THANKS to RACHEL RESNICK for making LIBBY CUDMORE’s NO VALENTINES FOR GENERATION TWILIGHT Post #1 on TweetMeme: scroll down further for Libby’s ‘valentine’ to GenT and read Libby’s sweet-tart quote here on Gen. T. It Boyz…
‘IT BOYS’ of 2010… by Elizabeth Searle
Who are the It Boys of Spring? I polled a few of my favorite members of what blog fave. Libby Cudmore dubbed ‘Generation Twilight.’ For pre-teens, no one tops the boy/man of the hour, Justin Bieber. A true New Media star who rose to cult status via videos his mom posted on YouTube, Bieber owns the 2010 Tweens.
Younger fans– & older ones like me– found our hearts beating faster when watching (twice, for me) STAR TREK, the movie. Each time I saw it with my son & his friends, we all loved it; Mom especially loved Young Kirk and extra-especially Young Spock, aka It Boys Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto.
Fellow blogger Libby Cudmore had mixed feelings about today’s Boy stars:
I think most of the It Boys Shia Labeof and Zac Efron in particular) are too femmy, too coiffed and they dress like Deuce Bigalow. I never, ever trust a man who wears a fedora with jeans. I don’t want their “edginess” or their masculinity to be a calculated thing . . it has to just be, and I don’t think men like that really exist much anymore. Basically, I don’t want a guy who is going to borrow my skinny jeans. Next
thing you know, he’s borrowing your eyeliner.
Thanks to Libby for your trademark sweet-tart view! Libby nails Generation Twilight, as always– though there do appear to be plenty of girls out there who wouldn’t mind lending Shia or Zac their eyeliner. Meanwhile, OK Magazine included several young stars in their Hottest Hunks, notably the dapper Taylor Lautner. And of course OK ‘OK’s Gen. Twilight’s fave: creepy but sexy-in-tormented-way Robert Pattinson.
Which hot hunks of GenT. talent– with or without eyeliner, whatever floats your boat– do you see as possessing star quality, aka ‘It’? & thanks again to LIBBY for her own brand of IT…
PS: Thanks to Jeremy for bringing up Joseph Gordon-Levitt & to Libby & Linda for pointing out that Jeff Goldblum is still hot…& to Jeff for nominating as IT MAN of 2010 RICKY MARTIN
(photos: justjared.buzznet, bsckids.com, Shia L: examiner.com)
LOL on Libby quote, I am with you on Zac E. but would Shia can borrow eyeliner anytime, and I like Zachary Q. too.
Hi Jeff– Always good to hear from you and great to know you are a fellow Zachary Quinto fan– while not as well known as that other Zac, he’s hot in a quietly intense way and a perfect Mr. Spock for Generation Twilight…
Will let Libby handle all eyeliner questions…
OK, ladies, unlike all y’all, I’m too old for this by half! I only recently saw that li’ boy Justin sing on some talk show and wondered why the host introducing him made no mention of the fact that he’s what, 12? I’ve got clothes older than him! He needs to go home & study algebra or for his Bar Mitzvah or something. Can’t stand or even understand the Twilight fever. As Soup Nazi says, “Next!”
Star Trek– yes, I’m a Trekkie and don’t even need it to be PC-upgraded to Trekker. So had to see it w/ my Trekkie sons. Discovered I’m too old school; I fret about revisionism & “canon.” And the lead heartthrobs? I had to check Wiki to make sure, but here’s the problem– Always had a crush on Spock, or rather Leonard Nimoy, but now he’s almost my father’s age, and Zach Quinto? Just four years older than my older son! So, now who’s the “Tween”? Good thing I never even remotely felt that way about William Shatner (those compulsory ripped shirt scenes just make me laugh; I’d actually preferred DeForest Kelly, rest his soul), b/c now he’s morphed into Denny Crane. I don’t think so. And Prequel Kirk? Oh, it’s wayyy to creepy an idea for me to pine for Chris Pine– he’s a mere 6 months older than #1 son!
I know it’s a double standard, and more power to Demi Moore, but it’s a mystery to me. Maybe the difference in who gets to be May and who’s September lies is an ego thing. I think most September, let alone December women (apart from say, Sophia Loren or even Jane Fonda, or, of course, Demi Moore) can’t really feel secure enough to trust that a decades younger man is really smitten with them and not some other fringe benefit (whether money, status or just plain mothering). Whereas, sorry to be sexist, but most men of a certain age would have much less trouble imagining that they are still alluring to women their daughter’s (or these days, even granddaughter’s) age.
And I hadn’t even planned to touch this topic! It was too soon on the heels of E’s previous post, which was more my speed; I don’t even know who all these “hunks” you’ve named ARE.
I is officially old.
I hear you, Lupins– and yes, I believe Justin Bieber IS in fact 12 years old! Which is one year older than my son. On the Trekkie boys, though, don’t underestimate Zach Q.– plus, you get Leonard Nimoy too in the movie, quite a hot old guy, These other boys blend together for me, and I feel lucky to have a true member of Generation Twilight, Libby, to guide me through those troubled Twilight waters…
About Demi M: my sense is that the Cougar wave might’ve peaked…
And about that previous Post, always feel free to jump in on any Post at any time; i get all the Comments posted on a given day on my blog ‘Dashboard’– so your Comments won’t be lost even if given on ‘older Posts’–
Hope to hear your Mistress Madness and/or Sarah Palin thoughts too– and You Are Not Alone in feeling a bit motherly in the face of these It Boys…
PS on Justin:
oops, not 12 but it sounds like he is 15–
and does look ‘even’ younger–
A vote for Chris Pine. Amazingly Kirkesque.
YES– glad to have another Chris Pine fan here! I know this is sacreligious, but I think he is a ‘better’ Kirk– no offense to Shatner, who is a TV legend, but I’d trust Chris P. more with the ship–
plus, I have a feeling he’s not wearing a girdle under his tight officer shirt… Love him and glad to hear you do too!
I vote for Jeff Goldblum! He’s still It in my book . . . and believe me, that’s a big book!
But my thing against these femmy dudes is that they put on this air of fake sensitivity . . . like John Mayer . . . or Robert Pattison, who went out and said that he “hates vaginas.” I dunno, maybe it was That Time of the Month for him or something. I’m sure most of us girls say the same thing every three weeks or so.
But that fake sensitivity is just gross and pathetic, and he’s always crying about something and his eyeliner is going everywhere, and if I wanted that I’d just go ahead and date Robert Smith. Like that scene in Bedazzled where Brendan Faiser (My ITBoy from age 19-20) wishes to be the most sensitive guy in the world, and he keeps crying at the sunset until the girl leaves him. That’s how I see all these guys. They just came out of that mold.
(That being said, I liked Michael Cera the first time he played George Michael Bluth . . . after reincarnating it in about seventeen hundred films, it got a little dull)
So, in closing, I say:
Goldblum! Goldblum! Goldblum!
XOXO,
Libby
Hi Libby–
I’m with you on the fake-crying pseudo-sensitive stuff; we just had a great series of Guest Posts on Jake of The Bachelor and that was his MO too– must be in the air.
Jeff Goldblum– with all due respect to Jeff who was so super in THE FLY, isn’t he about 70 years old now? I am trying to think what the last Jeff G. movie I saw was. How’s he holding up? Remember when he and Geena Davis were such a golden couple? And now what happened to her too? I can’t keep up with it all…
But since you are such a Blog Star, we will bend the rules and count Jeff as an ‘It Boy’– but only for you, Libby!
Dear Elizabeth, you realize you just gave Jeff Goldblum’s manager a heart attack by saying he must be 70! You saucy lass — Goldblum is only 57.
If we see him sporting a”refreshed,” Heidi Montag/surgically enhanced look this year, you know who to blame!!! 😎
Yes, i know, it was a shocking lapse on my part;
it just seems like The Big Chill was so long ago…
my apologies to Jeff & co!
I agree John Meyer fit the fake-sensitive type and yes, also Jake the Bachelor.
I think that type is wearing thin these days. Will be glad when male stars won’t be faking the teary eye gaze.
Hi Jeff–
Hope you’re right– seeing John M. in tears was painful and the ‘sincere’ teary-eyed shot of Jake the Bachelor that we had up here was particularly cloying…
Glad to see Ricky Martin included here, though I saw a funny joke:
“Apparently Ricky was the last to know.”
LOL on ‘the last to know…’
Elizabeth!! Gasp! Jeff is only 57! He’s holding up quite well, and currently stars in the USA series “Law and Order: Criminal Intent.”
oops– SORRY Jeff G. & his followers– I’m clearly outa the Goldblum Loop here. OK, 57 is just fine and we’ll count him as an It Boy–
Thanks Linda for gasping & correcting–
and who are YOUR choices for It Boy??
You know, I’m just not into boys these days. Most of them are too pretty, no matter how sultry they try to appear. My current heartthrob is Timothy Olyphant on “Justified.” Being a big Elmore Leonard fan, I started watching the show and, oh my! He is one tall, cool drink of water in a cowboy hat. 10 pm Tuesdays on FX.
Hi Linda–
Thanks and I will have to check out Timothy Olyphant!
I know what you mean about the younger star boys seeming so ‘pretty’– Libby is getting at that too in her comment– and it’s interesting to me how tastes shift, because the girls these days really seem to go for that…
What I like about that movement is the boy-stars aren’t all expected to be super-macho dudes, so that’s the plus side. The emphasis on ‘pretty’ is of a piece with the whole airbrushed plastic-surgery mania these days– no one looks real anymore. Of course, most of these guys are too young to have ‘had work done;’ they are just natural Pretty Boys–and we’ll see if any of them have any staying power post-puberty. Always good to hear from you, Linda– E.
Just had to come back and say my nominee for It Man of 2010 is:
RICKY MARTIN
Hi Jeff:
yes, great to bring this up:
I really admire how Ricky M. has handled coming out in such a joyful upbeat way–
Good on Ricky M, a true It Man!
i’m glad that ricky martin came up too
i admire him and his music and what he’s just done
It Man is right
Yes, Ricky is a
Celebrity in Esteem
We’ll have to do something on him but for now he can be our nominee for It Man of 2010–
Thanks Jeff and Livvy!
OK, of all the youngsters being named, I’d say Joseph Gordon Levitt is the “cutest.” He’s adorable. Such a precociosly talented kid on Third Rock from the Sun that they wisely put in his alien back story that he was the Old Man of the crew! Showed off his song and dance skills on SNL, too, so very well rounded. Still a kid, tho.
Oh, “too young to have ‘had work done’? Wish that were true of all the young actresses who feel the need to augment breasts & lips (I will NEVER understand that one!) even as they starve the rest of themselves into sub-Twiggies. I yearn for the days when THAT it-girl was the one whose figure was considered abnormal. That view of beauty seemed to change overnight. One minute the set of “Friends” was chilled to accentuate certain, ahem, aspects of the women Friends’ curves. The next, they had starved themselves into waif girls whose only “curves” were in the ribs & collarbones that were poking out. The Desparate Housewives, too, look like they’re desparate for FOOD. Forget the “Rubinesque” era. By today’s standards, Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren would be considered morbidly obese!
Glad Ricky Martin could finally feel free to “come out.” Better late than never, as in Hollywood of yore. Think of how long Richard Chamberlain stayed closeted, or Rock Hudson, or even George Takei. They had too many woman fans swooning over them for studios to stand for it, I guess. But Raymond Burr? I’m glad, tho, that the 2 deceased “wives” his studio PR machines inflicted on him were fictitious, and not hapless beards, like poor Elsa Lanchester (Mrs. Charles Laughton) and Joan Plowright (Mrs. Lord Larry Olivier).
Hi Lupins:
Always good to hear from you– I will have to check out this Joseph Gordon Leavitt; I agree with you that all these guys seem like Babes in Arms to me, really. And yes, it’s true with the girls that it’s never too young, alas, to ‘have work’– it makes all the young starlets these days look alike and look unreal. And it gives young girls such totally unreal images to aspire too; I hate that whole trend.
Glad to hear you like Desperate Housewives too! Yes, they all look somewhat starved this season. I like the new neighbor with the Bronx accent; she has some actual flesh on her bones.
And yes, better late than never for Ricky! Glad that not all gay male stars feel they have to hide who they are anymore…
Cheers as always!
Elizabeth
CHRIS PINE!!!
Hi San
Thrilled to have another vote for CHRIS PINE who I dare to say is an even better Capt. Kirk than the original–
He’s got that animal intensity plus a sense of humor too– and love those piercing blue eyes.
Good to hear from someone else pining after Pine–
thanks for stopping by!
Elizabeth
Here are my predictions re: young stars with staying power:
** Alexander Skarsgard: OMG. This man is the hottie patottie in my life right now. He plays Eric Northman on HBO’s “True Blood.” People, if you didn’t see him in action this past season, RUN to the local video store. You won’t be disappointed. Oh. My. GOD.
** Nick Jonas: He’s the brains behind the Jonas Brothers. He’s already branching out on his own. Expect him to be Mr. Mogul.
** Zac Efron: He’s been making a concerted effort to branch out into more adult, “serious” roles (like that Orson Welles flick). He used to drive me bananas in a bad way, but now he’s growing on me – and not like a fungus. I think this kid has potential.
Hi Caitlin–
I always love your lists: will have to check out Alexander S.; sounds intriguing. Also intriguing is the notion of a brainy Jonas brother; but you plus Obama’s daughters can’t be wrong…
And glad to hear that Zac E. is more than just a pretty face…
Great to hear from you, fresh from your own star turn in Canada–
ELizabeth
I also have an unholy crush on Callum Keith Rennie. Check out his performance as Lew Ashby on “Californication.” He was robbed of Emmy and Golden Globe noms. Also adored him on “Battlestar Galactica.”
But Mr. Skarsgard on “True Blood” — ooh la la. Trust me. If you watch the most recent season, you will NOT be disappointed. (Note his father is Stellan Skarsgard of GOOD WILL HUNTING fame.)
Hi again Caitlin– Yes, I’ve heard buzz about Californication– he was probably robbed of nominations because super-sexy shows are often not seen as highbrow enough for award-ication.
I will trust your excellent judgement and eye for Star Quality and track down Mr. S…
cheers– E.
I can second the ASkars nomination. Super freaking hot. 6’4″, Swedish, with blue eyes and a body to die for. Oh, yeah, he’s a pretty good actor, too. Check him out, Elizabeth!