Two years ago, you might have said “Kim who?” But in 2009, the celebutante Kim Kardashian swiped the famous-for-being-famous crown from Paris Hilton and placed it squarely on her own long-locked head. Fans love the curvy socialite for keeping it real on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” (E!) which portrays Kim’s hybrid family as kind of a “Brady Bunch” for the new century.
Searches soared as Kim broke up and then reconciled with NFL player Reggie Bush, gained and lost weight (with some help), and announced a perfume launch. Wealth and instant fame aside, her blog reveals her to be surprisingly accessible. As the tabloid queen says in one of the show’s earlier episodes, “There’s a lot of baggage that comes with us, but it’s like Louis Vuitton baggage. You always want it.” —CZ