Celebrity Crushes

I think most people who have reached my age, and many much younger, have gone through phases in which we've had consciously unrealistic crushes on celebrities. It's probably a rite of passage, and every girl who has had any exposure to media whatsoever probably has fantasized about having a relationship with a famous person. Judging from posters that used to be on my brother's walls a few years ago, I'd guess that the same is probably true of males as well. 

Children growing up in highly sheltered families such as the Duggar family (difficult as it is, I'll pass on the opportunity to take any cheap shots at the Duggar family at this time, as I consider the recent reports to be tragic rather than funny) may have been exempt from this phase simply from lack of exposure to ordinary media, but I suspect even they had their fantasies, but just based on lower standards since the objects of their crushes would likely have been the male members of the hay seed families  they met up with at their annual Gothardite conventions.  
 ***Note: I've addressed my situation versus that of the Duggar children in a separate prequel which I'll post just before I post this. I didn't want that topic to take over this one. ***                     

Most of my counterparts had relatively large access to pop culture media, and had access to photos of young, handsome celebrities, as well as some information about those celebrities who were the subject of our fantasy love lives, which were the only kind of love lives most of us had at those early ages. Celebrity crushes were safe in that regard. The distance between us and them prevented them from breaking our hearts as real-life crushes surely would have in 99.999% of cases.

Other than my oddly obsessive one-way relationship with Steve from Blue's Clues, I came to the world of teen and young adult celebrity idol worship a bit later in life than did most girls. in fact, I believe my brother had posters on his walls of the teen starlets he considered hot before I developed any interest, which is a bit unusual considering the typically later development of male children in that regard. 

Steve, who supposedly wrote to me to explain why he had to leave Blue's Clues when my obsession became too much for everyone around me to tolerate,, though I suspect the letter was the work of one of my dad's colleagues.

I did nonetheless develop my first teen celebrity crush at the age of thirteen. Considering my longtime (I still watch the reruns) obsession with House, M.D., it's fitting that Jesse Spencer, who portrayed the character of Dr. Robert Chase on the program, was my first TV crush. TV and reality don't always mesh. Spencer was only 21 when he started the role. He was only slightly older than my brother and I are now, and we're considered very young to be enrolled in medical school, much less graduated from it and having completed a residency. Spencer was already playing the part of a board-certified surgeon on Dr. House's diagnostics team. I don't remember how the show handled the age discrepancy thing -- whether they pretended that his character was older than Spencer's actual chronological age, if they portrayed him as a baby genius, or if they just ignored the issue entirely and left it up to the viewer to decide. Regardless, Jesse Spencer was one sizzling young actor. He was also in a feature film, Uptown Girls, in which his musical abilities were showcased to some degree. My dad used to upset me [deliberately] by grabbing one of his guitars and warbling, "Daddy's little girl paints the world with her magic wand" in his best [not very good] imitation Aussie accent. Jessie Spencer will always occupy a small section of my heart as having been my first real TV crush. I'm not exactly sure what I'd call the "Steve of Blue's Clues" thing; it was probably more of an obsession than a celebrity crush.

Add an Aussie accent and you have pure confection. A person could get cavities just from watching and listening to Jesse Spencer on screen.

My next celebrity crush was Josh Groban. He's not one about whom I'm terribly embarrassed. The man has talent oozing out of every pore, and he's cute even to the present me in a geeky sort of way. i went to one of his concerts once. The ticket was a birthday gift from my Godparents.  I was chosen to be one of the little girls who stood around him screaming and swooning while he sang "Not While I'm Around" from Sweeney Todd.  As he was describing Sweeney Todd's plot briefly, he paused, looked directly at me - I was standing right in front of him -- and said to me , "You're not old enough to see it." Then he autographed my forearm on a solemn promise from me not to have the signature turned into a tattoo. Groban was well aware that his fan base was largely teeny-boppers (and preteens) as well as middle-aged women, and he addressed it in a relatively classy way.

There's really nothing nerdy about this picture. Josh just looks handsome.

My next celebrity crush was Dr. Sanjay Gupta. I knew he was too old for me, but his appearance was just youthful enough that I could pretend.  I believe I was in like with his mind as much as with his physical appearance. I like intelligent men -- always have and probably always will. My dad teases me about how he's sure  I'm going to end up applying for a neurosurgery residency at Emory University School of medicine, at which Dr. Gupta is a member of the faculty. It won't happen. I may complete a surgical fellowship to attain board certification, but  it will be in general surgery; I have no interest in pursuing neurosurgery, nor do I have any desire to spend the years of my residency or even a fellowship in or anywhere near Atlanta, even if Dr. Gupta and his pearly-white teeth are there.

Dr, Sanjay Gupta and his beautiful teeth

Another celebrity crush that came along in the midst of all the rest was singer/actor Ramin Karimloo. His most recent gig to my knowledge was the role of Jean Valjean on Broadway in Les Miserables. He's probably cute more than conventionally handsome, but his voice is possibly the most exquisite musical instrument presently on the face of the Earth.  I have a relative of a relative, with whom I'm not terribly close but probably close enough to have called in a favor,  who was for a time a fellow cast member in the Broadway production of Les Mis. I'll never 100% forgive myself for not having traveled to New York when the show was in production and arranged a meeting. It was foolish of me, but I was busy with medical school interview and such, and I didn't stop to think that the window of opportunity was so narrow. Before I knew it, the chance was gone. Perhaps someday there will be another opportunity to meet Mr. Karimloo.

I'm mentioning Judge Alex because, despite what my dad might have thought, Judge Ferrer was never really a proper crush. I always recognized him as being out of my league in every way. I didn't want to be his girlfriend. I merely wanted him and his wife to adopt me and rescue me from the ridiculously restrictive and demanding environment in which I lived. I assume now that the environment in which his own children existed probably was not all that much less rigid than the regime under which I lived. His children were probably also expected to maintain high grades and to be where they were supposed to be at all times until they were considered old enough to have some degree of autonomy.  No one could have told me that at the time, though.

Judge Alex, my real-life hero -- a man who is as good and kind in real life as he appears on TV

I've come clean with my celebrity crushes. Anyone of any age who wishes to make any true confessions of his or her own in this regard, please feel free to do so. I'm all ears and hardly in any position to be judgmental.