Sorry, but he does nothing for me

I work for a small company that is an Authorized Verizon wireless retailer, which basically means that we sell the same stuff as corporate Verizon, but also get screwed by them alot too. Well a few months ago we had this promotional stuff about a Motorola ear-bud headset and the celebrity in the ads was David Beckham. We even got a few life size cut-outs of the man, which we had fun using the extras to play pranks on each other here in the back office. Like one morning I came in (I'm almost always the first one there) and there was David Beckham standing a couple yards away in the hallway.

Now having a life size cut-out of David Beckham in your office starts the unavoidable conversation of how hot he is. If I remember correctly one of my co-workers, while intently studying David's face, said that he is the hottest man on the planet, but I'm sorry he does nothing for me.

I'm not blind -- yes, he is a very attractive man, but he's the type of person who you're suppose to find attractive. There's nothing that makes him interesting or stand out in the well of pretty people that live in Hollywood.

I guess I've always been a little obtuse when it comes to what people generally like and what I like. I'm odd and I'm attracted to things that lean a little to the odd. Even in high school (and I was in high school at the height of the "Titanic" and Leonardo DiCaprio craze), while my friends we're drooling over Leo DiCaprio, I'd prefer to watch "The Gift" and drool over Giovanni Ribisi...even if he was a little psychotic in that.

I remember a friend for either her 15th or 16th birthday had a Leo themed party. We went and saw "Titanic" (most of us for the third...or eighth time) and then we watched "The Basketball Diaries." And I'll admit I did get caught up in the hype (I mean I was 15, you do what you have to to fit in at that age), but I never was googlie eyed over Leo.

Now, I will say that DiCaprio is a good actor (just watch "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" -- he's brilliant), but I just don't get the attraction to blond pretty boys. Maybe it's because I grew up around horse people and blue collared people who went out and got their hands dirty, I don't know.

Then a few years ago, while I still worked in the video store, my boss at the time asked me what I thought of Brad Pitt because he had a movie coming out and he was on the cover of our Entertainment Weekly. My initial response was to ask him if he had a man-crush on Brad Pitt, to which he laughed and guiltily admitted that he guessed he did, and then I told him, "he's all right." And he is all right. Some of his movies are enjoyable, but there's nothing that catches my fancy in an "oh my god he's so hot" sort of way." Maybe when he first came out and he was doing films like "Kalifornia" and "Twelve Monkeys" where he seemed to actually be acting as opposed to doing bigger budget films or trying to out do Mia Farrow with his assortment of children.

Personally, I'd rather dig up Vincent D'Onofrio's films or watch LOCI, because there you're going to see something interesting. In some instances he may scare the crap out of you, but it's fascinating to watch nonetheless. I tend to like people who aren't stereotypically attractive and who aren't afraid to get down and dirty into a role. It's like my choir director in high school said, "You ain't really singing till you ugly," and I think that could be applied to great acting as well. Not that I think the only truly talented people look like Quasimodo, but just aren't afraid to go to that place where life, humanity, what have you, isn't pretty and can't be perfectly wrapped up in ninety minutes.

I like when you have to work to appreciate someone, when you have to study them and then you begin to see them as these really fascinating, crush-worthy talents. Like Giovanni Ribsi is brilliant and can be over the top, but he can be very subtle too. I love James Marsters, who maintained an English accent for seven years on Buffy, while David Boreanaz struggled to do an Irish one on only a handful of episodes. He has such a range and can play the buffoon just as well as he plays honest emotion. His character was really the Shakespearean fool of the series and was done wonderfully.

Probably my most disturbing crush is Vincent D'Onofrio and it's only disturbing because he is old enough to be my dad. In fact he's only a year younger than my dad, who will be 50 in September. I guess it's kind of like a crush you'd get on a really awesome professor and a lot of it is wrapped up in admiration. But he's just so interesting to watch and fits my obscure, underrated profile that I tend to lean toward, even if I do feel a little perverted for lusting after him.

I've always had weird and obscure taste, in fact most people who don't know me very well probably think I'm crazy with some of the things I like, but what can I do. I like what I like and I am what I am.