German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been named Time's Person of the Year, praised by the magazine for her leadership on everything from Syrian refugees to the Greek debt crisis.
Time also cited Merkel's strong response to "Vladimir Putin's creeping theft of Ukraine."
"Leaders are tested only when people don't want to follow," Time editor Nancy Gibbs said in a statement Wednesday. "For asking more of her country than most politicians would dare, for standing firm against tyranny as well as expedience and for providing steadfast moral leadership in a world where it is in short supply, Angela Merkel is TIME's Person of the Year."
Merkel, 61, is just the fourth woman since 1927 to be chosen and the first since opposition leader Corazon C. Aquino of the Philippines in 1986. She is the first German since Willy Brandt, the West German chancellor named in 1970 for "seeking to bring about a fresh relationship between East and West" during the Cold War. In 1999, Time picked the German-born Albert Einstein as Person of the Century.
The seven other finalists for 2015 included Donald Trump, the Black Lives Matter protest movement and Uber's CEO Travis Kalanick.
'Trumbo' leads SAG nominations
The Hollywood blacklist drama "Trumbo" scored a leading three Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations on Wednesday, and sleeper contenders "Beasts of No Nation" and "Straight Outta Compton" entered the awards conversation when both were nominated for best ensemble drama. "Beasts of No Nation" star Idris Elba was also nominated for best supporting actor, as well as for his role in TV's "Luther." Other best ensemble nominees included "Spotlight," and "The Big Short." Leading female performance nominees included Cate Blanchett ("Carol"), Brie Larson ("Room") and Saoirse Ronan ("Brooklyn"), Sarah Silverman ("I Smile Back") and Helen Mirren ("Woman in Gold"). Mirren was also nominated for a supporting performance for "Trumbo." The lead actor nominees included Bryan Cranston ("Trumbo"), Johnny Depp ("Black Mass"), Leonardo DiCaprio ("The Revenant"), Michael Fassbender ("Steve Jobs"), and Eddie Redmayne ("The Danish Girl"). The Screen Actors Guild Awards, which are broadcast live on Jan. 30, honor the best film and television performances of the year and have traditionally served as an indicator of potential Oscar nominees.
moving on: Matthew Morrison is giving himself the hook on Broadway. The former "Glee" star will take his final bow Jan. 24 in "Finding Neverland," a new musical about the origin of the Peter Pan story. There was no word on who will replace him in the role of J.M. Barrie.
Search: As the search resumes for NFL quarterback Jay Cutler's brother-in-law, investigators are examining whether one factor in the 30-year-old's disappearance was his recent arrest on allegations that he acted threateningly toward a woman and had a gun. Michael Cavallari's car was found abandoned 12 days ago in southern Utah. Grand County Sheriff Steven White said authorities are considering all possibilities, including that he doesn't want to be found, White said. Cavallari is the brother of Cutler's wife, reality TV personality Kristin Cavallari.
