OD’ing on My New Favorite Stars

Guest blog: The ultimate sensitive guy, the pretty girl who’s messed up but has a heart of gold and People's Sexiest Man Alive
 

It’s been awhile and the reason is … I’ve been a bender. Instead of a lost weekend, it’s been a few months of fade in’s and fade to black’s.

Lately, I’ve been mainlining movies by a few young stars — and that’s all I want to watch. But doing that makes me feel like those Vietnam vets that decided to drop out of society and then emerged into a new world. While I’ve been OD’ing on iTunes and Netflix, apparently there’s a show on called "The Voice," there was an election but everything still looks the same, and a hurricane tore through my city, where a lot of things don’t look the same.

After staging a self-intervention that happened to occur when I ran out of things to watch, I decided to come clean in lieu of getting clean. These have been the objects of my addiction for the last few months:

EDDIE REDMAYNE

In college, I had a playwriting teacher who said that his own writing always came back to his personal story of “sensitive boy in the wrong family.” Redmayne is the ultimate sensitive boy, who happens to never get the girl. His expressiveness is unique because it’s always simmering right at the surface — he tears up, his lips quiver, and he can teach a master class in longing glances.

It’s like he was created for posh "Masterpiece Theater Classics" (especially the tragically overlooked "Birdsong") — but the truth was, they were created for him. I can’t imagine the emotion he’s going to wring in the upcoming "Les Miz."

LIZZY CAPLAN

There’s always a need for the tough, pretty girl who’s messed up but has a heart of gold. Caplan’s getting to be the go-to girl for that role, but she deserves even more. What’s interesting about her, besides for a the off-kilter prettiness (that’s a compliment) is that she has an unusual way of expressing herself on screen.

 It’s like she’s withholding and oversharing at the same time, with a way of speaking that always feels like she’s going to let you in on a secret any minute now.

CHANNING TATUM

This one isn’t exactly a hidden gem, considering that’s he’s working constantly and we’ve basically seen everything there is to see. And he was just named People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive.

I really thought he was just a pretty boy with a strangely squared-off head and some dance movies. But my friend Karen insisted that there was more beneath the muscled surface. The surprise wasn’t "Magic Mike" but the charm and humor of "21 Jump Street."

Let’s face facts, he’s not going to be exploring the depths of Shakespeare anytime soon. But he is ridiculously charming, straddles tough and sweet with has the rare advantage of being both funny and good-looking. And he’s smart enough to produce and not just pose.

Like any user, I feel better about myself when I can hook other people. At the same time, I’m already looking for my next fix. I’d love to get my hands on more Rebel Wilson, and I’ll do anything for a hit of Jason Schwartzman.

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