A Brief History of my Celebrity Crushes

This is pure sillyness but the new year is making me nostalgic.

1990

Tony Danza

When I was about five years old, whenever Who's the Boss came on television, I would scream “The Tony show is on!” I liked his accent, his hair, and his sad-puppy face whenever he got in trouble. I probably liked that the lady on the show went to work and Tony did all the chores, too, now that I think about it.

1995

Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Devon Sawa, The Hanson Brothers

I'm quite sure that most women my age went through the same Teen Beat crush list that I did. One summer, visiting my cousins, we all wrote letters to the love of our lives, aka JTT. My best childhood friend and I would watch Now and Then over and over, swooning over the youthful courtship of Devon Sawa and Christina Ricci. And I saved my pennies until I had enough to purchase a colorful, short book entitled: The Hanson Brothers, and Unauthorized Biography. The middle brother was just my cup of tea, all soulful-sensitive.

2000

Heath Ledger, Josh Hartnett

 

I fell head over heels for both these boys because of two very different but equally appealing films: Ten Things I Hate About You and The Faculty. Both of these men had more swagger than a 14-year-old could handle, and that was before swagger was super trendy. Heath's curls and Josh's smolder covered my high school pin board, the background for pictures of friends, movie stubs and concert tickets.

In some ways, I credit these actors with my interest in film and TV. I watched a short-lived series called Roar starring Ledger, and was fascinated by the movie The Virgin Suicides. It was the first time I thought about what made these actors “good,” and tried to figure out what it was that I was so taken with.

It was probably the hotness.

2003

Dean, Jess, and Luke from Gilmore Girls

Gilmore Girls remains one of my favorite TV shows. Its warm, funny, and populated by interesting characters that interact in believable ways. When Dean showed up to woo Rory, I was right there with her, flustered, flattered, and terrified of embarrassing myself. Then, Jess appears just in time to throw everything off kilter with his rebellious attitude and over confidence. The ever present Luke, grumpy in his baseball cap, but always there for the girls whether it was driving Lorelei to the hospital when her father was ill or making Rory a coffee cake and putting balloons on her chair for her 16^th birthday, still gives me the warm fuzzies when I bust out my DVDs. Yes, I have the whole series. Its ok to be jealous.

2006

Denny Duquette

Grey's Anatomy is one of the most emotionally manipulative shows I've ever watched regularly. I still DVR it and watch it when I have down time, but during the second half of season two, I was utterly hooked by Denny.

He was a handsome patient waiting for a new heart. He was funny, charming, disarming, handsome, strong-looking but gentle. I suppose I should put a ***spoiler alert *** but I don't think that many people are waiting to watch season two of Grey's Anatomy, even though it is available on Netflix. Anyway, Denny dies incredibly tragically. I watched the episode at a dear friend's house when I was in college. She lived a few blocks away from me, and when I walked home, I bawled like a baby.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is the actor's name. He seems to be working, but I haven't swooned over him since Grey's.

2010 to Present

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ryan Gosling

These two gentlemen are absurdly charming.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt's hotness was obscured in Ten Things I Hate about You by Heath Ledger. I found him sweet, but it wasn't until I saw Brick that I saw him clearly. I watched everything I could find with him in it, Manic, The Lookout, Mysterious Skin, 500 Days of summer, and then, in a fitted vest, he stole my heart even more completely in Inception. He picks interesting films, he sings, he dances, he encourages collaboration on his website, hitRECord.com. I wish we could hang out every day.

I don't even feel like an explanation is necessary to explain my attraction to Gosling. His face is awesome. He is super fit without seeming like a meathead. He stops fights, saves women from being hit by taxis, plays the ukalale, is dorky, sweet, and badass.

That about sums it up. Look forward to next week when I plan to unveil my most embarassing and unexplainable crushes on famous people. A sample? Snoop Dogg. I don't know, don't judge me.

Who was your first big crush?