The rise and fall of popularity and mass interest changes as much as Anna Nicole Smith’s waistline.

2003 showed old and new faces coming to the forefront of public gossip magazines such as Entertainment Weekly, US Weekly and Popular Mechanics.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s logic: Go from making 20 million bucks per mega movie flop and trade it in for $129,432 to do civil service work that rarely includes fending off aliens or futuristic robots. He does this while being thrown further into the limelight, and he’s giving all the impersonators that many more Arnold sound bites to master.

“I think Arnold made a pretty big comeback; [he] did it in such a different way than anyone else,” senior illustration major Jaime Torraco said.

Ashton Kutcher’s logic: While gaining popularity, find a fellow star exactly one step above and jump from stone to stone. The man went from Brittney Murphy to P. Diddy to Demi Moore in less than a year. He not only pioneered the trucker hat fad but personally killed it, all within 2003.

The White Stripes’ logic: Cancel all shows on current tour and recede to England. Record a bare-bones album that is exactly opposite of the popular trend of over-produced rap rock. Spend less than $64,000 and be completely surprised that people hail “Elephant” as the album of the year.

Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey’s logic: Take a standard reality TV show and act as stupid as possible. Refer to Chicken of the Sea tuna as chicken and refuse buffalo wings because one just can’t acquire a taste for those darn buffalo.

Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan’s logic: After both got over semi-serious relationships with Aaron Carter, they get super-sexy, 15-year-old-girl makeovers and consequently are thrust into mainstream 40-year-old men’s fantasies. “Hilary Duff sung her way into my heart,” junior physics major Mike Himes said. Aside from movies from each, they both ventured into semi-digestible and fully disposable pop music. However, Lohan never really makes it past the Disney Channel.

Johnny Cash’s logic: Cut a new record comprised of all covers, make an amazingly sad music video for “Hurt” and name the final song on an album “We’ll Meet Again.” Leave this world with the eerie question: “Will we?”

Anna Nicole Smith’s logic: As the reality show popularity starts to wane, decide to take a few cases of TrimSpa pills to prove the world wrong. Yes, lazy people can get skinny. Charles Darwin would be turning over in his grave.

OutKast’s logic: Throw the world for a loop after creating Grammy-winning “Stankonia” and release a dual album that splits the creative collaboration, which in essence is two solo albums packaged together. “The Love Below/Speakerboxxx” reached the top of the charts, but does this mean the end of OutKast?

“I remember [OutKast] being popular in my freshman year of high school,” freshman undeclared major Greg Bailey said. “They faded off the scene for a while, and then bam! Two songs on the top ten list.”