Thursday Thirteen #12 - Feeding the Living

Following on from last weeks 13 People I'd Invite to Dinner in the Dead or Historical Category...
Here are the

13 LIVING People I'd Invite To Dinner

1. Bono - musician turned humanitarian, he's got a passion for the less fortunate that is truly admirable. Of course, I'd also make him perform a few numbers from The Joshua Tree while I'm cooking.
2. Jeff Bezos - the founder/owner/president of Amazon.com. The guy responsible for having best-sellers delivered to my door at a reasonable price deserves to break bread at my place. And he just seems like a really nice, funny, normal guy.
3. Steve Jobs - the founder/creator/god of Apple Computers. He's invited so Mr. Wylie has someone to talk to while I'm sandwiched between #8 and #12.
4. Richard Branson - British entrepreneur best known for his Virgin empire, which consists of over 200 companies, including Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic Airlines and Virgin Publishing (who's line Black Lace published my first short story). He's a risk-taker, innovator, family man and all-round cool cat.
5. Angelina Jolie - makin' up for all the ugly at the table. I know people either love her or hate her, but she's doing a lot of good in the world so she's welcome in my kitchen. Her and Bono would serve as perfect reminders that we should all appreciate the bountiful, extravagant feast on the table. And we'd all be a couple bucks poorer for the massive checks to the ONE Foundation. Money well spent!
   
6. Ann Coulter - the ONLY reason she's there is so I could bitch slap her and make her eat cold porridge at the kiddy table.
7. Nelson DeMille - author. I've read every one of his books and I'd just like to get into his head for a view hours. It's not that his writing is brilliant in a literary sense, but his subject matter, plots and characters always hook me. I could easily have had 13 authors on this list, but am purposely limiting myself in order to make this a well-rounded group.
8. Brad Pitt - yes, my reasons are completely shallow. He's only invited for his hotness and he'd have to stay late to help me with dishes. Wearing only his undies. During dinner, he'd be seated next to me while Ang sits at the other end of the table with Bono and Hugo.
   
9. Margaret Atwood - multi-award winning Canadian author. It's been said she's 'difficult' (whatever that means), but hell, I love her books and maybe if I seat her close enough to me, some of her brilliance may rub off. And if she does get 'difficult' during dinner, I'll put her with Ann.
   
10. Hugo Chavez - controversial president of Venezuela, he evokes both vehement criticism and adulation for reasons that are vast and complicated. If you're not familiar with President Chavez, it would behoove you to check him out. He's an important guy on the world stage. (I'd let him throw rice at Ann)
11. Jon Stewart - hell, everyone needs a laugh and he can deliver. He can also bring us up to date on what's what in US politics in a mixed-company-appropriate way. This was a toughy as I'm equally fond of Stephen Colbert, for the same reasons. Or Canada's Rick Mercer who can easily hold court with these guys.
    
12. Daniel Craig - 'nough said.
    
13. Pinkus Zucherman - I don't know much about this fellow, except that he's a world-famous musician and conductor, originally from Israel. I had the pleasure of seeing him play solo violin and conduct a chamber orchestra at the Bermuda Music Festival back in the late 90's. He turned the much over-played "Four Seasons" by Vivaldi into something new, fresh and completely captivating. He'd be our after-dinner entertainment (while Brad and I are, ahem, 'doing the dishes').
    

My guest of honor (I know, I'm cheating) would be Nelson Mandella, who seriously, is in a different league than the others. Wouldn't he have some stories to tell...

Who would YOU add to the guest list? Please leave your suggestions in the comments!