Friday, September 30, 2011

Asian Handsome Man - Jin Akanishi (Japanese idol, singer-songwriter, actor, seiyu)

Jin Akanishi (born July 4, 1984) is a Japanese idol, singer-songwriter, actor, seiyū, and former radio host. Akanishi is a former member of the J-pop group, KAT-TUN, and was one of the two lead vocalists. Since the group's debut in 2006, it has achieved 14 consecutive number ones (including studio albums) on the Oricon charts.

Akanishi is also a budding actor with roles in the second season of popular NTV school drama, Gokusen 2, Anego and Yukan Club. He was also a co-host of KAT-TUN's own variety show, Cartoon KAT-TUN, and used to host a radio program called "KAT-TUN Style" with bandmate Junnosuke Taguchi from October 2007 to March 2008.

Born in the Chiba Prefecture on July 4, 1984, Akanishi is the oldest child. His family consists of his parents and a younger brother, Reio, who also works in the entertainment industry as an actor under the stage name, Fuuta. His given name, Jin ("benevolence"), comes from one of the five Confucian virtues. He moved to Tokyo in the first grade. He is the best friend of Tomohisa Yamashita and the two remain close today. In 1997, when he was still in grade school, a classmate sent in a photo of him to idol magazine, Myojo, and he was featured in the "Cool Classmates" corner of the issue. Akanishi expressed interest in the entertainment industry and his mother thus sent in an application to Johnny's Entertainment on his behalf in 1998. Though he technically failed his audition on November 8, 1998, he was told to stay when he tried to return his number plate to a man who happened to be Johnny Kitagawa himself. He entered Johnny & Associates at the same time as future bandmates Kazuya Kamenashi and Yuichi Nakamaru.




Thursday, September 29, 2011

Top Handsome Man - Jensen Ackles (American actor)

Jensen Ross Ackles (born March 1, 1978) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in television as Eric Brady in Days of our Lives, which earned him several Daytime Emmy Award nominations, as well as Alec/X5-494 in Dark Angel and Jason Teague in Smallville. Ackles currently stars as Dean Winchester on the CW series Supernatural.

Ackles was born in Dallas, Texas, the son of Donna Joan (née Shaffer) and Alan Roger Ackles, an actor. Ackles has a brother, Joshua, who is three years older, and sister, Mackenzie, who is seven years younger. He is of English, Irish and Scottish ancestry. He had planned to study sports medicine at Texas Tech University and become a physical therapist but instead moved to Los Angeles to start his acting career.





Top Handsome Man - James McAvoy (Scottish stage and screen actor)

James McAvoy (born 21 April 1979) is a Scottish stage and screen actor. He made his acting debut as a teen in 1995's The Near Room and continued to make mostly television appearances until the early 2000s. His notable television work includes State of Play and Shameless. Besides screen acting, McAvoy has appeared on stage with Three Days of Rain in 2009 and done voice work for animated films including Gnomeo and Juliet (2011).

Starting in 2003, McAvoy began to build his film resume with Bollywood Queen. That film was followed with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), a commercial hit. His performance in Kevin Macdonald's The Last King of Scotland achieved him not only critical praise, but several award nominations. 2007's critically acclaimed Atonement marked the breakthrough in McAvoy's career. It also earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination and his second BAFTA nomination. Another big point in the actor's career was starring in Wanted (2008). Since then, he is notable for playing Professor X in X-Men: First Class.

James McAvoy was born in Port Glasgow, Scotland, the son of Elizabeth (née Johnstone), a psychiatric nurse, and James McAvoy Senior, a builder. He was brought up as a Roman Catholic. His parents divorced when he was seven, which McAvoy took hard. McAvoy's mother suffered from poor health and subsequently decided it was best that he live with his maternal grandparents, Mary and butcher James Johnstone, in the nearby Drumchapel area of Glasgow in a terrace council house. His mother lived with them intermittently. To date, the actor regularly visits his grandparents. He has one sister and a younger half-brother named Donald. McAvoy has not been in contact with his father since childhood. According to his father, McAvoy avoided any contact with him after he moved in with his new lover. Nonetheless, the actor had a good upbringing. He attended St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary in Jordanhill, Glasgow, a Catholic school, and briefly considered joining the Catholic priesthood. In a 2006 interview, the actor admitted that part of the reason why he considered becoming a priest was that he wanted to use it as an excuse to travel. During his education, he worked at a local bakery.






Top Handsome Man - James Franco (American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter)

James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author, painter, performance artist and professor at New York University. He left college in order to pursue acting and started off his career by making guest appearances on television series in the 1990s. Franco landed a lead part on the short-lived cult hit television program Freaks and Geeks and later achieved recognition for playing the titular character in the TV biographical film James Dean (2001), for which he was awarded a Golden Globe Award. He achieved international fame with his portrayals of Harry Osborn in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy.

Franco is critically acclaimed as an actor. He has done both dramatic and comedic work in projects and has appeared in an eclectic range of projects since the 2000s, ranging from period to contemporary pieces, and from major Hollywood productions to less publicized indie films, as well as fantasy movies to biopics and soap operas. Other notable films include Pineapple Express, a stoner comedy that earned him his second Golden Globes nomination, the Harvey Milk-biopic Milk (both 2008) as well as Danny Boyle's 2010 movie 127 Hours, about real-life mountain climber Aron Ralston's struggle to free his hand from a boulder. His performance in 127 Hours earned him nominations for many high-profile awards, including the Academy Awards, Golden Globe and SAG Awards.

Franco has hosted Saturday Night Live twice as well as the 83rd Academy Awards with Anne Hathaway. He volunteers for the Art of Elysium charity.

Franco is currently teaching a class at New York University about transferring poetry to film.

Nicknamed "Ted", James Edward Franco was born in Palo Alto, California. His mother, Betsy Lou (née Verne), is a poet, author, and editor, and his father, Douglas Eugene Franco, runs a non-profit agency and a shipping container company; the two met as students at Stanford University. Franco's father is of Portuguese and Swedish descent and Franco's mother is Jewish, a descendant of immigrants from Russia (her family's surname had been changed from "Verovitz" to "Verne"). His paternal grandmother, Marjorie (Peterson) Franco, is a published author of young adult books; his maternal grandmother, Mitzie (Levine) Verne, owns the Verne Art Gallery, a prominent art gallery in Cleveland, and was an active member in the National Council of Jewish Women.

Franco's family upbringing was "academic, liberal and largely secular." He grew up in California with his two younger brothers, Tom and Dave ("Davy"), the latter of whom is also an actor. Talented at mathematics, Franco interned at Lockheed Martin. Franco was often encouraged by his father to get good grades and did exceptionally well on his SATs. He graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1996, where he acted in plays. In his high school years, Franco was arrested for underage drinking, graffiti and for being a part of a group that stole designer fragrances from department stores and sold them to classmates. These arrests led to him briefly becoming a ward of the state. Facing the possibility of juvenile hall, a judge decided to give Franco a second chance. "It was teen angst. I was uncomfortable in my own skin. I was shy. I changed my ways just in time to get good grades", he recalled of his troubles with the law.




Sunday, September 25, 2011

Top Sexy Man - Dave Annable (Suffern, New York)

David Rodman "Dave" Annable (born September 15, 1979) is an American actor. He played the character of Justin Walker on the television series Brothers & Sisters from 2006 to 2011.

Annable was born in Suffern, New York. He grew up in Walden, a small town in New York, where he played baseball, rugby and hockey. He attended Valley Central High School and graduated in 1997.

He attended college at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh (SUNY Plattsburgh). There, he became involved with the student-run TV station, Plattsburgh State Television (PSTV), working both on production behind the scenes and on the air as well. He hosted many shows at PSTV, including Late Night with Dave Annable, Cardinal Sports, and The Roommate Game. Annable credits Plattsburgh State Television for preparing him for his successful career in television. Annable dropped out of college in 2003 to pursue his acting career.

After leaving SUNY Plattsburgh, Annable studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York with Richard Pinter.






Top Sexy Man - Toby Keith (Clinton, Oklahoma)

Toby Keith Covel (born July 8, 1961), best known as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993's Toby Keith, 1994's Boomtown, 1996's Blue Moon and 1997's Dream Walkin', plus a Greatest Hits package for various divisions of Mercury Records before exiting in 1998. These albums all earned gold or higher certification, and produced several chart singles, including his debut "Should've Been a Cowboy", which topped the country charts and was the most played country song of the 1990s. The song has received three million spins since then, according to Broadcast Music Incorporated.

Signed to Nashville DreamWorks in 1998, Keith released his breakthrough single "How Do You Like Me Now?!" that year. This song, the title track to his 1999 album of the same name, was the Number One country song of 2000, and one of several chart-toppers during his tenure on DreamWorks Nashville. His next three albums, Pull My Chain, Unleashed, and Shock'n Y'all, produced three more Number Ones each, and all of the albums were certified multi-platinum. A second Greatest Hits package followed in 2004, and after that, he released Honkytonk University.

When Dreamworks closed in 2005, Keith founded his own label, Show Dog Nashville, which became part of Show Dog-Universal Music in December 2009. He has released five studio albums on this label: 2006's White Trash with Money, 2007's Big Dog Daddy, 2008's That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy, 2009's American Ride and 2010's Bullets in the Gun as well as the compilation 35 Biggest Hits. He has also signed several other acts to the label, including Trailer Choir, Carter's Chord, Flynnville Train, Trace Adkins, Mac McAnally and Mica Roberts. Keith also made his acting debut in 2005, starring in the film Broken Bridges and co-starred with comedian Rodney Carrington in the 2008 film Beer for My Horses.

Keith has released thirteen studio albums, two Christmas albums, and multiple compilation albums. He has also charted more than forty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including nineteen Number One hits and sixteen additional Top Ten hits. His longest-lasting Number One hits are "Beer for My Horses" (a 2003 duet with Willie Nelson) and "As Good as I Once Was" (2005), at six weeks each.

Toby Keith was born in Clinton, Oklahoma, the son of Carolyn Joan (née Ross) and Hubert K. Covel Jr. He has a sister, Tonni, and a brother, Tracy. The family lived in Fort Smith, Arkansas, for a few years when Toby was in grade school, but moved to Moore, Oklahoma (a suburb of Oklahoma City) when he was still young. Before the family moved to Moore, he visited his grandmother in Fort Smith during the summers. His grandmother owned Billie Garner's Supper Club in Fort Smith, where Keith became interested in the musicians who came there to play. He did odd jobs around the supper club and started getting up on the bandstand to play with the band. He got his first guitar at the age of eight. After the family moved to Moore, Oklahoma, Keith attended Highland West Junior High and Moore High School, where he played defensive end on a football team.






Friday, September 23, 2011

Handsome Man - David Villa (Langreo, Asturias, a region in northern Spain)

David Villa Sánchez (born 3 December 1981), nicknamed El Guaje (Asturian: The Kid), is a Spanish footballer who currently plays as a striker for FC Barcelona and the Spanish national football team. He can also operate as winger.

Despite sustaining a serious injury as a child, he started his professional career with Sporting de Gijón. He moved to Real Zaragoza after two seasons, where he made his La Liga début, winning his first senior honours—the Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España. He joined Valencia CF in 2005 for a transfer fee of €12 million and was part of the Valencia team that won the Copa del Rey in the 2007–08 season. In 2010 he moved to FC Barcelona for €40 million where he won his first La Liga and UEFA Champions League titles.

Villa made his international début in 2005. He has since participated in three major tournaments, becoming an integral member of the Spain teams that won Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup. He scored three goals at the 2006 World Cup, was the top scorer at Euro 2008 and earned the Silver Boot at the 2010 World Cup. With 46 goals, Villa is Spain's all-time top goalscorer and has also scored more World Cup goals than any other player in Spain's history. The goals-to-games ratio he has achieved for the national team has not been matched by any player since Alfredo Di Stéfano.

Villa was born in Tuilla, a small village in Langreo, Asturias, a region in northern Spain, the son of José Manuel Villa, a miner. When Villa was four, his chances of becoming a footballer were put in jeopardy when he suffered a fracture to the femur in his right leg, but made a complete recovery. Due to the injury, he and his father worked on strengthening his left leg and Villa ultimately became ambidextrous. He recalls his father being consistently supportive: "He would be there throwing me the ball over and over, making me kick it with my left leg when my right was in plaster after breaking it, I was four. I can barely remember a single training session when my dad wasn't there. I have never been alone on a football pitch."

Villa admitted that he came close to giving up football at the age of 14 after growing disillusioned and falling out with his coach. However, thanks to his parents' encouragement, he persisted in pursuing his dream, realising his talent could earn him a living. "In those days I was a nobody, not earning a penny and after being made to sit on the bench all season I just wanted to get away and play with my friends" he said. "But my dad always supported me and cheered me up until my career turned round." He went on to begin his footballing career at UP Langreo and when he turned 17 he joined the Mareo football school.







Thursday, September 22, 2011

Handsome Man - Adrian Grenier (American actor, musician and director)

Adrian Grenier (born July 10, 1976) is an American actor, musician and director. He is best known for his lead role on the HBO original series, Entourage, as Vincent Chase.

Grenier was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico and raised in Manhattan, New York, by his mother, Karesse Grenier, a real estate agent. His mother met his father, John Dunbar, in a commune in the 1970s and the two were never married. Grenier is of Apache and European descent. He went to Bard College in New York.

In 1997, Grenier made his film debut in the independent drama Arresting Gena. In 1999, he played opposite Melissa Joan Hart in Drive Me Crazy as well as in Britney Spears' music video "Crazy", and in 2001, starred in James Toback's Harvard Man. In 2002, Grenier made his directorial debut with the documentary, Shot in the Dark. The documentary chronicles his years-long search for his father, with whom Grenier's mother broke up when Adrian was still a baby. Grenier and Dunbar remained estranged for 18 years, and in 2001, Adrian began work on the documentary in an attempt to forge a relationship with Dunbar. The two eventually reunited and maintain a warm relationship. HBO premiered the documentary on June 3, 2007.

In 2004, Grenier landed the lead role in the HBO series Entourage, which has brought him his most substantial notice and success. In 2006, he won a role in The Devil Wears Prada, as Anne Hathaway's boyfriend, Nate.

On June 2, 2008, Grenier's new show, Alter Eco, premiered on Planet Green. The show features the actor and his team of green experts showing changes that can be made to become more eco-friendly.

On September 27, 2010 HBO premiered the documentary Teenage Paparazzo, a film concerning the relationship between the celebrity and society that Grenier worked on for three years as a producer. The work features interviews with celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Alec Baldwin, and Whoopi Goldberg.