2007'S CLASS CLOWNS: VANESSA WILLIAMS
''I think the producers were so strong about me doing this role because they had seen me do other diva roles,'' says Ugly Betty star Williams (A Diva's Christmas Carol, Broadway's Into the Woods). ''They knew I could handle it.'' And not just handle it — spin it on its stiletto heel. As diabolical editrix Wilhelmina Slater, she memorably burst onto the prime-time landscape last year in a masterful scene where her assistant injected her with Botox as she lounged in her office. This season, she's upped the ante, as Wilhelmina attempts a coup to launch her own magazine, Slater. Williams garnered an Emmy nod in July, proving that those ABC producers are just as cunning as her character. —Tanner Stransky
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