It’s an annual tradition here at LaineyGossip.com - predicting PEOPLE Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive. I handicap the contenders, and on Wednesday the magazine unveils this year’s SMA.

For those of you who are new to the game - please note, this is NOT about who YOU think is the Sexiest Man Alive but who you THINK they will name the Sexiest Man Alive. Your personal sexy preference has nothing to do with it.

If you’re into Matt Bomer, for instance, I can promise you that Matt Bomer will NOT be the Sexiest Man Alive. As much as I’m into Idris Elba, I can promise you Idris Elba will NOT be the Sexiest Man Alive. Because the Sexiest Man Alive is, for the most part, a universal selection.

I would LOVE to be in the editorial meetings leading up to their decision. I would love it if they provided a video - unedited - of the selection process...which they never would, I mean truly unfiltered. Not only because of the intensity of the debates, but because of the pragmatism behind them.

Take, for instance, the fact that this week is Twilight Week. Breaking Dawn Part 1 opens on Friday. Twi-Hards are hornier than ever. So you placate them by making Robert Pattinson the Sexiest Man Alive and every Twi-Hard buys 10 copies and the magazine’s investors are jerking off.

The counter-argument to that of course is that Pattinson only appeals to one demographic, and if you’re safeguarding the Sexiest Man Alive BRAND, do you compromise the legacy of the brand just for a one shot sales spike? And do you allow this kind of debate to be made public, risking the relationship you have with publicists, studios, and fans?

I wish.

But this is not PEOPLE.

Am having a very hard time this year deciding who my final prediction will be. As of this writing, I actually haven’t decided yet. I’ll have to work my way to it. Look forward to arguing about it with you.

Let’s let Ryan Reynolds take his final lap then, shall we? I wonder if it isn’t a bit of a curse. After he was crowned, he got divorced. Hugh Jackman’s Australia took a sh-t after he was named SMA too. And during Jude Law’s reign, he got caught with the nanny...