Taking over for Patrick Dempsey, please enjoy People’s Sexiest Man, which I keep typing as “Sexist Man,” a very different cover story and not one that presumably features Jim from The Office. Last week, we ran a big fat predictive piece about 2024’s Sexiest Man Alive over at Drinks With Broads, and NO ONE called this, which probably isn’t great for People OR John Krasinski. If I was unbothered by Dempsey (a choice which felt dated but otherwise acceptable), I confess I am underwhelmed by this one. Kras is perfectly good-looking, and seems mostly okay, but it’s also probably not a great sign that Heather and I both had the same two immediate reactions to this: (1) Someone didn’t like all those divorce rumors! (Ironically, I actually never believed the divorce rumors at all, but this makes me think something was up at Casa Krasinski/Blunt earlier this year, because why else the PR push to convince the People readership that the Kras is a gem?) and (b) So, Glen Powell said no? (As a related sidebar, I think People has a real issue these days with celebs refusing to do the interview portion of this package, and should consider returning to their original MO here, which was them just picking a Famous Hot Guy and writing a cover story about his Hotness, often times without actually speaking to said Hottie. JFK Jr. was never gonna talk to People and People didn’t let that stop them back in the day! IMAGINE the doors this would open! They would not have to settle for a Generic Celebrity With a Big Studio Action Film Coming Out.)
Anyway, this whole thing is gonna fall out of your head before the week is over. The interview is exactly what you’d think: 45% self-deprecating, 35% PR for his current project, 20% “I’m just a regular guy who loves my kids!!!” The cover is also… exactly what you’d think:
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Handsome but generic white guy with bedhead in a t-shirt, who looks like he might have a headache, but, like, a hot one? People never met a grey tee it didn’t love — Patrick Dempsey also wore one last year. (In fact, of the past Sexiest Men Alive, almost ALL of them are photographed sporting a t-shirt, which I get. It’s the Boyfriend Experience. At least Idris Elba got to add a chunky knit to the equation!) The comments at People’s Instagram are entertaining, though; folks are mad at this Glen Powell erasure, and I have to think the magazine asked him and he passed. He’s such an obvious choice. (He was, in fact, my choice.) Weirdly, this makes Glen Powell more interesting to me. (And I say that as a Glen Powell fan!) So, I guess this is a win for him no matter what. (EDIT: Also a win for him that he actually just landed on the cover of Vanity Fair’s Hollywood issue, which dropped TODAY, and which I didn’t realize when I wrote this. He absolutely passed on People for VF, and he was right to do it.)
