The Oscars are less than a week away, and as a pop culture fanatic, I couldn't be more excited. Whenever I turn on the TV, I feel that every preview brags about Oscar-nominated actors, screenwriters and costume designers. Entertainment and news stations alike are abuzz with award show previews, from gossip about the best supporting actor to drama with ex-husband and ex-wife directors.
All of this celebrity worship got me thinking about the obsession with bothmale and female celebrities. I can't count how many guys I know who have posters of sexy female celebrities hanging over their beds. (Sorry, boys - Megan Fox and Jessica Alba in swimsuits don't get us in the mood.) But George Clooney is one celebrity sex symbol - for the over-40 set, at least - whose audience sex appeal seems to be wide reaching and never ending. With yet another Oscar nomination, this time for his "film Up in the Air," women continue to swoon for his suave charm.
Example: My family went to visit Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London a few summers ago. The building was full of realistic wax sculptures of famous figures, and tourists from around the world clambered to take pictures with the life-size models. My US Weekly-reading mother wanted pictures with every celebrity from Joan Rivers to Brad Pitt - who in 2005 had been moved from the side of wax figure Jennifer Aniston to rest next to wax figure Angelina Jolie - while my military dad wanted pictures with Napoleon Bonaparte and Saddam Hussein.
There was one room, however, filled with women pushing and shoving to get a spot inside. It was decorated like a fancy restaurant. A two-person table positioned with a chandelier overhead dominated the room. Real people were meant to sit and pose for their pictures in one of the empty chairs. A wax figure of George Clooney sat in the other; a loving look graced his face and his arm extended across the table, ready for a tourist's waiting hand.
The wax perennial bachelor attracted more women to his nook in the museum than I imagined. And it was every type of woman! American women, Asian women, European women - women in street clothes, saris and burkhas. Watching the mob waiting patiently to have their pictures taken on dates with a wax George Clooney, I realized what a prolific celebrity symbol he truly was.
Women from all around the world are part of this phenomenal George Clooney obsession, and I still don't completely understand why. Maybe it's the salt-and-pepper hair, the smile, the rugged chin stubble or the fact that he's been single since 1993. Whatever it is, George Clooney has it, and no woman seems to be immune.
When the Academy Awards broadcast this weekend, Clooney will have many supporters if female viewers root for the actor solely based on who they'd most want to date. (Guys, Pen
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