The Round Table List (finally!)

At my old job, the one I called BEC, I would pose questions to my coworkers to give them something to think about and a way to pass the time. (And these are also the strange things that I think about when I'm bored so I usually would ask them questions that were things that I'd been tossing around in my mind.) One of my most favourite questions is my "round table" question.
You have the opportunity to go out to dinner with 10 women (and then again with 10 men...normally I would say "7" of each but I had 8 guys and I wouldn't have been able to cut one of them from the list so I had to up the number to 10. Also, you can put people that are alive or dead but I can't get over the morbid factor so I tend to stick with those who are alive.)...who would you choose and why?

Now my list is subject to change as much as my lists of people usually do (check out the following blog on the 5 guy/5 girl list).

Women:
Maya Angelou - She's an amazing, brilliant woman and such a talented writer. I'm inspired when I read the things she's written.
Vera Wang - She makes gorgeous wedding dresses that let any woman feel like a princess. It was her dream to create such beautiful things and she's living that dream.
Tamora Pierce - Her stories are wonderfully layered and the characters are never one dimensional, not even the secondary or tertiary characters. She's created two fabulous worlds and the best thing is that each one builds on itself so you see her characters again and again. I can read her books OVER and OVER again and never get bored.
Jane Yolen - I fell in love with her writing when I was just a kid. They had one of those Saturday morning shows where they animate a book and _Dragon's Blood_ was one of the chosen few. After many, many years, the Pit Dragon trilogy is becoming a quartet and I couldn't be more excited.
Queen Latifah - She is a strong, bold, fiery, talented woman. I've been watching more of her movies lately and she just cracks me up. She doesn't stand for the disrespect of women in a lot of rap music and she's such a role model for women of all sizes.
Whoopi Goldberg - A very funny comedian, strong, with a wisdom about her. A left-hander...gotta love them!
Angelina Jolie - Another strong, bold, fiery, talented woman who is also left-handed. I'm sure she'd have many interesting stories to tell.
Kate Winslet - One of my favourite actresses (although in a movie I *HATED*, _Titanic_) and I think she's be so much fun, so interesting.
Emma Thompson - My most favourite actress. She's incredibly talented and so willing to morph herself into ugly or frumpy characters even though she's really beautiful. She is also left-handed. :D
J.K. Rowling - She was (and still kind of is) one of my favourite writers although I hated book 7 with a passion and probably will never read it again. I'd also love to see the discussion between her and Jane Yolen considering Jane Yolen wrote _Wizard's Hall_ over a year before J.K. Rowling started the Harry Potter books.


Men:
Dominic Monaghan - He is so damn funny that everything he says just comes out hilarious. Sure, I'm attracted to him and plan on marrying him some day but he makes me laugh so much, especially partnered with Billy Boyd.
Cameron Crowe - My absolute favourite director. He's given us such classic lines as "You had me at 'Hello.'.", "You are home.", "I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen.", "Show me the money.", and the phenomenal scene in _Say Anything_ when Lloyd stands outside of Diane's window, holding up the stereo that's playing Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes".
Bill Watterson - Creator of _Calvin and Hobbes_. 'Nuff said.
Stephan Pastis - Creator of _Pearls Before Swine_.
Darby Conley - Creator of _Get Fuzzy_. Both PBS and GF are comics that I must read daily.
Kenneth Branagh - He's Irish, red-headed, left handed, and born on the same day as me. Plus, he directed and starred in my favourite movie _Much Ado About Nothing_ (okay, my other favourite movie is _Office Space_ and my favourite movie from when I was a kid is _The Fox and the Hound_).
Frank Welker - *THE* Voice God. Check out his IMDb resume.
Peter Cullen - Another Voice God. He's the voice of Optimus Prime. Check out videos of him on YouTube. It's great to hear the difference between his normal French-Canadian accent and his Optimus Prime voice. SO sexy.
Craig Ferguson - He's tall, he plays the drums, he's Scottish and he's also hysterical. I love watching his show late at night and he always makes me laugh, you "naughty monkeys"!
Billy Boyd - Another Scot and Dominic Monaghan's partner in crime. The two are comic dynamite.