Mr. Romance & Zoolander?

When I came home from RT one of the first things I did to unwind was pull out my copy of Zoolander and watch it again. Now, I came to the craziness that is Zoolander late, not being a big Ben Stiller fan, but I’ve come to appreciate his work in this movie and in the more recent Night at the Museum. The dude is talented.

Anyway, back to Zoolander… If you haven’t seen it, go out and rent it! I caught it for the first time about a year or two ago when I was home sick in bed, flipping through channels. Comedy Central plays it every once in a while and I watch it whenever it’s on. The reason I just HAD to watch it again after RT was because of the Mr. Romance competition and spending all week dodging cover models eager for my vote.

I’m not really into the whole oggle-the-model thing. Don’t get me wrong. They’re very handsome men and are nice to look at. I’m sure they’re nice people. But I read books not for cover model appeal, but rather what’s inside. Sort of the same philosophy applies to men, actually. The packaging is all well and good, but it’s what inside that counts most, right ladies?

Anyway, I attended the SOS Military Mixer. My family has a long line of military heroes in it and I support the troops in whatever small way I can. Fabio was there, looking tall and muscular, as usual, and I’ve got to hand it to him - he looks almost exactly the same now as he did twenty years ago when he was posing for endless Johanna Lindsey covers. LOL. The only minor change I noted is that his hair is noticably darker, which looks very nice on his very Roman face.

Of course, I didn’t get much closer to him than about twenty feet away. I guess I could’ve gotten a picture with him, but like I said, it’s not really my thing. Then there was the Mr. Romance competition…

It was standing room only in the ballroom, so I stood just for the first few scenes of the event. I’d been invited to dinner by my publisher, so I only caught the beginning of the competition. I was pretty sure John Fish (the ultimate Texas cowboy) would win, but to my surprise I found out later that Chris Winters had taken the big prize.

Being brutally honest here - I think it had to do with the fact that Dorchester was sponsoring the contest and Winters had a real anime look. His hairstyle was a spiky thing straight out of the new wave 80’s. It almost reminded me of Paul Young - remember him? Yes, I admit, I was in high school in the 80’s and well remember the look, the clunky jewelry, and the phenomenon that as The Breakfast Club… Molly Ringwald and the like.

But I digress… my feeling, which was echoed by a few I talked to later, who saw the entire competition, was that the whole semi-anime look was what probably clinched it for Winters, because Dorchester is marketing heavily to the “younger” generation. Evidence their Shomi line and the duo of Maverik and Mancusi who seem to wear go-go boots almost exclusively. (Hell, if I were tall and skinny like them, I would too! LOL)

All the competitors were handsome and any one of them could have taken the prize. I liked the look of “Big John” because the dude is a freaking giant! LOL! Plus I’m a native NY’er so real cowboys are just coooool. But really, all of them were prime specimens of manliness. And they deserve a lot of credit for putting up with women oggling them all week. My hat (if I wore one) would definitely be off to the competitors. They did a good job under trying circumstances. I mean that. I tried to imagine what it would be like in reverse, and I bet there would be a ton of complaints of inappropriate conversations and miscellaneous flirting that was probaby way over the top. It’s hard to imagine a woman of today putting up with half the stuff these men did. They’re troupers.

But I just couldn’t get Zoolander out of my head while I was watching the runway show during the Mr. Romance competition. I began to wonder if any of these guys were like Derick Zoolander, who sadly, was not an ambi-turner… Or were they instead as nice - and intelligent - as they seemed on the outside. Sorry for the silly comparison, guys. I couldn’t help it! I swear. And now I’m probably going to take a lot of heat for this blog. *sigh*

Here’s wishing you all a look as good as “magnum”!