Stefan
How are you defining "famous"? If it is the more common definition of something or someone who is widely or well known then that list of Belgians cannot really be said to contain "famous" people. Or at least "famous" to people outside Belgium. I could only recognise(from a quick scan) Audrey Hepburn(and she makes up for the other unknowns...). Of course if you mean "famous" as in "excellent" then you may have a point. I wouldn't know as I have not heard of most of these "famous" people.

Jacques Brel was Belgian? Cool.

[Umm, better strikethrough that bit about Hercule Poirot not being on the list, though.]

(And, damnit, I always cited Rimbaud in this game, but looks like he was born in that part of the Ardennes that isn't forever Belgium. No-one pulled me up on it, though that may be because they had only heard of him through Eric Cantona.)

I think part of the problem/reason that the list is too big is that it includes all of the Belgian monarchs and prime ministers, many of whom probably had an impact on the Belgian people, but are not well known in the world at large.

The list would be better titled "Belgians Who Are Famous in Belgium."

Hercule Poirot is on the list.

Except for Audrey Hepburn and Kim Clijsters, every other familiar (real) person is a 16th or 17th century painter. Oddly, the list includes Bruegel the Elder, but leaves off Bruegel the Younger. Granted, the son is not so famous as the father, but people do still talk about him almost 400 years after he died, and that's not half bad.

Jean Claude van Damme is on the list. He is certainly not a 16th century painter.

Jean Claude who?

You know, the Muscles from Brussels. The Twerp from Antwerp. The Stooge from Bruges. Him.

He's the guy with an ass so strong and hard he can crack walnuts between his cheeks. I hate his acting but god, he has such a nice bod (at 45 years old even)! I didn't know he was Belgian. I always thought he was French.

Didn't you know? Belgians are the new French.

Sterling must just playing dumb. Who could have missed such films as Double Impact, Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Lionheart, Timecop, Cyborg!

Jeez, you'd think he was some kind of pale skinned pimply nerd weakling staying home playing video games instead...

Sterling's been nursing his ankles.

Liz Claiborne, that one I didn't know.

Is the waffle also the new crepe? Are sprouts the new persil?

But why blame the French on fries? That was clearly your doing.

Hey, Stefan, how do you crack noix?

Audrey Hepburn was not Belgian. Her father was English and her mother was Dutch. She was born in Brussels and brought up in Holland by her Dutch mother up til and including the war, then moved to England, then USA.