Hot Men at My Age

Prepare to be amused... at least, I was.

Two weeks ago, I received my usual issue of People Magazine - the one dated 28 November 2011 (which is magazine land time as today is the 29th), aptly entitled THE SEXIEST MAN ALIVE! And 123 Super Hot Men We Love... (what do you expect? It's People Magazine, and to some degree it is appealing to a wide age-range.

I went through it as I usually do and yes, Bradley Cooper is pretty good looking. Quite frankly, I haven't the faintest idea who he is, but that is typical for me. And I leafed through the other hot men; some I agreed were truly wowwers and some not so much. I mean, who is going to say no to Patrick Dempsey, Patrick Wilson (with those incredibly blue eyes!), Taye Diggs, Hugh Jackman (growl!), Ewan McGregor and Alex O'Loughlin (except for the tattoos around each nipple - yuck). And Brían O'Byrne (with the same diacritical mark as in my name - truly a good Irishman!) is growing on me. But then I got to the SEXY AT EVERY AGE spread, and suddenly I realised that if you want to see me date myself, here is the place to do it!

They start with a stud who is all of 20 years old and end with a better looking man at age 59. I looked at each man representing his age group, but I knew one of the 20-somethings, four of the 30-somethings, six of the 40-somethings and (drum roll, please) eight of the 50-somethings!

The only 20-something I knew was Robert Pattinson, age 25, from the vampire movies. I couldn't tell you which ones, since vampires today are the "it crowd" and I was into vampires back when Anne Rice was giving us the real deal in Interview with the Vampire and many other intellectually stimulating books. I'm a purist - once something becomes too popular, the movie world goes crazy and overdoes it. This is no exception. Suddenly there are 50,000 bad vampire shows clogging up the works in movie-, telly- and any other land they can get into!

The 30-somethings I knew were: Jake Gyllenhall, age 30, who has been in a multitude of movies - he's okay; Sam Worthington, age 35, who we all know from Avatar and more recently, Clash of the Titans and I find him rather likeable. Maybe even hot, but mostly just a likeable, down-to-earth guy; Leonardo diCaprio, age 37, who - at least in this picture - is looking rather tired, old and overweight... I don't know how marketable he will remain, looking far older than most of his compatriots in the 30s and 40s...; and Enrique Inglesias, age 36, whom I only know because his father is enormously famous.

The 40-somethings were far better looking to me and far more familiar:

1. David Arquette, more known for his marital issues at the moment

2. Will Arnett, an actor

3. DB Woodside, whose face I know, although I think he is an athlete, I'm not completely sure

4. Peter Krause, from Six Feet Under

5. John Stamos, who was very well known when I was a kid and has continued to be strong in acting

6. Jon Bon Jovi - I'm in New Jersey, too. This doesn't make me a fan, but I certainly know who he is!

That was easy. I was happy I recognised more than half, and a little surprised I didn't know the others: Daniel Day Kim, 43; Jason Statham, 44; Oliver Martinez, 45; and Clive Owen, 47.

The 50-somethings, starting at 7 years older than me, were very easy:

1. Ralph Macchio, age 50 - how funny is that?

2. Colin Firth, age 51 - always one of my very top choices for anything - movies, hotness, intelligence, etc.

3. Tim Robbins, age 53 - he has snow on the roof now, but still looks just as guileless and innocent as he did in I.Q.!

4. Daniel Day-Lewis, age 54 - always a good actor and a hell of a broad range of parts

5. Denzel Washington, age 56 - he sure doesn't look it! He is a wonderful actor

6. Chris Noth, age 57 - he'll always be Big to me

7. Pierce Brosnan, age 58 - Yum! I mean, really, yum! If you don't believe me, see The Thomas Crown Affair - oh, my gods, yum! (And it was a fun, interesting movie.)

8. The incomparable Liam Neeson, age 59, whose voice could stop a room full of chatter dead!

Yup, I'm dating myself, but I'm okay with that. Many of these and other men, like fine wine, age so much better and can still knock us ladies dead at the middle ages and up! I don't mind dating myself and passing up the "stud-like" 20-somethings who look good if clueless for the older, hopefully wiser men of my time and earlier!