*Addition(s) amended

Care for a sophomoric distraction?

People magazine or someone came out with another one of those Sexiest Man Alive lists. You know where Brad Pitt or George Clooney or Matt Damon get credited with being attractive because its their job.

Well, in preparation for Sunday when I will be waiting for state budget negotiations to move along, I just did something I tend to avoid: wasting time with something incredibly meaningless to me.

But people love lists and beautiful women, so it seems perfect.

The most common traits of those listed include that I know absolutely nothing about their personal lives and have judged them entirely in the superficial context of TV and public opinion.

In no particular order, here’s a compilation of the 10 female celebrities I find the most attractive.

Lara Logan

Lara Logan: The Chief Foreign Correspondent for CBS News is beautiful, brilliant and British (okay, so actually South African, but alliteration is key here). She has to be the go-to choice for anyone making a list as ridiculous as this and wanting to retain some semblance of self-respect.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I420_fPM2E]

See others below the fold, you know you want to…

Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama*: The wife of Presidential candidate Barack Obama is beautiful, funny and – let’s admit it – fairly powerful. She is also a lot more educated than I will ever be.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eVdrBch7nQ]

Jenny Lewis

Jenny Lewis: She is unique and unusually beautiful and the front woman for one of those bands that blew up without entirely blowing up. I love her music, her voice and her hair.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtyhWo8qngk]

Soledad O’Brien

Soledad O’Brien: I woke up for much of my high school career with Solded and Bill Hemmer on CNN’s American Morning. She is beautiful and bright and only a little ridiculous as TV personalities go. I am not alone; she also may be among the only news anchors with a real fan group.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi-A4dJy6UI]

Amanda Peet

Amanda Peet: She holds the distinction of the only celebrity to whom I ever actually sent a letter. Granted it was something ridiculous and hilarious to only me and a buddy – I think I wrote her about my favorite types of rocks and wondered what her favorites were – but I actually mailed that letter, before I realized she was getting married. Still, she seems fun enough and beautiful, no?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRWyziHhqUA]

Marissa Tomei

Marissa Tomei: I insist there is no real order to this, but, really, my heart might be most with Marissa, based on absolutely no knowledge of her whatsoever. But she has been in about million movies in consistently solid roles and the talented actress has an active fan club, even though I am not yet a part of it, and was the focus of a Seinfeld episode. Freakin awesome.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba7QvrreqU4]

Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys: Come on. She is the successor to Mariah Carey’s throne as the top, hot, genuinely talented R&B female star. I can’t believe I just wrote that. I’ll leave it at at that, the damage is done.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktUSIJEiOug]

Flavia Colgan

Flavia Colgan: The editorial board member of the Philadelphia Daily News is smart and sensible – even if I don’t always agree with her occasionally predictable politics – and embraces technology; she blogs and even has a freakin’ My Space page. I don’t have a My Space page. She also went to Harvard and was the youngest and first female chief of staff of a Pennsylvania lieutenant governor, according to her Huffington Post biography. What have you done?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSMkYGZCBM0]

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson: No one can hate on the sweet actress who is classy and respected and beautiful and actually remotely around my age – having been born in 1984. Also, her fan club gets points because its Web site is a .org. Classy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I6ElvyNyqw]

Sarah Silverman

She has to be the funniest woman on the planet. From her killer work on the Aristocrats, to her TV show and general hilarity, she is hot and hilarious. Amended Nov. 3, 2008**

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLG3S5WzHig]

Honorable Mention(s):

Candice Dupree

Candice Dupree: I spent too much of my college career cheering for Dupree to not include her in some fashion. The former Temple University women’s basketball standout and current WNBA All-Star was always a favorite of mine when cheering on the lady Owls. …Candice Dupree, will you marry me? When the hardworking and versatile forward was a senior and I was a sophomore, I asked for her phone number and regularly made her blush with my calls for her to marry me.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewUYzGE5kPA]

* (Sept. 5, 2008 7:04 P.M. In the spirit of bipartisanship:)

Sarah Palin

* Sarah Palin: The Republican vice presidential nominee looks like an adult film librarian. VPIL?

Fiona Apple

**Sorry Fiona, you totally got bumped by everyone’s girl Sarah Silverman.

Fiona Apple: The alternative pop singer may seem like a strange choice of mine, particularly considering she sorta fell off the face of the Earth and is thought to be a little crazy, but I genuinely like her music – seriously – because it makes me and 16-year-old girls melancholy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTpvjNn2BUM]

So who did I miss?