Unlikely heroes:, has Time lost its touch? Options

[watchman]

Unlikely heroes: has Time lost its touch
TANYA THOMPSON
7 Nov 2006
http://news.scotsman.com/celebrities.cfm?id=1645582006

TO GRACE the front cover of Time magazine is regarded as a real accolade, a sign that you have made it. The likes of Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev and The Beatles have taken pride of place in the journal's hall of fame, epitomising all that is great and innovative in society. The cover stars' names read like a Who's Who of the world stage, providing a social commentary of our time.

But this week, as Time publishes a special issue to celebrate six decades of the magazine's European edition, entitled 60 Years of Heroes, it has thrown up some unlikely candidates for the title of hero.

Several Britons as diverse as fashion designer Mary Quant to acting dames Helen Mirren and Judi Dench made the final list, which also included Italian actress Sophia Loren and global figures like Yitzhak Rabin, the former Israeli leader. Other hallowed names include Francis Bacon, the iconoclastic British painter, the sculptor Henry Moore and artist Pablo Picasso.

But the inclusion of Princess Diana, Baroness Thatcher, the entrepreneur Sir Freddie Laker and fashion designer Coco Chanel has puzzled a number of social commentators.

Dr Mairead Tagg, a social psychologist based in Glasgow, said she was disappo