Dear Gossips,

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of John Legend being named PEOPLE Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive. His reign will come to an end soon, probably next week, when the 2020 Sexiest Man Alive will be announced. Who will it be?

Though he probably doesn’t get a say, John was asked who his successor should be a couple of months ago. His response: Jason Momoa. No argument here. Jason checks a lot of boxes. He is, obviously, very, very sexy. He’s old enough (the Sexiest Man Alive is almost always over 30 years old). He would have been promoting Dune when they finalised the selection had it not been for the studio’s decision not too long ago to pull it from release in December and push to next year. And he would say yes and participate in a photo shoot and exclusive interview which has been a longstanding requirement and which has reportedly been a sticking point for a few would-be SMAs who were offered the crown but are rumoured to have turned it down.

So should we wrap it up? Is it a done deal? Perhaps we should at least list some other contenders.

If we’re going by films that were supposed to be come out around now and through the holidays and the possible SMA candidates featured in them, Daniel Craig and James Bond would have been on the list. Daniel has never been the Sexiest Man Alive and he meets most of the criteria too – although for him it would be a harder sell to accept the title. I don’t know that he’d be down for that kind of thing at this point in his career.

There are two Chrises who’ve never been the Sexiest Man Alive who’d be pretty safe choices: Evans and Pine. Chris Evans doesn’t necessarily have an immediate acting project to promote but he did launch his political bipartisan website and app, A Starting Point, not too long ago and the PEOPLE Magazine reader is exactly the demographic he might want to attract. That said, does taking his shirt off for the magazine’s SMA issue align with the purpose of the project? Well… he’s already accidently shown his dick on social media. And recently posted a thirst-trappy photo of his dog Dodger lying on his bare chest so maybe he’d have a sense of humour about it?

As for Pine, he actually does have a movie to promote: Wonder Woman 1984 which, at the time of this writing, is still scheduled for release on Christmas Day, although Deadline reported a few hours ago that a decision about delaying it is imminent. Still, where the SMA is concerned, the timing works. And he too meets the criteria. Pine, however, doesn’t have any public social media accounts and doesn’t really engage that way with his fame. So for him it’s a matter of whether or not he would agree to it. I wonder though if he could be convinced, or has already been convinced. I can’t imagine that the Wonder Woman marketing team would mind the publicity. And becoming Sexiest Man Alive to promote a superhero movie where the hero is a woman and the Sexiest Man Alive plays a secondary character who’s there to serve the woman’s storyline might be the kind of energy we need right now.

Maria mentioned a few weeks ago in Celebrity Social Media that John David Washington should be on the shortlist. Tenet wasn’t the blockbuster that we expected but then again, there haven’t been any blockbusters this year anyway. She also noted that Robert Pattinson, who is over 30 now, could take a run at it. But if he ever did say yes, it would be better to do it when The Batman actually comes out.

Sterling K Brown? This is Us is a super popular show and the new season just premiered. The PEOPLE Magazine audience is all over it.

And then there’s Justin Timberlake. To be clear, this would not be my pick. But the PEOPLE demo doesn’t see JT for the “ME ME ME” that he is. It would be what the magazine would consider a safe choice. JT’s been pretty quiet the last few months since the birth of his and Jessica Biel’s second child. They’ve not yet actually confirmed it themselves and, well, saving it as a reveal to go along with this Sexiest Man Alive title would be such a JT thing to do, non?

If I were on the editorial team at PEOPLE though, I’d push for a radical choice – not just one Sexiest Man Alive but seven Sexiest Men Alive. BTS, obviously! The timing is there, with their new album BE due out a week today. They’ve never been more popular, they’ve had two #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 this year, in the last three months alone, actually. It would guaranteed be PEOPLE Magazine’s bestselling issue in YEARS as ARMY would clean those issues off the shelves and justify the need for a reprint; and it’s not like they wouldn’t like the money. Every publication needs money. Sure, they’re all under 30 years old but these young men uphold a modern version of masculinity that’s softer, more sensitive, more fluid, more inclusive, and much kinder, that challenges traditional views of who gets to be sexy and who gets to be called a “man”. It’s a major longshot. But why not? It might put some spark and spontaneity back to a brand that’s become kinda predictable.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

John David Washington Gossip

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