The sexiest man alive?
It's Gossip Time!
Hello and welcome to Gossip Time, a weekly guide to the stars by Allie Jones. This week: an actor is sexy, another actor is 50, and Bradley Cooper and Gigi Hadid are matching.
Paid subscribers got all the (amazingly real) details on Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster’s affair this week. Click here to catch up!
On Wednesday, People announced that they have bestowed the coveted title of Sexiest Man Alive 2024 upon…John Krasinski. Hmm. Why?
Krasinski, 45, is not promoting anything right now. His next project is a Guy Ritchie movie that doesn’t even have a release date yet. Sure, Gen Z is watching The Office on streaming, but I wouldn’t say that Krasinski has recaptured the zeitgeist, exactly, as evidenced by the fact that People couldn’t even figure out how to articulate this (“#OfficialOfficeCrush”?). And he’s been married to Emily Blunt for the last 14 years, so he doesn’t have anything interesting to say about dating. (When asked what his ideal date night is with his wife for the cover story, he responded, “Dinner.”) People didn’t even question him about that time fans thought he was asking Blunt for a divorce on the Golden Globes red carpet!
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(I think it is clear now that he was saying, “I can’t wait to get indoors.”)
According to the Daily Mail, Krasinski was not People’s first choice this year. Being Sexiest Man Alive means participating in multiple interviews and promoting the issue on late night talk shows, which not everyone enjoys. The Mail claims People’s editors “begged” Pedro Pascal and Glen Powell to take up the mantle this year, but they both declined.
Powell got a better offer: He’s on the cover of the Vanity Fair Hollywood issue, which also came out Wednesday.
As for Pascal, it’s clear he simply did not want to do it. People still named him one of their “Men of the Year” inside the issue, alongside guys like Andrew Garfield and Manny Jacinto. They had to use an old red-carpet photo of him because he did not sit for a photoshoot.
This is the second year in a row People has ended up with a random white guy on the cover. Last year’s Sexiest Man Alive was Patrick Dempsey, who was also promoting nothing. Do the publicists of male A-listers no longer care about this important award?
Maybe Hugh Jackman will be desperate enough to do it (again) next year if his relationship with Sutton Foster hasn’t quite landed with the minivan majority yet.
You know who has never been the Sexiest Man Alive? Leonardo DiCaprio. There is no chance he’d ever do a lighthearted interview about his romantic life, lol. But he will casually leak to Us Weekly all the details of his 50th birthday party as a means to promote his investment in an organic champagne brand.
As is his custom, DiCaprio threw a big birthday party for himself last weekend at a private estate in the Hollywood Hills. According to Us Weekly, the home belongs to a second-tier Walmart heiress named Sybil Robson Orr. Guests were served miso cod from Nobu and Champagne Telmont (DiCaprio has been an investor since 2022).
Who came? The usuals: DiCaprio’s current model girlfriend Vittoria Ceretti, Pussy Posse lieutenants Kevin Connolly, Lukas Haas, and Tobey Maguire, Todd Philipps, Edward Enninful, Stephen Spielberg, Jamie Foxx, Chris Rock, Cara Delevingne, and Brad Pitt and his Very Serious Girlfriend Ines de Ramon. (Pitt was, of course, People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 1995 and 2000.)
Al Pacino and Bill Maher were reportedly both in attendance, too. Awkward? If so, DiCaprio didn’t notice — according to People, our favorite bachelor “was incredibly happy and hugging all his guests. He was on a high the whole night.”
One DiCaprio pal who did not make the event: People’s Sexiest Man Alive 2011 Bradley Cooper. Instead, he was in New York with his Very Serious Girlfriend Gigi Hadid, who allegedly dated DiCaprio for a few months in 2022.
Do you think he’ll propose at Christmastime? On Yolanda Hadid’s Pennsylvania farm??? He did reportedly buy his own multi-million-dollar farmhouse in the same neighborhood.
STUFF BY HILARY DUFF: Hilary Duff hasn’t posted on TikTok since she did this ad for Purina dog treats last December:
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Hoping she reappears for the pawlidays.
Finally, I’ll leave you with the news that Meghan Markle has successfully Googled a brand once again:
This week, the Duchess announced her investment in Highbrow Hippie, a new haircare line from her colorist Kadi Lee. She was seen dancing at the launch party at Gjelina in L.A. Yes!
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1. I need to know how Edward Enninful suddenly found himself pussy posse adjacent.
2. Brad Pitt looks like King Charles driving a car.
Securing a Gladiator II cast member would have been my strategy too, but I would have kept going through call sheet when Pedro turned it down!