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Thursday, August 7, 2008

Celebrity Crushes: A 20 Year Retrospective (part 1)

The Early Years: 1988-1992 (6th-8th grades)

Joe McIntyre of New Kids on the Block
Oh, Joe. You were so fab with your falsetto singing. Or, perhaps, just your voice that had not yet changed--I was too young to tell the difference. I remember being so shocked to hear my mom say that "Please Don't Go Girl" had been popular when she was in junior high. Surely no one but Joe could do this song justice! I listed to that one on my walkman at least 4 times a day in 1989.
Many tears were shed over being denied my requests to go to a New Kids concert. (Yes, I know they are on a reunion tour now--that does not erase my pain.) Validation came in 2004 when I saw Joe on Broadway during his run as Fiero in Wicked.





Kirk Cameron

This probably goes without saying, because who didn't have a crush on Kirk Cameron in junior high? The hair, the tightrolled jeans, the impish grin--he was the total package. My love for Kirk only grew when I saw him in some James Dobson abstinence video at a youth rally in Newport.
I am sad to say that Kirk's stock took a sharp downward turn when he decided to star in the Left Behind movies, but my pre-pubescent heart still flutters a little when I see pictures like this one...pictures I would have cut out of Tiger Beat and hung on the inside of my closet door.





Michael J Fox as Alex P Keaton

Hmmmmm. Looking back, I see this crush as, perhaps, a sort of foreshadowing in my romantic tastes.
Well, Alex P/Michael J....So much to love:
1. Gotta love the initial. I give him props for starting the initial craze way before it was cool. C'mon--did you really think Samuel L Jackson thought of that all on his own?
2. Again, please note the fabulous hair, just bordering on a mullet.
3. Sock ties.
4. The dorky earnestness of a Young Republican.
5. Much repressed emotion.

I did not love Michael J quite so much in the Back to the Future series, but Spin City was a pretty great show, even if I did only watch it in reruns.


Bonus: GirlCrush.........Alyssa Milano

The lipgloss!
The clothes!
The bangs!

Alyssa had it all. The greatest compliment of my junior high life was when some girl at church camp told me I looked like AM. It was totally untrue, but I clung to those words with all the vanity in my 13-year-old heart.

8 comments:

Polly said...

I was lucky enough to go to a New Kids concert! I even got the hat! Don't hate me because I am cool!

sKg said...

Yeah, I've got a bit of a NewKids habit. You can rest easy at night, because the song your mom said was popular when she was young must've been another song. NKOTB's Please Don't Go Girl was written by Maurice Starr. For them!
The reunion might not erase the pain, but at least we can all pretend that we're 15 again!

Danna Ramsey said...

Mine was Mitch Gaylord, gymnast extrodinaire/part-time actor/Hottie mcHotness.

Creekmore's said...

Okay I'm totally cracking up at this! I had it bad for Kirk Cameron too! I even had the poster above my bed. LOL And those crushes don't end. Our ladies ministry goes every year to the Women of Joy Conference in Branson, but I've not been able to go because I've either been nursing a baby or working every year - but this year they came home and Kirk Cameron was announced as the speaker. I signed up to go that week! LOL You know he and his wife international adopt too.

Danielle Balentine said...

Glad your back! It's always fun reading your off the wall funny blogs. Glad you guys had a safe trip to Hungary. Taking a baby puts a whole different spin on the trip overseas, though. Oh! I got to go to a NKOTB concert myself. It was pretty cool! I couldn't hear for about a week after.

Hannah said...

Oh, how I've missed your blog! Great topic to write about. I am sitting here trying to remember any of my celebrity crushes from that time, but I am coming up with nothing. My parents wouldn't really let us watch "Growing Pains" because the kids were smart alecks (sp.). BTW, I was asked to go to a NKOTB concert, and I said no. I never liked them!

Kim said...

Oh the wonderful memories of drooling over Kirk Cameron! In fact I was cleaning out a box and found two copies of Kirk Cameron, Dream Guy. Sad to say, only one ended up in the trash! hahaha

Stephanie K. said...

Oh this is too good. Anxiously awaiting Part Dos. Your crushes are so...um, wholesome. Don't get me wrong, good choices, all. But I'm a little surprised that there is no rebellious rock crush on the list. Such as a Jon Bon Jovi (who was at the top of my 4th-6th grade list).