Tony Bourdain

Let's get at the chefs again. There's just something so nice about a man who can really cook.



Tony recently made news again when he took over Michael Ruhlman's blog to talk about Food TV Network. Within days that post had over 500 comments, including some from Bourdain in Patagonia. Presumably Patagonia was for his travel show.

He's a famous and accomplished chef who also write about cooking and mystery novels. That's a lot of talent in one man. It makes me wonder why he crosses his arms over his chest all the time. Are you hiding something? Or hiding from us? Talk, Tony.

Raoul Bova

Time for some straight up male beauty taken neat.



Bova was a swimming champion who turned on a dime to acting and for once it worked. Born in 1971 at Rome, that makes him just about old enough to watch without wincing. And watch we will, because there probably isn't any male in movies today who is more beautiful than Bova. It also seems he might be a decent guy, a family man and good to work with.

He looks good in clothes, too, even rumpled clothes.



Mums, talk to your boys about swimming lessons. It seems to do a body good.

David Lebowitz

This might be the nicest man in Paris.



If you feel like hanging out in cafes and bistros, you may very well do better with "Monsieur Chocolat" than "Monsieur MovesinonyouatCrazyHorse." Witty, kind and a great cook who can amuse you with a tale of finding the right cake container for moving oeuvres d'art in the Paris Metro. He knows where to eat, he knows what to drink. I've not yet met a foodie or wannabe who doesn't subscribe to his blog for what's cooking in Paris.

David was once a pastry chef at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse restaurant. Now he writes cookbooks and leads tours and even takes tours into the guts of manufacturer's of kitchen equipment of the prime kind.

I like him. My kid likes him. We both say, "David said..." and then laugh. A man for all seasons and many reasons.

Marlon Brando

From the beginning to the end of his career, his private life was as striking as his acting.



I wasn't alert to the beginnings; on Broadway, where only those who went to New York plays would have known about him, nor yet his first films, "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "On the Waterfront." I don't remember even hearing about them from the older women in my life. They may have been just a bit too gritty for ladies of New England. It was easy to catch up later when his fame was so broadly drawn that everybody knew who he was and had an opinion. The image would not have been attractive to me, a girl who was scared to death of bad boys. It would have attracted attention, however. His image both on and off screen always attracted attention.

He could look beautiful.



He could look dangerous.




He could even look like the boy next door to someone,




but certainly not me. None of the boys next door to me were ever that fascinating and none of them ever had the possibilities you could smell radiating from Brando.

In the end, he looked like this. He was 77 years old when this was taken.



He was one of America's best actors, and sort of a poster boy for the American bad boy. Unlike James Dean, he lived on to show us just how bad bad could be without ever getting to evil.

Roberto Bolle

Bolle is Italy's primo ballerino, which simply means first male dancer.



Bolle is generally said by the critics to be very elegant and extraordinarily supportive of the ballerinas with whom he dances. He doesn't usually get points for acting, but it may well be that properly supporting the ballerina who is praised for her acting is good acting. His unusual height allows him to partner taller females and allows shorter females to take wilder chances, knowing that there is this big fellow waiting to catch them and that he is up to the job. I have only seen film of Bolle dancing, and acting doesn't come through film all that well.

From the film I have seen, I like him best in modern ballets. He can be shocking in them. The stripped-down costuming in modern ballet reveal better this wonderful physique, the trained structure and musculature he has developed from six hours daily training. The less he wears, the more he differs from other dancers.



This photo shows him not dancing, but looking pretty darned handsome. At 31, he is making more non-dancing appearances, because although 31 is young, in ballet it is wake-up time that another career needs to be developed.

Both the above images come from danse-photos and if you like ballet at all, I recommend you go there to see more, more, more of Bolle dancing and partnering some of the leading ballerinas of our time. It is a stunning site and sight.

Listening to Bolle talk is interesting. He has a quite pronounced lisp, and I always wonder why he hasn't trained that out of his speech. Surely the next stage of his career would be better for it? As it is, you almost need to be fluent in Italian to understand him at times.

It is reported that he likes to go to discos for relaxation, and it is also expected that he will marry one day.

Cary Grant

My vote goes here for the single, all-around most attractive man ever.



Courtesy www.facade.com

Seems like everything about him was a part of it. The slight British accent that remained forever. His height and carriage. The face which had enough variations from the ordinary to photograph and film well in black and white. The humor that seemed to go where he went so that even in a serious role, it seemed there was more to the character than what was written.

I had a collection of his classic films in the US, but didn't move them because I didn't know you could transpose them into Pal format. Too bad. I miss them. And him.

The above photo is in youth, but look how he became old. Luck? Or a bit of help? Who cares?



Photo courtesy of www.cary-grant.com, where there is also a biography.

Johnny Depp

I do think he is really fine.



Born in Kentucky, living in France. That seems a leap. I have actually seen and liked Depp in a couple of movies, but he usually makes movies I don't see. I did once think I'd like him to cut my hair.

I think it might be best to just look, because he doesn't take to being bothered.

Pierrick Fédrigo

I think the French are making a mistake. The don't portray their cyclists apart from their bikes and their gear.



After you've lived in a cycling mad culture for a while, you know that there are some exceptional athletes involved, but if you never see them off a bike, they tend to seem boyish. Not to say that being boyish is a bad thing, but it appeals to a quite narrow slice of womanhood. So when the career in cycling is over, what then?

This French cycling champion was born in Marmande, France in 1978. I have shoes older than Fédrigo. The town is in Southwest France, while I was expecting Brittany because of his coloring and Celtic appearance.

He is steadily rising in the ranks, and was French national champion in 2005. That is all the French think we need to know of him. He cycles. He's good. He's hardy and fast. I think they should take a leaf from the Italian book and show a broader portrait of their athletes, because good, hardy and fast is just not enough.

Back to Cipollini, now...

Melvil Poupaud

Actor, musician, writer, director, this Frenchman at 33 seems to have done it all. He was a protagonist in Le Divorce, which had an international release and in Time to Leave, a more recent film which may come to you. There is a great nude poster of him for his film "Le Temps Qui Reste" if you've a mind to look at it. It's quite unusual.

Colin Firth

Who, I ask you, wouldn't want one of these?




Or this?



If you want to know all about Colin Firth, go to IMDB and read all about him. Or go to this exhaustive biography where you can become an expert.

For me, Mr. Darcy will do.

Paolo Bonolis

This mild-mannered, ordinary guy is one of the most successful television personalities in Italy.


Cortesia biografia.leonardo.it

I have found him quick-witted and easy on his guests. One never knows if it's a matter of good writers and a good memory or whether the person actually is witty, but anyone who has watched Italian television has at least seen him. He has over his 25 years in show business run the gamut of hosting jobs, and has also made at least one movie, "Commedia Sexi."

This photo is Bonolis at his glamorous best.


Cortesia funnyfans.it

Pick one quality that would make him a star. But he is one. Last I heard he was making eight million euro a year. He was born in 1961, was married to a New York psychologist and has two children who live there. He is presently married to an Italian former-showgirl.

I find him pleasant, but fairly inexplicable. Why is he so successful? But then I ask that about Pippo Baudo, too, and Italians look at me like I have a hole in my head!