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.

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.

Keanu Reeves

How will you have your Keanu Reeves? Wearing what seems a very severe evening gown or a priest's cassock?


Courtesy allocine.fr

Or fresh-faced and youthful?


Coutesy celebrities.pl

A booking photo following arrest for DUI?



Bad things happen to all of us. Ask Hugh Grant.

Reeves certainly does have a lot of facets. He's been acting since 1979, at fifteen years old. His interests mostly seem to be sports, and yet his roles always seem to reveal an underlying mysticism. It's probably for that reason that he has always been the subject of vague and negative gossip. I like to watch him, although I can't say why. Somehow he seems to have more potential interest than his roles.

Mikhail Baryshnikov

It would be nice to be young again, in some ways, but I can never regret having lived in a time when I could and did see Mikhail Baryshnikov dance.



He seemed not to be tethered to earth like us. For someone who likes men there were countless things to like about Baryshnikov, and I trust that there still are.

I always say if someone is dancing, I'm watching. It wasn't so easy to get to see Baryshnikov at the height of his fame. Someone had to be lucky and generous, and someone was. Watching him bend a foot was an experience. A walk, a turn, every movement was weighty, artful, something like seeing humankind as it could be.

Nowadays one can get film of Baryshnikov, and my wishlist is forming as I type, but there will never again be the chance to see him dance the Corsair.

He was born in 1948 in Riga, Latvia, and left to study in Leningrad. He danced with the Kirov until 1974, when he defected to join The American Ballet. He later danced with Balanchine's New York Ballet and then returned to ABT, where he worked many years, eventually as artistic director. He continues to work as an artist although the days are gone when he can perform the difficult parts he once did. That never stopped him dancing, and he has turned a foot to many dance forms since. He made films that were successful primarily because he was in them, although Geoffrey Hines certainly was in his own way as artful in "White Nights." People just couldn't see enough of this man, and he changed the place ballet had in our lives.



Here he is in 2006, courtesy of style.com. Not bad, eh?

He was sexy, soulful, selfish, generous, athletic, and a star like dance seldom sees. Thank you for being Baryshnikov, a dancer.

Francesco Totti

In Italy all the starlets and letter girls date and sometimes marry soccer players. This photo, courtesy of abc.au, shows the most famous current player at work.



He plays for Roma. He is so recognizable that when he participated in a reality show which had famous people (including a past President) doing ordinary jobs, he was recognized instantly while pumping gas.

He is 4 centimeters shorter than last year's Miss Italia, but tall isn't a requirement for Italian men. He's been a pro soccer player since 1993, which seems a long career to me. He wrote a jokebook a while back, and I got the impression he might be an Italian Yogi Berra, conversationally. The proceeds were dedicated to charity and Totti is a UNICEF ambassador.

He is married to showgirl Ilary Blasi and they have one and a half children. He was caught being unfaithful shortly after the marriage, which would be a dealbreaker for a lot of gals, but Ilary has hidden depths.

While I am a World Cup only sort of calcio fan, it is impossible to live in Italy and not know who Totti is or to not recognize his face. Soccer players are part of the lares and penates of modern Italy. Here is the top one of today.

I Fratelli Fiorello

Brothers, and different as night and day.


Beppe Fiorello, courtesy of TG mediaset, is a serious actor of generally respectable demeanor. I've seen him in many roles, and sometimes I have to think who it is, because he is capable of altering himself completely in a role. He is most believable as tragic heroes and he generally dies. Poor Beppe.









Big brother Rosario, but known as just Fiorello, is a singer and comedian and has a similar ability to alter himself on camera from his handsome self to a bizarre monster in thirty seconds. Fiorello can write his own contract for TV shows, has made it into American movies, but was equally capable of turning his back on the big time and making himself into a cult radio figure.

What was in that family that turned out two chameleons with big talent, even though they express it differently?

Ammar

Ammar is an anthro-archeologist. His wife finds in him so many special qualities that she has dedicated an entire website to him. What stands out for me is that he grows every year a field of wheat to share with the poor and hungry.

Luca Zingaretti

"Montalbano, sono."



So he introduces his popular television character, a Sicilian Commissario of police named Salvo Montalbano. Zingaretti is a fine actor with many roles behind him and ahead of him, but Montalbano, the creature of Italian writer Camillieri, is the one that is indivisible from his public persona. The Rai Italian series has been dubbed and published in DVD form in twelve languages and is sold worldwide. It is probably the single most successful thing Rai has ever produced.
Although the books by Camillieri are among the best mysteries I have ever read, and that mainly for creating this character whose depths are still being plumbed after years of editions, Zingaretti has created a new layer with his artful portrayal. You can read his mind when he is about to do something illegal in the interest of justice.
He is also simply one of the sexiest men ever to appear on any screen, large or small.

Reid

I know Reid because he is both a cook and a traveler. His various websites include his absolutely incredible photographs and endlessly interesting and useful information on walking and climbing in the UK and Spain. Start at fellwalk and wander on to his other sites and you can also try to imagine how he ever had time to live an entirely different life, and he did. There are also links to Italian photos and to me.

Mario Cipollini

Here is a temporary link to Mario.

Why Mario? Well, just look at him! He's a gorgeous champion of sport and then later learned to dance on "Ballando con le Stelle" where I found his tango very tempting. In looking up images of Cipollini, I discovered that he is one of those men who has improved with age.



I have never, darn it, been that close to Mario. These photos are courtesy of
answers.com and bikenews.it. You may follow through to the links if inspired.

Claudio Amendola

Claudio Amendola has the aspect of a "bad boy" but not really bad. Whatever he does, good or bad, is in the Italian public eye and a lot of attention is paid to his long term relationship with Francesca Neri.

He has in the past played a lot of tough guys and romantic types, but comedy fits best, and in the past few years he has begun doing commercials for television in which he is a funny dad to teenagers. I think a lot of fellows might quail at aging their public image like that, but it doesn't seem to bother him, nor should it. This year he is making the same commercials with Paris Hilton, and I may be putting thoughts in his head, but he seems vaguely embarrassed in them. It's probably that I think he should be embarrassed.

He seems sort of like your naughty cousin with whom you did things when you were kids that you are never going to tell your parents, or even your siblings. Can you see your secrets in his smile? Don't ask, don't tell.

I don't know why he is my first man post of all. I think it is perhaps because Claudio is neither here nor there, but sort of possible for anything. Not gorgeous, certainly not ugly! He just seems like a man you could have X rated fun with and who would not make demands nor make you feel guilty. One of the many images available on the net shows him semi-nude with an enormous serpent tattoo, which for Ms Neri's sake I hope is makeup.

I own only one of his films and can understand little of it, because everybody in it mumbles. Sure, they were up to criminal activities, but I wasn't going to be a stoolie.

Claudio's father Feruccio Amendola was a well-known actor and a famous dubber, or doppiatore. IMdb has a short but interesting page on him.

IMdb shows Claudio's filmography on this page.

Amazon has these of his films for sale in the US. Caterina Va in Città and Queen Margot seem to get the most critical plaudits.