Amal Clooney Nabs Another Title: Barbara Walters's Most Fascinating Person of the Year

What's better? Being named the most fascinating person of the year or marrying George Clooney? Probably marrying George Clooney, but luckily the former Amal Alamuddin didn't have to choose between the two. Last night she topped the list on Barbara Walters's annual 10 Most Fascinating People of 2014 special.

So how did Ms. Clooney come to be so fascinating? The Lebanese-born Amal grew up in a London suburb. After attending Oxford, she earned her law degree at New York University and went on to clerk for then-federal judge Sonia Sotomayor before returning to England, where she became a prominent human rights attorney. Her work has ranged from advising former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Syria to defending WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Friends say that the high-achieving Amal, 36, had been looking for Mr. Perfect, which seemed pretty unlikely—or was it? Cue George Clooney. They met in Italy in 2013, but they weren't seen together until October and have been inseparable since then. “You could say hers was the wedding of the year, but let’s put it into perspective, it was really one of the greatest achievements in human history,” Walters said on the TV special. Amal and George's wedding took place in Venice on Sept. 27.

It is a little ironic that it was in a 1995 interview with Barbara Walters, Clooney said, "I’m never going to get married again," (he was previously married to actress Talia Balsam). He even told Walters in 2006 that that interview helped him out quite a bit. He never had to tell women he was dating that he didn't want to get married. “You did my work for me,” he told her.

But all that changed when he met Amal. And since being thrust into the public eye, she has quickly ascended to a style star. (Seriously, this woman looks amazing even when she is walking through the airport!)

With this marriage and her background, Walters says, Amal joins the ranks of Jackie Onassis, Princess Diana, and Kate Middleton, i.e., everything she does, says, or wears is officially fascinating.

Others who made the fascinating list cut include Neil Patrick Harris, Chelsea Handler, Oprah Winfrey, and Taylor Swift.

PHOTOS: Amal Alamuddin Is Officially a Style Star! Check Out All Her Fashionable Looks