We all know that celebrity weeklies can be catty. But US Weekly actually made us cringe (just a little) with a feature in its January 30 issue called “Who Do You Think Is Older?”

In this latest example of US’s much-copied, parlor-game brand of journalism, an intrepid staffer shows pics of various pairs of female celebrities to “100 people in NYC’s Rockefeller Center” and asks … well, you know.

And so we end up with side-by-side mugs of Felicity Huffman and Julianne Moore, with US reporting that 90 out of 100 people thought Felicity looked older than Julianne — even though she’s actually two years younger!

Um…everyone, including Felicity, knows this, don’t they? You’re just rubbing it in to be nasty, aren’t you, US Weekly?

But really, it’s kind of an interesting concept. So we decided to gather the photos of the editors of some popular magazines and pose the same question: “Who Do You Think Is Older?”

Here’s Match-up No. 1:

Martha Nelson, editor, People Group (People and Teen People).

Bonnie Fuller, editorial director, AMI (Star and Celebrity Living).

Do you have your answer?

Now, here’s Match-up No. 2:

Janice Min, editor in chief, US Weekly.

Atoosa Rubenstein, editor in chief, Seventeen.

OK, have you voted?

The actual ages of these editors are …

Match-up No. 1:

They’re both 52, we think; we didn’t have exact DOBs. We polled the Media Orchard household, including our Cavalier, and everyone thought Martha looked older.

Match-up No. 2:

Janice is 36 and Atoosa 33, more or less. We’re sure everyone got this one right.

See, the difference between Media Orchard and US Weekly is that we actually feel a little guilty right now.

(US Weekly pic from Amy’s Robot, which claims to have invented the “Who’s Older?” concept.)

Update: “Who Wore It Best?” — Baby Edition.

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