The 10 Best 10 Best Lists

By Julie Rawe

We've just weathered another busy season of year-end rankings, from movies and minutiae to the biggest news stories of the year. Having trouble sorting through the clutter? Here are our picks:

1 Chicago Tribune: Top 10 Trent Lott Apologies. Pulling in at No. 3: "I don't accept those policies of the past at all... I'm the son of a sharecropper myself"

2 Fineman P.R.: Top 10 P.R. Blunders. Martha Stewart's mess got nosed out by Abercrombie & Fitch, for its marketing of thong underwear to preteen girls, which prompted boycotts by profamily groups

3 NASCAR: Top 10 Best Paint Schemes. Proof that even motorheads try to color-coordinate. Robby Gordon's black-and-orange Chevy was praised for "ingenious use of his sponsor's logo"

4 New York Times: Top 10 Movies. With no fewer than four lists, one each from four critics, 28 films can say they made the Top 10. Only quadruple winner: Talk to Her

5 Tatler: Britain's 10 Most Eligible Bachelors. The London society magazine tapped Prince Harry. His older brother William didn't make the list because he no longer lives in the city

6 ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Top 10 Celebrity Excuses. "Crack is cheap. I make too much money to use crack." Whitney Houston, on why crack is not among the drugs she has admitted using, snagged No. 3

7 Booklist: Top 10 Science Reference Sources. The compilers pleaded there were so many contenders they had to limit the list to the 500s of the Dewey decimal system

8 Investor's Business Daily: Top 10 News Events of 2002. Corporate scandals, at a surprisingly low No. 7, were outranked by the D.C. snipers

9 Las Vegas Review-Journal: Top 10 Shows on the Strip. Gladys Knight, at the Flamingo, edged out Blue Man Group: Live at Luxor

10 AskMen.com Top 10 Ring Tones for Your Cellular Phone. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, at No. 10, won praise because, unlike many of the standard high-pitched cell tunes, it "won't scare the bejeezus out of you when your phone rings" --By Julie Rawe