15 Celebs Who Went From 'Whatever' to 'Wow' in 2010

It's hard to believe that last year, James Franco was just, as the Daily Beast puts it, "that guy from Freaks & Geeks." He joins 14 other celebs on the Beast's list of the most-improved stars of 2010:

• Jennifer Grey: Truly, no one puts Baby in a corner. After years of near-invisibility (her 1993 nose job didn't help), she came back to win Dancing With the Stars.
• Perez Hilton: Once the purveyor of nasty gossip and upskirt photos, Hilton pledged to take a kinder, gentler tone following Tyler Clementi's bullying-related suicide.

• Gwyneth Paltrow: The actress everyone loves to hate managed to wow even her critics with a Country Music Awards performance and a Glee guest stint.
• Paul Reubens: He overcame a past marred with an indecent exposure arrest and a child porn scandal to stage The Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway, which earned $3 million in advance ticket sales.
• Russell Brand: His past struggles have included bulimia, self-mutilation, arrests, and stints in rehab for sex addiction and heroin addiction. But now he's clean and settled into a happy marriage with Katy Perry, and had a couple of box office successes to boot.
• Betty White: A hilarious Super Bowl ad, a much-touted Saturday Night Live appearance, a new series ... what can't this 88-year-old do?

Click for the complete list, or here for more of 2010's best. (More Best of 2010 stories.)