Move over, Ralph

The English Patient: Who cares that that he spent half of the movie with his face melted off...

Back in 1997 or so, over summer vacation in Tehran, I remember sitting down one afternoon with my mother to watch The English Patient on video. One empty tissue box later, I had decided that I, like most of the other women in the 30-40 age bracket who had watched the film, had fallen heads over heels in love with the super brooding, super serious, super cerebral, and incidentally, super fine Ralph Fiennes. (Incidentally, pronounced Raiph.)

So, throughout the rest of high school and college, unlike other girls my age who were busy daydreaming over more age-appropriate, prototype Hollywood hunks like Leonardo, Brad, Keanu and Johnny, I quietly obsessed about Ralph Fiennes, as much as a girl could obsess about a totally unattainable, older, married, movie star.

This meant watching Ralph brood his way through relatively somber themed films (death, war, infidelity, more war, insanity, etc.) of the similar vein as Patient, like The End of The Affair, Sunshine, Spider, The Constant Gardener and The Red Dragon. Of course, not all of Ralph's choice of roles were as discerning, ranging from the bizzare (The Avengers), to the bewildering (Maid in Manhattan).



Maid in Manhattan: wtf?

My obsession with Ralph slowly dissapated over the years, with news of Ralph playing the much anticipated role of Voldermort in the Harry Potter saga barely registering on my radar. Okay, so it was a bit hard to forgive him for the J.Lo collaboration. And then there was that rather tasteless incident with the stewardess...oh, Ralph.



The Gallaghers: even more screwed up then The Walkers

And then last year, I sat down to watch the British TV series, Shameless on DVD, on loan from a friend, about the deliriously dysfunctional working class Gallagher family. Steve McBride is the middle class and super cute car thief/drug smuggler who woos Fiona, the eldest Gallagher sister, Fiona, (incidentally, played by his wife, Ann Marie Duff) by buying her a washing machine.



McDreamy McAvoy

And then there was James McAvoy. He of scruffy looking, slight build with piercing blue eyes, and a lilting Scottish brogue. And once again, I have a new crush-worthy unconventional movie star to obsess about - though this time, he's an acceptable 28 years old. You may also remember him from his bit roles in Wimbledon and The Chronicles of Narnia. Or more recently The Last King of Scotland, Becoming Jane and Atonement, with Kiera Knightley.



Keira: First Orlando, then Johnny, and now James! Sheesh.

Where Ralph's specialty lay in playing tortured and brooding male characters, inevitably ruined by a deadly combination of hubris and unrequited love, McAvoy often chooses the role of the unexpectedly dashing male lead, the pursued object of affection of his female counterparts.

I will refrain from any further schoolgirl gushing, but take a look for yourself and tell me, doesn't he just charm the socks right off of you? Next year, he'll go against type and star as an assasin-in-training in the comic based film adaptation Wanted alongside Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie.

Sigh! I guess you're never too old to be starstruck! (Or even, I guess you don't have to be a man to be objectifying! Heh.)

Who were/are your movie star crushes?