My Top 30 Sexiest Movie Villains List

Is there anything more compelling than a sexy villain? Doubtful. I recently saw “Batman Begins” and determined immediately that Cillian Murphy’s performance as Scarecrow was a sexy villain for the ages. Thus inspired, I contrived to determine my top 30 hot movie villains. Mad props to the four gentlemen who made the list more than once. Some guys just have a knack for being bad (Messrs. Rickman and Isaacs, this means you!)

• Yul Brynner as Ramses, “The Ten Commandments” (1956)
• Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, “Psycho” (1960)
• Malcolm McDowell as Alex, “A Clockwork Orange’ (1971)
• Malcolm McDowell as Caligula, “Caligula” (1979)
• Frank Langella as Dracula, “Dracula” (1979)
• Sam Neill as Damien Thorn, “Omen III: The Final Conflict” (1981)
• Sting as Martin Taylor, “Brimstone and Treacle” (1982)
• Sting as Feyd-Rautha, “Dune” (1984)
• Davie Bowie as Jareth, “Labyrinth” (1986)
• Kiefer Sutherland as David, “The Lost Boys” (1987)
• Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber, “Die Hard” (1988)
• John Malkovich as Valmont, “Dangerous Liaisons” (1988)
• Colin Firth as Valmont, “Valmont” (1989)
• Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham, “Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves” (1991)
• Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lechter, “Silence of the Lambs” (1991)
• Tom Cruise as Lestat de Lioncourt, “Interview with the Vampire” (1994)
• Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith, “The Matrix” (1999)
• Geoffrey Rush as the Marquis de Sade, “Quills” (2000)
• Jason Isaacs as Colonel Tavington, “The Patriot” (2000)
• Joaquin Phoenix as Commodus, “Gladiator” (2000)
• Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, “American Psycho” (2000)
• Alan Rickman as Professor Snape, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (2001)
• Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (2002)
• Guy Pearce as Fernand Mondego, “The Count of Monte Cristo” (2002)
• Tom Hardy as Shinzon, “Star Trek Nemesis” (2002)
• Ralph Fiennes as Francis Dolarhyde, “Red Dragon” (2002)
• Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook, “Peter Pan” (2003)
• Gerard Butler as the Phantom, “The Phantom of the Opera” (2004)
• Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker, “Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith” (2005)
• Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow, “Batman Begins” (2005)

For more fun with villains, I recommend www.hotbadguys.com.

Anyone I left off? Feel free to post!

Summer Lovin'

Ah, there's nothing like summer for an adolescent crush, don't you think?

I just returned from a weekend of camping: lying on the glorious shore of Lake Michigan by day, drinking and dining and gazing into the fire by night. The weather was perfect: low humidity, cloudless sky, warm sun and cool breeze. At night the nearly new moon set early, leaving behind a sky so studded with stars that I was able to reacquaint myself with the Milky Way, last seen in my childhood before light pollution was invented.

In short, the perfect circumstances for being in love.

I am almost 49 but conditions like these can turn anybody 16 again. So as I lay on my beach towel listening to the waves, I indulged my latest crush with great relish. I haven't been infatuated for quite awhile. But by fortuitous timing, I have just fallen hard and fast for John O'Hurley, lately of J. Peterman fame and more recently the heartthrob of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars."

One can never predict where and when Cupid will strike. As I recently posted, John is not the most likely candidate for hunk status...but he has that je ne sais quoi that I (and millions of others, apparently) personally found very winning. And for reasons the heart alone knows, I am at present utterly smitten.

And what can compare with being smitten in summer? It is the most young, fresh, inspiring kind of erotic feeling. My imaginary dance partner Mr. O'Hurley makes me giddy, graceful, entranced, lovely, out of control, tenderhearted, playful, transcendent. I shed twenty years when I think of him. Sorrow and trouble are forgotten and happy wonder takes their place. Everything feels softer, tastes sweeter, has a lilt. My rose colored sunglasses are on, there's a smile on my face for the whole human race...

...why, it's almost like being in love. (Thank you, Lerner and Loewe.)

Of course I do not personally know this man. His wife seems lovely and I hope their marriage is a delight. I don't even have a desire to actually dance with him...I'm sure I would be too overwhelmed to enjoy it! But in my mind he represents something I cannot help but love and which cannot help but make me wild with romance.

Add to that a little sun, a little sand, the smell of Coppertone and the calling of seagulls...

Sigh.