Drs. J. Robin Warren and Barry Marshall

Here are two men whom you may not recognize and may not ever hear about again, but to whom you may one day want to say thank you.



They were awarded together the 2005 Nobel Prize for medicine because they established that stomach ulcers are caused by a bacteria and not stress. It means you can be cured. You do not have to spend the rest of your life eating babyfood and staying sober. Hurrah for them!

Riccardo Scamarcio

This is a photo of a beautiful boy. He's considered the latest Italian sex symbol, although this photo doesn't promote that image so well.



A little Google time for images, however, reveals that he's the man of a hundred faces and appears to be an entirely different person depending on the image you choose.
Sure, he's an actor and should be capable of some of that, but the differences in Scamorcio are remarkable. You sometimes can hardly recognize him.

He is in Hollywood right now, making a break for the international big time. How will they deal with that name? "skah MORE cho" There, you are maybe the first on your block who knows how to say it.

He's just barely legal, not yet even thirty, but watch him, because he could live up to his Italian hype as the Italian Marlon Brando.

Rowan

Another real guy, and accessible to the United States readers.



Rowan is another Brit, like Reid, and is also sitting on top of the world. What is it about that position and British men?

He cooks, ladies, and makes wine and beer. He's in a highly technical job and likes the relaxation of the kitchen and the stillroom. I know him from the cookery pastime. Polite and funny and there you go. What else could a gal ask for?

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.