The Generation Fabulous crowd, a group of mid-life women bloggers, is gabbing about celebrity crushes for Valentine’s Day. A few years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to participate. I hadn’t had a celebrity crush since these guys were showing up in Tiger Beat magazine:

At some point late in high school, I put away celebrity crushes as a childish thing and didn’t reevaluate that policy for several decades.

I can pinpoint the moment when I developed my first adult crush on a celebrity. The new Doctor Who, Series One, episode 9, the scene where Captain Jack Harkness, in World War II uniform, dances with Rose Tyler in front of the Big Ben clock to Glen Miller. It might have been the uniform, but I think it was the music. Or maybe, it was Scottish-American actor John Barrowman’s cheek bones and chin. And eyes. Isn’t he dreamy?

That’s when I remembered just how fun celebrity crushes are. Fortunately, I was a few years behind in my BBC viewing, so I had hours of pleasure catching up on Captain Jack Harkness  in Doctor Who and Torchwood.

I cast John Barrowman in the lead romantic role of my 2010 NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) project and watched approximately a gazillion videos featuring him on YouTube that November, all in the name of research. That was the first year I was in love with my own hero and it added tremendous energy to my project.

My 2011 NaNoWriMo novel was the second in the same series, so I brought John Barrowman back and had him sing  “What About Us?” to the younger couple featured in the book. It became the theme song for the story — which somehow justified watching John Barrowman sing it over and over again when I should have been writing.

I read both of John Barrowman’s autobiographies, the first was one of the first reviews I posted on this blog: Book Review: Anything Goes by John Barrowman.

Now that I’ve rekindled my enthusiasm for celebrity crushes, I’m auditioning new ones. Besides John Barrowman, I’ve gone with David Tennant, the second Doctor Who, and Kevin Whately, Inspector Lewis.

Obviously, the British have an edge here but it’s not just the accent because John Barrowman generally uses an American one. British humor probably has more to do with it. I also seem to want a fairly wide emotional range evident in my celebrity crushes which may be why they are actors. Who else do you suggest?

Be sure to check out all the other GenFab posts. I’m putting this up on Sunday afternoon to have it ready, but we’ll be linking them all together on Monday morning. I’m looking forward to hopping these posts as part of my Valentine week celebrations!