The Return of the Celebrity Crush

It’s been a while since I had a serious celebrity crush. One of the earliest I can remember was Christina Ricci, followed by Sarah Michelle Gellar, Neve Campbell, and a series of other actresses whose careers peaked during my middle-school years. Like most heterosexual men, I also had an intense Jessica Alba period, as well as a brief fling with 24’s Elisha Cuthbert. In recent years, however, my penchant for developing a deep infatuation with untouchable Hollywood stars has greatly diminished. Perhaps it is because I don’t spend as much time with their images as I once did—I no longer watch TV (other than Lost and The Office), I rarely see mainstream movies, and I long ago ended my subscription to Maxim. Recently, however, I saw a mainstream movie, and it wasn’t long before I’d fallen for one of the leading ladies, Mila Kunis.

The film was Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the latest release from Superbad producer Judd Apatow’s comedic repertoire. The lead actresses in Apatow’s movies always give realistic, sympathetic performances, playing the types of girls men pine for, rather than lust after. Kunis is no exception—her Rachel is the gorgeous girl-next-door who uses words like “dude” and eases awkward moments with her casual demeanor. Basically, she’s every guy’s dream. Kunis, like other Apatow beauties, doesn’t overact or let her character become banal. Like Emma Stone as Jules in Superbad, Kunis delivers her lines with pitch-perfect self-deprecating tone.

It would be hard enough to resist Kunis’s exotic eyes or Hawaiian tan. But coupled with Segel’s masterly screenwriting, she becomes irresistibly adorable. Unfortunately (a word I use ironically, because it always amuses me when fans believe they would stand a chance to date their celebrity crush if they were single), Kunis has been dating Macaulay Culkin for over 6 years. Guess I’ll have to try forgetting Mila Kunis.