Courtney Balcombe

News Editor

clb6264@psu.edu

Each year, People’s magazine secretly goes through a selection process for the “Sexiest Man Alive,” which started in 1985 with Mel Gibson and was not an annual event until 1997. Previous “Sexiest” men include George Clooney 1997 and 2006, Tom Cruise 1990, Adam Levine in 2013, and Idris Elba in 2018.

“This year, we really wanted to choose somebody who is kind, and who is good and is nice,” People Editor-in-Chief Dan Wakeford shared with CNN about the 2021 selection process which began after the 2020 “SMA” was published.

After they started looking for the next year’s “SMA,” Wakeford shared with CNN, “There are so many different variables and ways of approaching it. A starting point often is, when we want to make a decision, is to think about the zeitgeist, think about what is sexy at the moment. What do people find appealing at the moment?”

For 2021, People selected Paul Rudd as the “SMA,” however according to People, he is having a hard time accepting his new title, sharing the actor, 52, has heard it all — kind, self-deprecating, affable, hardworking, all labels he has embraced to some degree. But sexy? That’s a little outside his wheelhouse.

“I do have an awareness, enough to know that when people hear that I’d be picked for this, they would say, ‘What?’ “Rudd told PEOPLE in their cover story. “This is not false humility. There are so many people that should get this before me.”

Rudd has starred in various films such as “Clueless,” the “Avengers” franchise as Ant-Man, and the upcoming “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” film as well as the AppleTV+ series “The Shrink Next Door.”

According to People, besides being a part of incredible films, Rudd insists he is most happy at home with his wife of 18 years, Julie, and their kids Jack, and Darby.

“When I think about myself, I think of myself as a husband and a father, like I’m that,” Rudd said. “I just hang out with my family when I’m not working. That’s what I kind of like the most.”

Many of Rudd’s former co-stars as well as other celebrities congratulated him on his “SMA” reward, the best response probably coming from Ryan Renolds.

“I just heard about this this morning. I’m very excited. I think that this opportunity will be wasted on him, like so many before him,” Reynolds elaborated on TODAY. “He’s going to play it shy. He’s going to play it bashful, humble. If I knew what I knew now, I wouldn’t. You got to seize this opportunity.”

Reynolds continued, “If I got it now, I’m not saying I would leave my family, but they would need to go on without me. I would roam the world clutching my dog-eared People magazine, going from town to town, sewing my wild oats like some sort of nude, magical gardener. It would be amazing.”

Offering some advice to Rudd, Reynolds said, “Don’t blow this, Rudd. If you’re there, do not blow this opportunity. Run like the wind.”

While many outlets feel Rudd is not the “SMA,” the New York Post writes “Sorry, Paul Rudd is many things — but ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ is not one of them.”

No matter the choice, Rudd was chosen for more than just looks, as Wakeford said they were looking for someone who was “kind, good, and nice” not just sexy.