We interrupt this thoughtful, reasonably intelligent blog to bring you this breaking, irrational rant:
People Magazine names actor Hugh Jackman it's 2008 Sexiest Man Alive?????!!!!!
You've got to be joking!! What were the parameters? "Sexiest Man must be the romantic lead in a soon-to-be-released $130 million major motion picture that Nielson tracking numbers show will be a flop but that studio execs will do anything to save -- including selling their souls to magazine tools over at People who know that someday soon they can collect on this huge favor."?
Even on The Today Show this week, People's executive editor Jess Cagle smirked and smiled uncomfortably when he said Jackman was "a surprising choice."
In the "article," People describes Jackman as "a romantic in a hard body, the Aussie star leaves women saying "Oh ... my ... God." If People had stuck around to hear "women" finish that sentence, they would have heard "Oh ... my ... God. Who wants to go watch a romantic epic with "Wolverine" in it, when I can stare at Daniel Craig in the new Bond movie for 90 minutes."
Daniel Craig, meantime, IS among the sexiest also-rans which also includes sexiest alums Brad Pitt and George Clooney as well as Mad Men's Jon Hamm, human-turned-dolphin Michael Phelps, and - in a shout-out to future People readers - High School Musical's Zac Ephron and Twilight's Robert Pattinson.
If People really wanted to sell magazines -- and in these tough times for print, who wouldn't -- a sure bet would have been to put Barack Obama on its cover - again. Granted, to have the country's President-elect on a magazine cover headlined "Sexiest" is a little creepy, but as the NYTimes' political blog The Caucus said recently, hot news stand sales of anything-Obama "reflects the rise of politics as an entertainment theme."
As for People's "journalistic" standards - today's front page story in the NYTimes about how the magazine allows itself to be manipulated by the queen of the tabs Angelina Jolie, proves that getting positive press in People isn't hard if you know the right lawyers.
But back to Hugh Jackman--- or should I say "Who" Jackman. I wish him no ill. But I guarantee you, readers won't be buying up dozens of issues of the 2008 Sexiest Man Alive and re-selling them on CraigsList and eBay as collectibles.
In the meantime, I'm going back over to 007.com and put up with the two minutes it takes the site to load to watch a little bit more of Daniel Craig.......
We now return you to "Wise Ideas," our regularly scheduled, thoughtful, reasonably intelligent blog.
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