I remember Ben Browder from his Memphis Belle days. Freakily, he's gotten better looking over the ensuing 14 years.

Of course, the actually BEING a fangeek who happens to star in one of the series he's geeky about doesn't hurt either.

very few men get prettier with age.

I don't know. What constitutes pretty? Although he is not on any SF TV shows right now, I do believe Dennis Quaid can thrash the standard set of pretty young things and make them cry. He is old enough to be my father, and still quite pretty.

I mean, you could hide quarters in his smile lines, but that is part of the appeal.

I think Dennis Quaid is better looking than he used to be, but my definition of pretty ends up pretty much tied to youth -- smooth skin, more delicate features.

RDA, for instance, had some prettiness in his youth, but he's infinitely better looking (and more attractive to me) now. Drop in some seaming, some roughness, some experienced twinkle -- these can all add greatly to a person's looks.

Not pretty. Prettier.

Does that make sense?

Johnny Depp may be pretty until the day he dies. So might Caviezel. Browder's less pretty with time, more goodlooking.

t /ita's aesthetics

Yeah, not necessarily prettier, but more attractive with age. RDA is a prime example, 'cause the MacGyver-(probably spelling that wrong) hair? Large with the cringe.

Michael Shanks is still pretty, but I'm not digging the beefcakey arms so much. It sort of clashes with my internal envisioning of his character arc--I'm great with Daniel evolving from a geeky, rather sickly scientist to a member of the team with competence in the physical as well as the intelluctual, but it'd have meshed with my mental picture better if Daniel became sinewy and lean, instead of OMG check out those ginormous biceps!!, ya know?

ETA: Ha. X-posty with ita.

You people are pretty-impaired. I despair of educating you.

But you haven't even tried, Nutty!

How do you define pretty?

Vonnie hears me -- there are a number of ways a guy can be goodlooking. I need a large vocabulary to separate the hotness of Orlando Bloom from the hotness of Benicio Del Toro.

I think there's definitely a class of guy who gets more attractive as he ages. It's like being refined. George Clooney, Timothy Hutton, Andrew McCarthy, RDA, Peter Wingfield, Dennis Quaid, Colin Firth.

Many of your list started out real pretty. It's just that there were bigger things ahead of them.

Man, I felt perfectly fine lusting after Clooney on Roseanne. Little did I suspect that Ocean's Eleven Clooney was yet to come. Just as well. Who'd have believed it?

Many of your list started out real pretty. It's just that there were bigger things ahead of them.

Eh. Pretty, maybe, but sort of shallowly pretty, without any real character.

Yeah, 'pretty' to me is a descriptive term with some objective standards. Regular, even features, well-proportioned bodies, etc. Attractiveness is a lot more elusive an animal. You can totally be ugly and attractive/hot, and it's a lot more subjective a quality. For example;

Tom Welling - very, very pretty. Not at all attractive to me.

Michael Shanks - pretty. Fairly attractive, too, although it depends on occasions.

RDA - pretty when young. Now, NSM, but enormously, exponentially more attractive when compared to when he was young.

Sean Bean - kind of craggy and rather reptilian-looking at times, but HOT.

Ben Browder - modicum of the pretty, made much more attractive in motion. He's one of those guys about whom you think, "hmm, he's pretty cute, I guess," then he starts talking about something with passion and you go, "Wow".

Benicio Del Toro - Friggin' ugly, but attractive as hell.