doll."
Even the editor responsible for compiling the list, Liz Sporkin, seems smitten. Sporkin, People's assistant managing editor, told the Washington Post that while no politicians from the nation's capital made the list, "we do have Mitt Romney. He's running for governor of Massachusetts. He's gorgeous."
Back at Romney's campaign headquarters in Cambridge, spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom tried to downplay the recognition. Fehrnstrom said his boss, who ran the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for three years before returning home to gun for governor of Massachusetts, declined a request by People magazine in late March to pose for a photo and sit down for an interview.
"It's flattering, but it's not relevant. In fact, it's kind of silly. The prettiest thing about Mitt Romney is his record, and that's what he's running on," Fehrnstrom said. "It's not something we're going to put in any campaign brochures."
Romney is vacationing in Hawaii with his family — described in People as a looking "like a Gap ad" by a childhood friend — and couldn't be reached for comment. Not that he'd probably want to say much.
"Nothing embarrasses Mitt more than when someone says he's good looking," SLOC's head of federal relations, Cindy Gillespie, is quoted as saying. That didn't stop Olympic skeleton gold medalist Jimmy Shea.
Shea, 33, told the magazine, "I'd be really excited to look like him when I get to be his age." Although Shea didn't make the list, two other members of the U.S. Olympic team that won gold in Salt Lake City did, Ohno and bobsledder Vonetta Flowers.
Park City Paralympian Chris Waddell, who made the list in 1998, said he's still teased about it.
But Waddell, who helped SLOC promote the 2002 Paralympic Winter Games for disabled athletes, doesn't mind. "People are more impressed with my having been in People magazine than they are with my 13 Paralympic medals," he said.
"It's flattering," Waddell said, suggesting Romney enjoy the honor. "As much as it is about 'beautiful people,' it's not necessarily simply about how you look. It's about what you've done. Mitt has done a lot for the Olympics."
Romney's profile took up a page of the May 13 special issue of the magazine. There's a pensive picture of him sitting at the bottom of the Utah Olympic Park ski jumps that Fehrnstrom said was taken last year.
The former SLOC president didn't make the cover, which features a large picture of Kidman and smaller photos of actors Jennifer Aniston and Josh Hartnett. A spokeswoman for People said the magazine's editors didn't care that Romney was unwilling to cooperate.
"They don't ask anyone's permission. They just pick the list. They would like to have an interview or a photo if they could, but if not, they just proceed anyway," People spokeswoman Dianne Jones said "They really wanted him in so they put him in."
E-MAIL: lisa@desnews.com
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May 3, 2002
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