Whedonesque : Comments on 6703 : Maxim's Hot 100 list includes Whedonverse alum.

Paris Hilton at No.20 - above SMG?!?!?!
Pass me the bucket someone, I feel sick.

i'm horrified that eliza dushku isnt on there personally

Eliza was on the FHM 100, above SMG actually.

The lists don't really mean anything though, you only get on and off of it based on how you're in the public eye. But I'm having a great laugh at how Britney Spears has vanished from all of these "hot" lists. Yeah I'm petty.

[ edited by eddy on 2005-05-11 17:38 ]

eddy | May 11, 19:37 CET

Well, while possibly not the "barometer of cool" that Maxim would have you believe, the list is, as eddy says, some indication of who is currently in the public eye. "Hot" rather than hot, obviously. So I think SMG placing at #26 is pretty darn good, and no doubt a tribute to the media whirlwind that she helped create for The Grudge. Eliza just needs to hitch back onto a successful project and she'll be right back up there too.

SoddingNancyTribe | May 11, 20:05 CET

Isn't Evangeline Lily pushing it as a Whedonverse alum?

Simon | May 11, 20:11 CET

Adding to that point, Evangeline Lily was nowhere to be found last year, and now she's #2. I'm sure she was just as "hot" as she was last year, but nobody knew about her. It just shows the power of a hit show.

two_guns | May 11, 20:12 CET

probably a little...but since Lost is mentioned here now and then, I thought the connection might be appropriate...

two_guns | May 11, 20:15 CET

I agree Simon, she's more an Abramsverse alum. Her only connection to Whedon, that I am aware, is that David Fury wrote for "Lost" and I think he left to join a show with some other Whedonverse writers.

killinj | May 11, 20:16 CET

Well she was in Tru Calling I suppose. Seven degrees of separation and all that.

But it's a useful indicator of whose popular with 15 year old boys.

Simon | May 11, 20:17 CET

I guess I don't consider you a Whedonverse alum unless you were on a Joss Whedon show.

killinj | May 11, 20:33 CET

One thing I like about the Whedonverse actors and actresses in general is that most of them aren't incredibly superficial or fake looking. Sure, they're hardly monsters, better looking than the average person, but not completely unreal. Even SMG has a sort of realistic sweetness that is conveyed through her character rather than being typically beautiful and vacous.

Razor | May 11, 20:39 CET

Well I've re-worded the subject line slightly. Even though I prostituted myself over the 'u'.*grrrr*

Simon | May 11, 20:40 CET

LOL

As a fellow 'u' speller, I can understand how you feel. :D

NickSeng | May 11, 20:43 CET

Flavour, flavour, flavour, chant with me now . . . it's OK, Simon. I sold myself down the river on americanized spellings long ago. You could kinda justify it by reference to the original U.S. source material . . . (although it doesn't contain the word "flavor") . . . or in deference to the poster, two-guns, who, I presume by his handle, is in the U.S. (In the U.K., he'd be called "two_popguns." Or possibly "two_big_sticks.")

SoddingNancyTribe | May 11, 20:46 CET

And if anyone is interested, here's the FHM 2005 list.

Eliza came in at #46, Sarah at #64.

Simon | May 11, 20:47 CET

In Canada, "flavor" is a misspelling. Just U-nifying support. Heh, heh. Probably same in NZ and Oz, and even HK and Singapore.

Drifter | May 11, 21:28 CET

With all due respect, I would hardly characterize LOST as a "flavor of the month show", as it has been one of the most critically-acclaimed of the entire season (not to mention ABC's second-highest rated drama). And personally, I think it's easily one of the five best shows on television right now, thanks in considerable measure to the contributions of Buffyverse vets like David Fury (who penned "Walkabout", which was one of the very best hours of any show this season).

FHM, on the other hand, is meaningless, sexist crap. (Though it's Evangeline Lilly, btw -- two l's. And she is indeed hot.)

Robogeek | May 11, 22:29 CET

I agree about w/ you about Lost not being FOTW, someone changed it after I posted. Apparently my comment about it being "Whedonverse" material bothered some...but I thought that's what the "verse" included, all things connected to Joss in some way.

two_guns | May 11, 22:49 CET

I'm a dutchman in America but I still write 'colour', 'flavour', neighbour'.....can't help it. I was taught the Queen's english I guess, hehe.

And personally I'd say the 'Whedonverse' is anything taking place in a Joss show. 'Lost' would be 'Whedonesque Link Verse' at best.

As for the Maxim list, they come and go. Personally I'm not even looking at any of those lists until Paris Hilton's 15 minutes are finally frikkin' UP! Ugh, ugh, ugh...

EdDantes | May 11, 22:55 CET

Simon: Two nations separated by a common language.

I write to my Munich Old Boys rugby pals all the time and am regularly chastised for my U-lessness!

"I guess I don't consider you a Whedonverse alum unless you were on a Joss Whedon show." I agree, killinj.

Chris inVirginia | May 12, 00:17 CET

I think we'll go with Whedonverse in this case pertaining to be a cast or crew member of a Joss project. "Flavor of the month" in regards to Lost, well it's the one show that's got the headlines this season. Last season it was something else. Joan of Arcadia perhaps? Next season, it'll be something different. The Inside? Who knows. It'll be the thrill of the new. Flavor of the month fits in with the poll but I can see why people might not like the term so I'll remove it from the subject line and put something else in. So sorry about that.

Assuming we're all posting here in 5 years time, it'll be interesting to see who is hot in 2010. The lead actress in Lucas' remake of The Empire Strikes Back?

Simon | May 12, 00:18 CET

I had not realized that there was such a "U" controversy. In the States spelling with the "u" is considered "British variant spelling" at best. And as my Freshman English Comp professor pointed out many years ago, British spellings when used by Americans are simply pretentious.

Since Samual Johnson's dictionary that standardized much English spelling was only published in 1755 and Noah Webster's dictionary that put forth most of the American spellings was only 50 years later, I think a case could definately be made for the American spellings to have just as big a claim of legitimacy as the English. And since English spelling of any kind is such a horrible mess anyway, I have to vote for any simplification we can get.

Just my two cents.

[ edited by newcj on 2005-05-12 05:30 ]

newcj | May 12, 06:17 CET

I guess it all comes down to which variant you were taught to use. For me, The American variant is the one that seems messy. :)

Still, it's better than the internet variant. (ie. doodz u rulez!!)

NickSeng | May 12, 06:36 CET

The lead actress in Lucas' remake of The Empire Strikes Back?

Oh Simon, that's...that's just... not funny.

::cries a little::

Joss' bitch | May 12, 08:53 CET

Sarah Michelle Gellar Blonde or Brunette I wonder...?

P.S. I can edit my messages now, Cerebralate! Wait, what? Celebrate!

[ edited by Plecky on 2005-05-12 08:20 ]

Plecky | May 12, 10:17 CET

But it's a useful indicator of whose popular with 15 year old boys.

Isn’t that the mental age of every single man on the planet? :)

Although I have to salute the Whedonesqueteers who can calmly discuss the merits of ‘u’ and spelling instead of ogling at hot babes. Yeah, we believe that’s all you are thinking about. ;)

miranda | May 12, 11:46 CET

"And as my Freshman English Comp professor pointed out many years ago, British spellings when used by Americans are simply pretentious."

As an English instructor I find that funny. Pretentious to impose on others, yes. Not especially to use.
After my two year thing living with a man from Melbourne, some people from my home base in the American South (Kentucky, heh. Poor guy thought he would wither and die there.) thought my speech had become pretentious. Pissed me off. Speech and writing adapt to your immediate environment and all that. My Japanese students and their teachers often asked which was correct, the British or English, pronunciation and spelling. Over and over.
what do you think I said?

*Gets back on topic.*

Erm, do any other females here read Maxim? I'm far from a 15 year old boy. I used to read my bf's from time to time, now I buy it occaisionally and he might read mine. Oh heck, this month Brittany Murphy is on one cover and Frank Miller's Sin City art is on the other (#2) cover. Nice to see him get some play. The back of the Brittany Murphy pull-out poster is all reprints of his original work. Really. Don't know what others thought, but I totally dug the movie. The articles about them aren't long enough, but are still a good read. Brittany Murphy doesn't have a driver's liscence. See how much useless info I know now? But seriously. Maxim is funny. I mean funny. I was LOLing reading it this past weekend. I haven't read a "women's" mag that ever made me actually laugh out loud. Women's mags are reserved for waiting rooms for me. Their sex advice always turns out to be one big yawnfest.
The humor in Maxim is often very tongue-in-cheek, when not blatantly obnoxious. And hey, girls...pretty! And while I am not usually fond of the media promoting anorexia, at least Maxim just pretty much has girl pics deemed "hot" and they don't justify thier product any other way. Thumbs up for directness, imho.

April | May 12, 17:09 CET

I suspect that FHM's "the Olsen twin" meant them together, hem.

Looking at these lists made me think of a Seinfeld episode in which Elaine is fixing up George with her friend's roommate; George asks Jerry is the woman is good-looking, and Jerry says that Elaine said she has nice eyebrows. George wonders what eyebrows have to do with anything. We women, though, notice eyebrows (okay, well, I do) and find them important. This is all by was of saying that there are women I think are prettier than Nicole Richie who are further down on the list!

Gaudior | May 12, 20:57 CET

Well, no offence to anyone who prefers the American way of spelling things, but it is basically a perversion of the correct English language. I wonder why, though, did people think it would save time to omit letters? Or words like "centre" are spelt as "center" for some reason. I believe Buffy has poked fun at people speaking 'American' rather than English.

Razor | May 12, 23:23 CET

What, no CC? Sorry, but in my book, Charisma is one of the most beautiful women on television

MySerenity | May 13, 02:13 CET

"but it is basically a perversion of the correct English language."

hope that's in jest.

April | May 13, 03:34 CET

In the endless -our verus -or debate, spare a thought for Australians: enormous English colonial heritage combined with overwhelming American contemporary influence. What is correct here? Personally, I think what we call Australian English is now much closer to American English than ummm.... (English?) English. In the end, I don't notice the difference. I know what "labor" means. I know what "labour" means. Beyond that, it is a non-event for me.

catalyst2 | May 13, 05:02 CET

On topic: Hey, look everybody! I have something to say on topic. It's a miracle. ;-)

I noticed in the pictures (accessable on the link that is in one of the messages earlier on this thread) that Frank Langella is in Kitchen Confidential. I probably just missed it earlier, but I did not know that. For me that is a big plus for the show.

Off Topic:

April, the one that bothers me, is people who want to accuse you of being pretentious because you have a comparatively large vocabulary, and use it when appropriate. There was a woman who worked for me who would give me attitude all the time because of that. What she did not seem to get, was that though my vocabulary is pretty good, it is not outstanding. Hers on the other hand for a native speaker was truly awful. I was amazed at some of the words she was not familiar with. I did not give her attitude, but she insisted giving me a heap of it. If she had paid attention instead of dismissing any word she was not familiar with as me just showing off, she might have as good a vocabulary as my 9 year old by now. (Sorry for the rant, she just really annoyed me...for a long time. She was almost an evangelist for ignorance, she took such pride in it.)

As far as the spelling thing: The spelling of the English language over all is just so silly and arbitrary it is a wonder to me that we get so worked up about traditional spellings. Especially considering the history of the language as a whole. (Which I love, BTW.) Although we need standardized spelling to be able to communicate effectively, I wish we would take the people campaigning for simplified spelling more seriously. I'm a much betterr speller in Spanish and German than I am in English and I don't speak either language. How strange is that? (I actually was a temp in an International dept of a corporation one day when everyone was out except one young administrative asst who spoke Spanish at home but had only learned to write in English. I took one look at something she had written in Spanish and told her it was all wrong. She had used English spellings for Spanish words. I had her dictate it to me, and we sent it off to South America. She kept asking me about the content and I kept trying to explain that I had no idea what most of it meant, I just knew how to spell it and pronounce it. She could not wrap her head around that at all. The upshot was that we apparently did a good job together and the message got through just fine.)

Razor, I hope that was joking too.

newcj | May 13, 08:43 CET

Eh, it's not so off-topic. We are all language lovers here, it's why we worship the big W. And he never fails to tease us with so many varieties of English. All of 'em are lovely.

I'll happily spare y'all the academic English rant. :)

ETA: From an English teacher, newcj, you're pretty much on target. Except that efforts to standardize spelling go over like the metric system in the USA. It's unfortunate, but no one wants to give up the language that defines them. Shiny, no?

[ edited by April on 2005-05-13 07:39 ]

April | May 13, 09:36 CET

Um...

I think we should all just take a moment to pause in wonder at fact that a post about Maxim's Hot 100 List spawned a discussion thread about the English language.

Ah, the joy of Whedonesque.

Robogeek | May 13, 10:29 CET

...And, Blast!!! I was really tired last night and thought that the this was the Whedon People in Pilots thread, rather than the 100 Hot Babes list, so I was more off-topic when I thought I was on-topic than when I was off-topic.

About hot babes, I have little to nothing to say...except "good for you" and "good luck staying on the list." I honestly have no idea who almost any of them are.

Robogeek, I agree. I think it's cool, but then I've always been considered a little odd.

April, I know. I also feel the jaw tightening as I see advertisers change spellings. I say to myself it is because they are making it that much more difficult for children to learn standard spellings, but I doubt that is the real reason. Language is near and dear, and considering how fast English changes, I guess having something stay the same, even the worst thing in the language, is a comfort to us. However, maybe it is through those dasterdly advertisers that spelling simplification will ultimately happen. "Overnite" is almost standard when refering to mailing something...no wait, that just means we have another homonym...at least for now. ;-)

newcj | May 13, 15:39 CET

Where else could we discuss SMG in FMH?
The net seems to spawn more changes than anything. A language free-for-all!
Anyway, I still think Maxim is funny. If you haven't read it, give it a shot. Um, if you like hot chicks too.

April | May 13, 16:07 CET

May 11 2005