My Top Ten Girlcrushes
I'm straight. But that's not the point. If I ever met any one of these women (yes, I know half of them are fictional) I'd be a flustered, tongue-tied puddle of infatuation.
10. Queen Latifah.
I knew it the first time I saw Chicago. She's a big, beautiful woman who just owned that stage when she sang "When You're Good to Mama." And then she hit the red carpet at the Oscars, looking stunning alongside all the Size 0's and I just fell hard. She's a goddess.
9. Sally Sparrow
I wasn't sure I should put her on the list. After all, her character appeared in exactly ONE episode of Dr. Who and I've never seen the actress, Carey Mulligan, in anything else. But oh lord, I was instantly smitten. She has a wry smile and she loves her friends and she's quite sensible, even when confronted with homicidal statues and time-traveling lunatics, and for fun she hops fences and breaks into abandoned old houses. They make her sad. And as Sally explains, sad is "happy for deep people."
8. Drew Barrymore
She just rocks. She's a complete and total flake who has alarmingly-inconsistent taste in men (how is the same woman attracted to Tom Greene AND Justin Long?) but that just proves to me that she's an awesome actress because so many of her characters are totally grounded and sane people. She's gorgeous, she's got an awesome old-Hollywood bloodline, she's drastically changed her look fifteen times and she's got that adorable little lisp. How does anyone manage not to love her?
7. Michelle Dessler
Played on 24 by the gorgeous Reiko Aylesworth. She's smart (boy howdy), she's cool under pressure, and she can kill you with her ATM card if you're trying to blow up Los Angeles. She hates that. In real life she dated Kiefer Sutherland and on 24 she married Tony Almeda, who just rocks my world. I get all frothy with outrage when a guy I love ends up with a woman who doesn't deserve him (see Lost; Sawyer & Kate) but when Michelle & Tony got together I was thrilled beyond words. But of course the 24 writers, sadistic motherfuckers that they are, couldn't let anyone be happy for more than half an episode and they put my girl next to a car bomb. It was one of the reasons I stopped watching that show. Although now, damn them, they're bringing Tony back from the dead ...
6. Monica Belluci
Why, you ask? Well ... um... you can see the picture, right? Italian by birth, French by nationality. She's just more stunning than any woman has a right to be and she's awesomely-talented to boot. I have a little fantasy (Not THAT kind! Jeez...) that one day her husband, the awesome-beyond-words Vincent Cassel, will make a movie with Angelina Jolie. And Angelina will decide she wants him. And he will look at her and laugh. And laugh some more. And then Monica will get wind of it and icily inform Angie that she's out of her league and she should stick to husband she's already stolen. Cuz that would be fun.
5. Martha Jones
She's the Tenth Doctor's second companion. And if you ever want to see an expression of pure loathing on my face or misreall's, just mention the Tenth Doctor's first companion, whose name will not sully this list. We were prepared to love just about ANYONE who followed this person. And we got Martha. Played by Freema Agyeman, Martha is everything her predecessor isn't. She's smart, she's independent, she doesn't have a petulant bone in her body, and best of all, she knows the universe is a huge place and she is not the center of it. She left the Tardis too soon, but rumors are that she'll pop up again on Torchwood, where they'll know how to appreciate her.
4. Jennifer Ehle
She's one of those actresses I think of as a female version of Johnny Depp or Adrien Brody, in the sense that I just cannot imagine her convincingly playing a character who is stupid. I first saw her as Lizzie Bennet (the only actress I've seen to just nail that character) in Pride & Prejudice. She has a lovely English-rose air about her, tempered by a rich, smoky voice and a formidable eye. I just want to sit across from a table in a country pub and listen to her talk for hours.
3. Teresa Moreno
Oh, she breaks my heart. Played by Spanish actress Assumpta Serna, Teresa is the love of Richard Sharpe's life, a Spanish guerrilla fighter called "La Aguja" (The Needle), who meets Sharpe when he's young and raw and teaches him how to be a leader, how to earn the respect of his men. She rides the hills and fights the French and she falls in love with Sharpe and bears their daughter. And in one of the most anguishing scenes I've ever watched, she takes a coward's bullet and dies in Sharpe's arms.
2. Ruth Wilson
I've only seen her in one role, as Jane Eyre in the most recent BBC/Masterpiece Theatre adaptation. She's not conventionally beautiful, but if one is to play "poor, obscure, plain, and little" Jane, one cannot be. Her features seem hastily assembled on her face, imperfectly-sized, but the overall effect is just luminous. And she took one of the greatest female characters in English literature and played the hell out of her.
1, Veronica Mars
I'm not going to attempt to top misreall's description of Veronica from her TV Characters list of a couple of weeks ago because it can't be done. But god, I love Veronica. She's a tiny, blonde force of nature. In the very last episode of the show she says incredulously to the guy she's grilling who's known her since high school, "How is it you don't instinctively fear me by now?" And she's perfectly correct. But this guy she's grilling is kinda stupid, so ... And for the record, I think if anyone but Kristin Bell had played her, she would not be topping this list.
Okay, guys, you know you have a few. Which same-sex hottie (or opposite, I suppose, if you're gay) just pushes all your buttons?
10. Queen Latifah.
I knew it the first time I saw Chicago. She's a big, beautiful woman who just owned that stage when she sang "When You're Good to Mama." And then she hit the red carpet at the Oscars, looking stunning alongside all the Size 0's and I just fell hard. She's a goddess.
9. Sally Sparrow
I wasn't sure I should put her on the list. After all, her character appeared in exactly ONE episode of Dr. Who and I've never seen the actress, Carey Mulligan, in anything else. But oh lord, I was instantly smitten. She has a wry smile and she loves her friends and she's quite sensible, even when confronted with homicidal statues and time-traveling lunatics, and for fun she hops fences and breaks into abandoned old houses. They make her sad. And as Sally explains, sad is "happy for deep people."
8. Drew Barrymore
She just rocks. She's a complete and total flake who has alarmingly-inconsistent taste in men (how is the same woman attracted to Tom Greene AND Justin Long?) but that just proves to me that she's an awesome actress because so many of her characters are totally grounded and sane people. She's gorgeous, she's got an awesome old-Hollywood bloodline, she's drastically changed her look fifteen times and she's got that adorable little lisp. How does anyone manage not to love her?
7. Michelle Dessler
Played on 24 by the gorgeous Reiko Aylesworth. She's smart (boy howdy), she's cool under pressure, and she can kill you with her ATM card if you're trying to blow up Los Angeles. She hates that. In real life she dated Kiefer Sutherland and on 24 she married Tony Almeda, who just rocks my world. I get all frothy with outrage when a guy I love ends up with a woman who doesn't deserve him (see Lost; Sawyer & Kate) but when Michelle & Tony got together I was thrilled beyond words. But of course the 24 writers, sadistic motherfuckers that they are, couldn't let anyone be happy for more than half an episode and they put my girl next to a car bomb. It was one of the reasons I stopped watching that show. Although now, damn them, they're bringing Tony back from the dead ...
6. Monica Belluci
Why, you ask? Well ... um... you can see the picture, right? Italian by birth, French by nationality. She's just more stunning than any woman has a right to be and she's awesomely-talented to boot. I have a little fantasy (Not THAT kind! Jeez...) that one day her husband, the awesome-beyond-words Vincent Cassel, will make a movie with Angelina Jolie. And Angelina will decide she wants him. And he will look at her and laugh. And laugh some more. And then Monica will get wind of it and icily inform Angie that she's out of her league and she should stick to husband she's already stolen. Cuz that would be fun.
5. Martha Jones
She's the Tenth Doctor's second companion. And if you ever want to see an expression of pure loathing on my face or misreall's, just mention the Tenth Doctor's first companion, whose name will not sully this list. We were prepared to love just about ANYONE who followed this person. And we got Martha. Played by Freema Agyeman, Martha is everything her predecessor isn't. She's smart, she's independent, she doesn't have a petulant bone in her body, and best of all, she knows the universe is a huge place and she is not the center of it. She left the Tardis too soon, but rumors are that she'll pop up again on Torchwood, where they'll know how to appreciate her.
4. Jennifer Ehle
She's one of those actresses I think of as a female version of Johnny Depp or Adrien Brody, in the sense that I just cannot imagine her convincingly playing a character who is stupid. I first saw her as Lizzie Bennet (the only actress I've seen to just nail that character) in Pride & Prejudice. She has a lovely English-rose air about her, tempered by a rich, smoky voice and a formidable eye. I just want to sit across from a table in a country pub and listen to her talk for hours.
3. Teresa Moreno
Oh, she breaks my heart. Played by Spanish actress Assumpta Serna, Teresa is the love of Richard Sharpe's life, a Spanish guerrilla fighter called "La Aguja" (The Needle), who meets Sharpe when he's young and raw and teaches him how to be a leader, how to earn the respect of his men. She rides the hills and fights the French and she falls in love with Sharpe and bears their daughter. And in one of the most anguishing scenes I've ever watched, she takes a coward's bullet and dies in Sharpe's arms.
2. Ruth Wilson
I've only seen her in one role, as Jane Eyre in the most recent BBC/Masterpiece Theatre adaptation. She's not conventionally beautiful, but if one is to play "poor, obscure, plain, and little" Jane, one cannot be. Her features seem hastily assembled on her face, imperfectly-sized, but the overall effect is just luminous. And she took one of the greatest female characters in English literature and played the hell out of her.
1, Veronica Mars
I'm not going to attempt to top misreall's description of Veronica from her TV Characters list of a couple of weeks ago because it can't be done. But god, I love Veronica. She's a tiny, blonde force of nature. In the very last episode of the show she says incredulously to the guy she's grilling who's known her since high school, "How is it you don't instinctively fear me by now?" And she's perfectly correct. But this guy she's grilling is kinda stupid, so ... And for the record, I think if anyone but Kristin Bell had played her, she would not be topping this list.
Okay, guys, you know you have a few. Which same-sex hottie (or opposite, I suppose, if you're gay) just pushes all your buttons?