PEOPLE Yearbook 2023

Oh, What a Year! 2023: Bye, Bye, Bye The highs were high, like the bubblegum-pink fever dream that was the summer of Barbie or the surprise reunion of *NSYNC (clearly a peak moment for Taylor Swift, who had a very good year). The lows included the Maui inferno, a new war in the Middle East and continuing fighting in Ukraine. For brief escapes when reality became too much, Hollywood was there. Movie theaters saw fresh iterations of familiar favorites like The Little Mermaid, Super Mario and Mission: Impossible—until the entertainment industry went on strike with writers and actors asking, among other protections, that they not be displaced by AI. History was made in every corner, from film (Michelle Yeoh was the first-ever Asian Best Actress Oscar winner) to tennis (Coco…

Prince Harry’s sunny disposition since relocating to California in 2020 has been apparent, but the former royal sent dispatches from a much grayer past via his January memoir Spare, which he described to People at the time as “a raw account of my life—the good, the bad and everything in between.” Losing his mother, Princess Diana, when he was 12 left lasting scars; relations with his father, King Charles, are frosty; and brother William, it turns out, tried to talk him out of marrying Meghan Markle, the American actress (“a phrase [William] always managed to make sound like ‘convicted felon,’ ” Harry wrote). Granted, there were viral tasty bits about losing his virginity to an older woman in a field and the penile frostbite he suffered after a trip to…

Did anyone have a better year than Donna Kelce? First her sons—Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis, 34, and Philadelphia Eagles center Jason, 35—became the first brothers in history to face off at a Super Bowl, on Feb. 12. (Both brothers, one happy, one sad, could be seen with Mom after the Chiefs won 38-35.) Just 11 days later Jason and wife Kylie welcomed baby girl Bennett, making Donna a grandma for the third time after big sisters Wyatt, 4, and Elliotte, 2. But there was no bigger moment—at least for Swifties—than watching her schmooze with Taylor Swift at Chiefs games. (So closely were Swift’s appearances parsed, that her in-suite snack of chicken with ketchup and “seemingly ranch” became a meme.) Swift, 33, brought friends including Hugh Jackman, Blake Lively…

When Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in January, they elected—after 14 failed votes—Kevin McCarthy as the Speaker with the understanding that he would fight President Joe Biden and the Democrats at every turn. A month later, in one of the last gestures of customary civility on the Hill, he shook hands with Biden at the State of the Union address. By fall McCarthy had fulfilled a promise to the right wing of his party to launch an impeachment inquiry on the President, accusing Biden of influence peddling. Televised hearings in September saw even GOP witnesses allow that they had no evidence. (Separately, a federal prosecutor indicted the President’s son Hunter Biden on three 2018 gun charges.) And by October, after McCarthy worked with Democratic colleagues to temporarily…

“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities. This is proof that … dream big, and dreams do come true. And, ladies, don’t let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime.” Thus did Malaysian-born Michelle Yeoh, 61, become the first Asian woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress, for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Costar Ke Huy Quan became the first Vietnamese-born actor to win a Best Supporting Actor award, and Jamie Lee Curtis, who’s been working since 1977, took home her first Oscar, for Best Supporting Actress. Everything Everywhere, nominated for 11 awards, the most of any film, had a very good night, indeed: Named Best Picture, it also garnered statues for Best…

It’s Pedro Pascal’s world; we’re just living in it. The Chilean-born actor, 48, gained fans around the world for portraying Oberyn Martell on Game of Thrones and The Mandalorian’s titular intergalactic bounty hunter. This year he burnished his stardom on HBO’s The Last of Us, playing hardened pandemic survivor Joel Miller, who protects Ellie (Bella Ramsey)—a teenager whose immunity could reverse the apocalypse—while battling cannibalistic fungus mutants. But fame from that incredible run of hits came with a few burdens, as Pascal quipped in his Emmy-nominated turn as Saturday Night Live host. For one, he is often asked “Is Baby Yoda mean in real life?” Other 2023 projects included starring as Ethan Hawke’s cowboy lover in Pedro Almodóvar’s short film Strange Way of Life. Pascal is “everything you hope he…