It’s Guilty Pleasure Friday and today it’s raining men!  Men in your favorite movies.

It all started with date night.  With my girlfriends.  There was wine involved, tomatoes and mozzarella, and lots of good conversation, and we started talking about our top 5 cinematic men.  Who would you love to date if age, time, and character roles weren’t an issue?  Leave your top 5 list in the comments!

Here’s my list of all-time cinematic hunks:

     Gabriel Byrne – I love his accent.  His voice makes me instantly calm and fluttery all at once.  Ever since I watched Little Women where he plays Dr. Bhaer, I loved him and wanted him to take me to the opera and make me a better writer just like he did for Jo March.  But he is equally as dreamy in roles like Jindabyne, Emotional Arithmetic, and even Stigmata.  I pretty much will listen to his voice no matter what role he’s in.  And, bonus, he studied archaeology and linguistics in college in Dublin.  He was an archaeologist, a cook, a bull-fighter, and a teacher before he became an actor.  Don’t you want to curl up on the couch and have him tell you stories about his adventures with that accent of his?

     Jonathan Crombie – I think I have a year’s worth of diary entries where I pretended Gilbert Blythe (Jonathan Crombie) was my actual boyfriend.  Jonathan’s portrayal of Gilbert in Anne of Green Gables, was just the sort of thing you hoped would happen to you in high school.  He was the smart, but cocky boy, too charming for his own good, and you were the new girl in town, giving him a run for his money in the brain’s department.  He would push and annoy, but despite it all, he’d be there for you when you needed him and he’d make you a better writer.  Hmm, I’m seeing a theme here, but don’t worry, not all my hunky men are characters who’ve played opposite a writer.  But look at that smile of his, wouldn’t he light up your day if you were playing the Lady of Shalott and became stranded in the river as your dory slowly sank?  *sigh*  My hero!

     Harrison Ford – Hello, handsome!  My mother once gave me an article from her Lady’s Home Journal that let you take a quiz to find your ideal cinematic man.  Mine was Harrison Ford, defined as the smart woman’s perfect man.  He’s strong, resourceful, slightly flawed in a charming way, and knows how to use a whip.  (Did I say that out loud?)  His character roles as Indiana Jones and Han Solo embody both my longing for adventure and protection.  And with that damn crooked smile of his, he’ll chide you just enough to make you hate him, and then he’ll go in and kiss you like you haven’t yet lived!  Plus, let’s face it, ladies, he has a theme song.  Dun dun dun duh, dun du duh, dun dun dun duh, dun du du du du…

     Richard Chamberlain – Every lady’s gotta have herself at least one forbidden man, andmine would be Richard Chamberlain.  His role as Father Ralph di Bricassart in The Thorn Birds soared him to the top of the leading man charts.  I watched this TV miniseries every year with my mother and clearly suffered delusional daydreams about a man who battled between his love for God and his love for one woman.  The ladies at my family’s church used to call our local priest “Father What-A-Waste,” so can you really blame me?  I read this book the summer before high school and it’s still the only novel I’ve thrown across the room in anger, but that was at Luke O’Neil, not blessed Father Ralph.  He’s the unattainable man, the man who knows he loves you, and yet won’t stay with you, but will spend the rest of both your lives doubting he made the right choice.

And my ultimate Cinematic Man pick of all time goes to:

    Cary Grant – Every film I’ve ever seen starring Cary Grant has been a favorite.  The first movie I ever cried watching was An Affair to Remember.  My favorite Hitchcock film is North by Northwest.  And of course, my leading man has played a writer who tries to out-story his love-interest/fellow writer in His Girl Friday.  Grant is my ideal man.  He’s captured the hearts of Audrey Hepburn, Katherine Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Doris Day, Joan Fontaine, Ingrid Bergman, Eva Marie Saint, Rosalind Russell, and even Shirley Temple!  How was I to resist his allure, his quick-witted one-liners, and his inability to tell a woman no?  He has at least 50 different tones of voice using the word “Darling,” and I only hope I fall asleep tonight hearing every single one of them.

The guilty pleasures don’t stop here.  Join the fun over at Mark Petruska’s blog for his Top 5 Cinematic Women.  We love hearing from you; tell us what Hollywood stars and starlets would be on your guilty pleasure list?