Win a Date With…George Clooney?

Last week I overheard a conversation between two teenagers who’d just watched “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!” for the first time. After discussing the merits of Josh Duhamel and agreeing he was “definitely the best part of Transformers”, the talk quickly turned personal. “Where would you go with Harry Styles if he showed up to take you to lunch?” one girl asked the other.  The entire conversation made me smile because whether it be a quirky film about a starstruck grocery store clerk, two teens debating the best restaurant to dine with a member of One Direction, or a grown woman imagining a romantic evening with David Gandy (you know who you are), one thing remains the same…we’ve all entertained the fantasy of “what if”.

Josh Duhamel and Kate Bosworth
star in 2004's "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton"

Well for one lucky woman, the fantasy of winning a date with her celebrity crush became a reality. Earlier this month, single mom Jean Allen won a date with George Clooney. And brace yourself…it only cost her ten dollars! Yes, that’s right, for a mere ten dollar raffle ticket, Jean was on George’s arm as he walked the red carpet for the premiere of his latest film.  And the best part? It was all for a good cause with the proceeds from the contest going to Clooney’s charity, SatelliteSentinel Project.

Now you’re probably asking yourself how you missed the chance to buy a ticket because lord knows I was wondering the same thing. Turns out there is a website called Omaze.com which auctions off once in a lifetime experiences ranging from riding in a tank with Arnold Schwarzenegger to brunch with the cast of “Scandal”. Be sure to check it out. And in the meantime if you hear of any other charity auctions, say with a devastatingly handsome British model or the members of a popular boy band, be sure to share with readers by posting the details in the comments section below. 

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Casting Christian Grey…. Again!

The speculation had been finally put to rest, Charlie Hunnam was going to play Christian Grey. The fans reacted (some good, some bad, and some with online petitions) but then the dust settled and it was time to move to the production phase.

Not so fast.

Charlie is out and now fans are left to debate the casting of Christian Grey… again.

So who will it be this time? Rumor has it there are four major contenders:

Jamie Dornan. Most fans will know him as the very hot Sheriff Graham from “Once Upon A Time”.

Alexander Skarsgard. Eric Northman fans are divided on whether they'd liked to see the True Blood fave turn in his fangs for a flogger.

Theo James. This Brit might be a bit over-committed with the YA Divergent series to take on a more…adult trilogy.

Christian Cooke.  The name would certainly fit, but does he have the right look?

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Meet Jessie Pavelka

 

Who could resist that face? Certainly not me. So when Jessie Pavelka recently asked me to “hook him up”, I was quick to promise my next blog post would be about the real man whose face is synonymous with one of Twitter’s most popular “book boyfriends”.

How it all began….

I first learned who Jessie was the way nearly one hundred thousand other women did, when I stumbled across @ChristianTGrey’s twitter account. After getting over the initial shock of learning fictional characters have twitter accounts, my next thought was “who is this gorgeous man?”  A quick internet search revealed the handsome face actually belonged to fitness and well being expert Jessie Pavelka.  As one of the world’s top celebrity trainers, Jessie has appeared on numerous American and British television programs including The View, Lifetime’s DietTribe, and Oprah’s OWN Wake-Up Workout. He can currently be seen on Sky Living’s new documentary series, Fat: The Fight of My Life.

Jessie was recently a guest on Northwest Prime, a blogtalk radio program hosted by Seattle’s Lori Ness. I was fortunate enough to speak with him during the show and both Lori and I had questions for Jessie about his connection to the phenomenon that is Fifty Shades of Grey.

On being “cast” as twitter’s original Christian Grey…
 

@ChristianTGrey

Jessie Pavelka was the unofficial “face” of Christian Grey months before the Fifty Shades series was even released by Random House. “I have no idea how this happened,” he told Ness.  “It’s very flattering, I will say that.” 

When I asked Jessie what he thought about having 94,000 people following him as the AVI of @ChristianTGrey, he laughed and replied, “It makes me envy this guy, because I only have 25,000,” then quickly added, “I’m fortunate to have my picture used, so I’m not complaining.”

In fact, far from it. Jessie not only considers the use of his image to be flattering, he even follows the account himself. “I’m blessed in a lot of ways to have that happen. It was a picture of me and then people wanted to know who it was…Some of the stuff I do never kind of gets recognized, so what this does is allow people who would never see what I do…it gives them kind of a window into that as well. So if nothing ever came from this, at least there’s that.”

On whether or not he’s read Fifty Shades of Grey...

Jessie admits he was “given a copy of the book and went through it a bit”. While he “could see why people would like it”, he’s not sure the content was made for him.

On being considered for the role of Christian Grey…

While his work right now is fitness based, Jessie is no stranger to the screen. In addition to the previously mentioned fitness programs,   Jessie also appeared in the pilot episode of “Friday Night Lights”.  And while he’s “very open to the idea of a new role”, he says no one has contacted him about the role of Christian Grey. When a caller asked who he could see playing his co-star, Jessie very diplomatically answered, “my wife.” Hmm…well played, Mr. Pavelka, well played.  

 

More than just a pretty face….

One of Jessie’s latest endeavors is serving as patron of the UK Charity HOOP (Helping Overcome Obesity Problems) which aims to assist obese young people with finding healthy solutions.  The organization strives to be a hub of information while supporting not only the children, but their parents as well.  You can find out more about Jessie’s involvement in this worthy cause by visiting http://hoopuk.org.uk/  or watching this video from his website.

And finally…

Be sure to follow @Jessie_Pavelka on twitter. Seems only fair he have as many followers as Christian Grey!

You can find out more about Jessie through his website, http://jessiepavelka.com/

 

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My Review of “Magic Mike”

The AMC 14 was packed.

Teen girls clutching free posters of Katy Perry, devoted Spiderman fans standing in line behind velvet ropes, and a theater FULL of women chatting about “Fifty Shades” and Christian Grey while waiting to see “Magic Mike”.

It was all so promising, right down to the opening scene in which Matthew McConaughey told a crowd of zealous women about the “touch and no touch zones”. (For the record, anything goes.) The momentum kept going at full speed into the second scene, which opened with a shot of Channing Tatum’s bare bum and quickly revealed not one, but two ladies had spent the night in his bed.

After that, however, the film developed a multiple personality disorder, constantly flipping between two genres.

On the one hand it was as advertised, a rollicking good time about a stripper with a heart of gold and a body that...well, let’s just say if I could go see Channing Tatum dance I’d leave the singles at home...tens and twenties, baby! But there were darker moments in the film as well. I don’t want to ruin the movie for anyone, but a teacup pig eating vomit off the floor the “morning after” is a bit of a mood kill in my book. All in all, not quite the romantic comedy the movie’s trailer made it out to be.

So my advice to you is this: wait for the DVD to come out. That way you can invite your friends over, have a few cocktails, and replay the dancing scenes over and over. In the meantime, open a bottle of wine and watch the trailer a few dozen times. All the best parts are there anyway.

Cheers!

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Confessions of a Teen Crush – Celebrity Edition

Okay ladies (and a few gentlemen), I know most of you have a pretty big crush on Christian Grey right now, but who did you love before him? I’m talking about the pictures you cut out of Tiger Beat, the posters you hung on your bedroom wall, or the movie you saw at the theatre 12 times because none of us had VCRs yet. That’s right, it’s time for “Confessions of a First Crush – Celebrity Edition”.

So get out that crimping iron, put on those leg warmers, crank up “Jessie’s Girl”, and post a comment below telling me about your “Teen Crush”. 

As for me, I’m afraid I’ll have to sit this one out. For those of you who frequent my blog, you already know my first novel, Hollywood Ending - the story of a broken hearted co-ed who sends an impulsive letter to the 80s hottest heartthrob - was loosely based on my own true story. Obviously, I can’t reveal my teen crush without also giving away the identity of the actor who inspired the main character.

So instead I ask you, if you could have had an adventure with the teen idol of your choice, who would it have been?