Each year, Google releases a search trends report that shows the trending terms in a number of categories. In 2014, a whole lot of people were Googled. How many of these did you check out? How many are you willing to admit to?
The top ten searches for people in 2014 were:
10. Donald Sterling, the former owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, who made racist comments that were aired on TMZ. He was banned from the NBA for life.
9. Amal Alamuddin, the lawyer and activist that managed to drag eternal bachelor George Clooney down the aisle. She made the news when they married earlier in the year and is back in the news with tabloids reporting that she is pregnant and trying to save her “crumbling marriage.”
8. Matthew McConaughey, an actor who was previously not taken terribly seriously, won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe in 2013 for Dallas Buyers Club and moved directly into an Emmy nomination for HBO’s True Detective in 2014. He has also been nominated for two Golden Globes for his role as Rustin Cohle. In April, he was also listed in Time Magazine as one of the “Most Influential People in the World.”
7. Lorde, the singer and songwriter from New Zealand, performed all over the world to critical acclaim in 2014. She won two Grammy Awards, two Billboard Music Awards, and an MTV Video Music Award. She also released “Yellow Flicker Beat” forThe Hunger Games: Mockingjay movie soundtrack. At a mere 18 years old, she has a net worth of over $8 million.
6. Jared Leto, coming off of an amazing award winning performance in Dallas Buyers Club – an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a SAG and more – presented a documentary series about the longest tour ever taken by a band. The band in question happened to be his own Thirty Seconds to Mars. In December it was announced that he will be appearing as The Joker in a new supervillain movie, Suicide Squad.
5. Renee Zellweger used to show up in searches for either her romantic comedy roles or her love life. In 2014, she was trending because of her plastic surgery. She appeared in public with a completely new look… so new that she was virtually unrecognizable. Her eyes were obviously changed as well as her cheekbones, among other things. Will it help or hurt her career?
4. Tracy Morgan made everybody laugh when he was on SNL and 30 Rock. Now his fans wait to see how well he will recover from a terrible multi-vehicle crash on the NJ Turnpike.
3. Julie Gayet, a French actress is number three, apparently due to rumors of an affair with the President of France.
2. Kim Kardashian famously had many pictures taken of her butt.
1. The most searched person of the year was Jennifer Lawrence. In 2014 she portrayed Mystique in the latest XMen movie as well as Katniss Everdeen in the latest installment of The Hunger Games. Unfortunately, most searches were likely related to the nude photos that showed up online in August.
So, how many of these people did YOU Google last year?