The stories those children will someday hear about their first days of life! How people wore masks, stayed 6 ft. apart, replaced hugs with elbow taps. There will be heroic tales, too, of bravefrontline doctors and nurses, of essential workers who made sure that people could still shop for necessities likebread flour(which, a year earlier, struck hardly anyone as essential).
For the 2020 edition of the annualPeople Yearbook,Our Extraordinary Year Together,we brought together all these kinds stories. Amid the sometimes horrible headlines were glimmers of great joy. For 10 weeks, Dolly Parton hosted “Goodnight with Dolly,” a YouTube series in which the country legend and founder of the Imagination Library free-book program, read bedtime stories to kids (or anyone); later it turned out that she had contributed funding to research that led to a COVID vaccine, one of two approved for emergency use in December. In between hits like “Savage,” Megan Thee Stallion announced her Don’t Stop Scholarship fund, awarding $10,000 to women of color pursuing a degree in any field of study. And a 43-year-old song, Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” became a feel-good hit again, thanks to a TikTok post from Nathan Apodaca, who played it as he skateboarded and drank Cran-raspberry juice.
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This edition of the PEOPLE Yearbook, as with all our annuals, covers the whole sweep of experience, from the glamour of celebrities walking a red carpet to the passion of people marching in the street to proclaim that Black Lives Matter. In this excerpt, we look back at how Hollywood adapted:
It might have been the biggest news of the year: In JanuaryHarry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, announced in an Instagram post that they planned to “step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent.” Soon after the couple moved with son Archie to Meghan’s home state of California, where they first stayed at director Tyler Perry’s house in Beverly Hills. In July they purchased a $14.6 million mansion in Montecito, Calif. (not far from Oprah’s andEllen DeGeneres’s places). They signed a development deal with Netflix, the small-screen home of Barack andMichelle Obama, which would allow them to produce content about their many philanthropic and social causes. Separately, Meghan lent her voice to a Disneynature documentary,Elephant. Stateside royal watchers thrilled to think of the couple on red carpets. But they skipped the 2020 awards season, and soon the state was among the first to go into lockdown in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. They were seen out, masked, delivering meals to people with critical illnesses.
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And yet the show did go on—in new and creative ways. Celebrities like John Legend, Chris Martin and Keith Urban held live Instagram concerts to soothe fans who were quarantined at home and grappling with uncertainty. Like Parton,Jennifer Garner and Amy Adamsalso read to homebound kids for #SaveWithStories. From his weekend house in Long Island,The Tonight Showhost Jimmy Fallon launched a new version of his show, enlisting the help of his wife, two young daughters, and nightly guests who appeared via Zoom. “I miss my crew, and I miss lighting. I miss seeing an audience react to what I’m doing,” the comedian told People. “My kids are a tough crowd. Even my wife’s not laughing.”
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
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Meanwhile, audiences captive at home minted new stars of social media. TikTok comic Sarah Cooper lip-synched to Donald Trump’s actual words: “I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out” he said, blue-skying a COVID cure, as Cooper mimed injecting herself with kitchen cleaner. YouTube parodist Randy Rainbow set the news to show tunes: His song “Gee, Anthony Fauci!” was a tribute both to the immunologist and toWest Side Story. AndWill & GraceactorLeslie Jordantold hilarious tales of quarantining in Tennessee, while weighing in on the year’s pop culture. Another new social star, operating in a meat- and snark-free zone, was actressTabitha Brown, who shared joy and comforting vegan recipes. “When the world is hard enough," she told People, “don’t let food be part of the hardship.”
PEOPLE’s new special edition,Yearbook 2020: Our Extraordinary Year Together, is available now on Amazon and wherever magazines are sold.
source: people.com
