Celebrity of the Year Finalist #10: Rielle Hunter

As 2008 winds down, it's time to reflect upon those - from household names to relative unknowns, from A- to D-list - who made this year so memorable.

The Hollywood Gossip is unveiling 10 finalists for its 2nd Annual Celebrity of the Year award. They've given us their best, their worst, even their nude pictures in some cases. Now it is time for us to give something back with this moving tribute.

We present to you Celebrity of the Year finalist #10 … Rielle Hunter!

Unknown a year ago, Rielle Hunter - a.k.a. Lisa Hunter, a.k.a. Lisa Druck, a.k.a. Rielle Druck - is now a (very strange) name etched in political and celeb gossip infamy.

After first being linked to former U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate John Edwards in a cheating scandal late in 2007, Rielle was staying in an L.A. hotel with her newborn daughter this summer ... and Edwards was caught visiting them.

Having run out of plausible denials, the married Edwards finally admitted the affair. He denied the baby was his, though, and said his wife's cancer was in remission at the time of the Rielle railing - as if that makes it so much better.

We may never know for sure if John Edwards knocked up Rielle Hunter (unless he effs up and leaves a paper trail of his shady hush money), but his career in politics is certainly over. It was totally worth it, right John? Just look at her ...

THE RIELLE DEAL: Hunter certainly made for an interesting August.