Celebrity Gossip Report

From this list, my favorite is Robert! He's cute and current! Love him so much!



Robert Pattinson has a lot going for him. For starters, his brown eyes are totally adorable (lol wut? I guess they're thinking of Edward). Couldn't you just stare into them forever? Then there's his crazy, unkempt hair. It shows he's not trying too hard to be attractive, which naturally makes him way hot. Finally, he looks good in a tux, which means our wedding day is going to be so beautiful. Thousands of roses. Bride and groom on horseback. Vampire conversion honeymoon in Italy. All in all, he's basically the cutest guy ever.

Sorry. We forgot ourselves for a moment and turned into a preteen girl. Robert Pattinson is, of course, ostensibly an actor, but try telling that to the hordes of underage girls, overage cougars, and gay men of all ages who have made him a star. The "Twilight" and "Harry Potter" actor inspires crazed, hormonal behaviour wherever he goes.

But will audiences be interested if he's not sucking blood or playing Quidditch? Summit Entertainment is hoping the answer is yes. Despite appearing in a handful of indies (mostly notably 2008's "Little Ashes," in which he played Salvador Dali), Pattinson remains relatively untested as a leading man. His drawing power will be challenged with the release of "Remember Me," a romantic drama about young lovers working through family tragedy.

A teen idol's first stab at legitimacy is always perilous. For every Rob Lowe there's a Scott Baio. But Pattinson shouldn't be too worried. Some of Hollywood's biggest and best actors rose to fame on the overeager thumping of teenage hearts. In celebration of Pattinson's latest flick "Remember Me," here are 12 memorable teen idols. Whether their careers ended up massive successes or complete failures, they were all totally dreamy.



Rudolph Valentino became the first matinee idol in cinema. A popular but controversial actor during the silent film era, Valentino was known as the Latin Lover despite being Italian. His exotic, romantic screen persona thrilled female audiences, but puzzled the male-dominated press. He was often criticized for being effeminate, a label he routinely denounced, going so far as to challenge a particularly strong critic from the Chicago Tribune to a boxing match. Valentino died prematurely at age 31 and is best remembered for 1921's "The Sheik."




Bobby-soxers were the original fervent fan group. The term comes from a fashion trend among young women in the '40s and '50s to roll their socks down to the ankle. For these girls, Hoboken's local boy made good Frank Sinatra was God. While Sinatra is best known as a singer, his on-screen appearances continually revived his career throughout the '50s and '60s. He won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for "From Here to Eternity" in addition to bringing Broadway musicals like "Guys and Dolls," "Can-Can," and "Pal Joey" to the screen.




Tab Hunter was tall, athletic and blond, the perfect combination to become popular with teenage girls in the 1950s. But like later teen idols Neil Patrick Harris and Lance Bass, Hunter spent his early career in the closet. Rumors about his homosexuality still reached the public, but he brushed them off without losing appeal. Hunter is best remembered for 1958's "Damn Yankees!," in which he played All-American slugger Joe Hardy. Hunter's 2005 autobiography recounts his secret gay life in Hollywood, including a long-term relationship with "Psycho" star Anthony Perkins.



James Dean was the first teen idol who appealed to both teen girls and teen boys. To the former he was a brooding outcast desperate for love and to the latter he was a role model for cool detachment. To both he represented the angst of youth. Dean's untimely death in a car accident at age 24 turned him into an icon. Given the cloudy details about Dean's life and sexual preferences, his mystery sometimes overshadows his talent, the immensity of which is on full display in all three of his films.



Singers became visible on a national scale for the first time after the invention of television. Elvis Presley used his image and his sexuality to build an audience. His dangerous hips scandalized parents but created an army of devoted teens. The King made numerous on-screen appearances, usually in musical comedies that were popular with audiences but not with critics. Presley's characters were often extensions of his ramshackle Southern bad boy stage persona. The repetition didn't seem to bother his female fans.


Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello were the idealized teen couple of the 1960s. They were seemingly sexually empowered but basically wholesome. They possessed strong leadership skills but never questioned authority. Finally, they were really great at singing while wearing bathing suits. The pair starred in nearly a dozen films together, including the popular "Beach Party" films, a much beloved and parodied teen flick subgenre. (Our favorites are "Beach Blanket Bingo" and "Bikini Beach.") Avalon continues to sing at venues across the country.




Fabian was a moderately successful crooner whose career was derailed by the Payola crackdown of 1959. That and the fact that, while he looked pretty, he couldn't really sing, a fine tradition carried on by teen idols to this day. (Justin Bieber, anyone?) Fabian found a second career as an actor in a string of B movies during the 1960s. His filmography includes the Mario Bava helmed "Goldfinger" spoof "Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs," a true oddity that co-starred Vincent Price. Fabian still performs today, often with Frankie Avalon. Teen idols stick together.



A good-looking young actor has rarely gone broke by brooding his way to stardom. Thus was the way with Matt Dillon, who, before having a three-way with Denise Richards and Neve Campbell in "Wild Things," played a string of troubled young man parts to the delight of young women everywhere in the early '80s. His most enjoyable role is as a blue-collar kid working at a ritzy summer beach resort in 1984's "The Flamingo Kid," the first film to receive a PG-13 rating. Dillon was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "Crash" in 2006.




We all know how this one turned out. For every bright shining young man who ages well and continues to find acting success, there's another who falls into drugs and/or other bad behavior and becomes tabloid fodder. Such is the story of Corey Feldman, who starred in a string of beloved films in the mid-'80s like "The Goonies" and "Stand by Me," before being arrested for heroin possession in 1990 and dropping from the spotlight. He returned to the spotlight thanks to the reality TV show "The Two Coreys" in 2007. His co-star on the show and fellow teen idol Corey Haim died on March 10, 2010.



In some ways Johnny Depp never stopped being a teen idol. While in reality he's 46 years old, his sex appeal has only increased since his days on "21 Jump Street." He is essentially ageless. A three-time Best Actor Oscar nominee, the quirky performer continues to delight audiences with his handsome good looks and odd choice in projects. Depp has expressed interest in playing Tonto in a "Lone Ranger" update, and Carol Channing in a biographical drama. In other words, Hollywood is willing to let him do anything. Who else has that kind of power?




Many TV teen idols fail to find success on the big screen, but the early '90s mania surrounding "Home Improvement" star Jonathan Taylor Thomas was so ridiculous that we had to include him here. Better known as JTT to any woman born during the '80s, Thomas represents a shift in teen idols. He didn't just play young. He was a teenager himself, making him all the more adorable and (seemingly) attainable. JTT's most famous cinematic contribution remains voicing young Simba in "The Lion King."



Leo-mania was so strong after "Titanic" that many media critics questioned whether the actor could ever be taken seriously as an actor again. Of course DiCaprio has since proved naysayers wrong, mostly by collaborating with Martin Scorsese on four films, including last month's "Shutter Island." How does this man not have an Oscar? Leonardo DiCaprio is the latest teen idol to turn adoring fangirls into a true, lasting career. Only time will tell if Robert Pattinson, as well as Zac Efron, Taylor Lautner, and Daniel Radcliffe, are up to the task.

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