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Are these the most beautiful faces of 2008?

A group of judges over at the movie website TCCandler.com recently posted a list of what they consider to be the 100 Most Beautiful (female) Faces of 2008. Being a generous sort, I thought I’d provide you with the link so you can go and see whether or not you agree with their choices.

The list makes an interesting comparison to our own AfterEllen.com Hot 100 last year. Although not primarily oriented toward gay women like the AfterEllen.com list was, website owner Candler makes a point of proclaiming toward the bottom of the page that “This is not your standard Maxim or FHM or People list,” and that the choices are “certainly not based purely on public popularity.” He also claims that “It is not based on the ‘sexiest,’ ‘hottest’ or ‘best body'” (though, since he adds that it is “only about beautiful celebrity faces,” I guess we shouldn’t get too excited about men judging women based on talent just yet). With that said, I did find the list more unusual and interesting than the ones typically published by Maxim. For a start, the women aren’t all actresses and pop stars and models. There’s also a tennis player (Ana Ivanovic), a film critic (Christy Lemire), a couple of chefs (Nigella Lawson and Giada de Laurentiis), a figure skater (Kiira Korpi) and a newscaster (Melissa Theuriau). I must say I’d never heard of Theuriau (or indeed most of those others), but given the accompanying picture, I can certainly see why she was chosen:

As a Brit, it’s nice to see some English actresses on the list who are certainly beautiful and talented, even if they haven’t yet made the crossover to mainstream Hollywood stardom. My longtime favorite Romola Garai is one of them, as is the lovely Emilia Fox: As a brunette, it’s also pretty great to see that the top six are all dark-haired lasses. While I personally wouldn’t choose Natalie Portman as No. 1, I’m certainly not going to argue with Rachel Weisz at No. 2, or Kate Beckinsale at No. 3. (I’ll just ignore the fact that Beckinsale happens to have blond highlights in the particular picture they’ve posted.) One disappointment, though, is that there aren’t any openly gay or bisexual women on the list (though there are several that may be of particular interest to lesbians, such as Ellen Page, Kristen Stewart, Mia Kirshner, and Julia and Lena of t.A.T.u.). A runners-up list at the bottom of the page shows that Angelina Jolie, Anne Heche, Jodie Foster, Portia de Rossi and Saffron Burrows were all under consideration, but none of them made it through to the top 100. Well, that’s what happens when you let straight men vote. For a list with international pretensions, it’s also noticeable that the vast majority of the top 100 are white women. Kerry Washington, Padma Lakshmi, Thandie Newton, Wei Tang and Vanessa Minnillo all make an appearance – as do some names that were new to me, such as Reiko Aylesworth, Layla Kayleigh, Reon Kadena and K.D. Aubert. But for a list that bills itself as “the 100 Most Beautiful Famous Faces From Around the World,” nine non-white women out of 100 seems like a pretty low score. What do you think of the list? Are there names you would add or leave out? And is Natalie Portman your No. 1?

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