Sexiest Man Living 2007

Who: Kanye West
Age: 30
Know him as: Record producer/rapper

I find alpha males with a certain amount of humility extremely hot. And they're not easy to find. Every once in a while I've wondered if Kanye West might be one, but until now I've always said ... Nah, I don't think so.

Oh, that Kanye, of the wild Katrina outburst, "George Bush doesn't care about black people" (which I agreed with, but couldn't size up the ratio of wiseguy arrogance to committed angst and passion). Then there are his weirdly predictable explosions when he doesn't win awards. Where's the humility? Where's the humanity? Of course it's there in his essential nerdiness, the whole college satire, his family shtick, his geeky competitiveness, even his blog. But too often all of that is hidden beyond tributes to the Louis Vuitton good life.

Still, I cozied up to Kanye again recently when he did his crazy Emmy star-turn in September. Come on, you saw it. After being savaged for his outbursts in the wake of losing awards, he played along with Wayne Brady who set up the easiest possible competition for Kanye to win: A reality rap-off over who was best at Kanye lyrics, between "The Office's" Rainn Wilson and ... Kanye West. It was hilarious, especially when Rainn Wilson won. Kanye handled it with a big grin and a shimmering self-conscious humility. "I never win," he told the suddenly puffed-up Wilson sadly. So funny. Self-aware, forlorn Kanye, what's not to love?

Yes, I know Kanye's got secrets and hidden quirks, and sure, I have been waffling about his greatness, and hotness, for years. "Graduation" is his best CD, even though I loved the musical theatre of "College Dropout" and "Late Registration." "Stronger" and "Good Life" have been awesome summer/fall anthems, especially the way they show once again how the proud frontin' Kanye coexists with and emerged from the struggling loser. In the "Good Life" he crows about his successes, sure, but the sweetest one is, "And now my grandmama ain't the only girl callin' me baby." His mother and grandmother are all over all his records; that line from "Good Life" immediately reminded me of his tribute to his mother in "Touch the Sky" from "Late Registration." After music industry bummers, he relates:

"Me and my momma hopped in the U-Haul van.
Any pessimists I ain't talked to them,
Plus, I ain't have no phone in my apartment."

The way he tells his story put Kanye on our list before his mother died this week, but her death did sort of seal the decision. I don't want to even think about the circumstances, reportedly related to cosmetic surgery procedures. I'd have had higher hopes especially for Kanye's mother, Dr. Donda West, an English professor at Chicago State University, to be able to avoid that sad trap for women. Maybe her death will remind us we're all vulnerable to what happens when money teams up with our vanity and enables us to succumb to stupid ideas of what women are "supposed" to look like.

But when thinking about Kanye and his mother I'd prefer to remember their love and respect. It's always a turn-on when you meet a man who loves and gives props to his mother -- and actually, a great indicator that he's capable of long-term commitment. We're sorry for Kanye's loss. He's a compelling, original human being who's making it up as he goes along, just like the rest of us, and we admire him for that.

-- Joan Walsh

Who: Judd Apatow
Age: 39
Know him as: Producer/writer/director

Judd Apatow is an old-fashioned romantic. He's also staggeringly raunchy. In other words, he is the very definition of a dream come true. He's also just plain cute. In photos, he looks stubbly and slightly rumpled, defiantly embraceable.

Two years ago, the creator of the brilliant, so-dead-on-it's-painful and tragically short-lived TV show "Freaks and Geeks" gave us "The 40 Year Old Virgin," a two-hour festival of horniness that was also a very modern morality tale of the virtues of virtue. This summer, he topped himself (and the box office) with "Knocked Up," a story of an unexpected pregnancy that extolled familial responsibility via lighthearted depictions of substance abuse and gynecological indignities.

It takes a certain kind of man to wring humor from the cinematic cliché of sex-starved, underachieving guys. But it takes an altogether smarter, sharper one to make those virgins and stoners so human and likable we'd totally go home with them. Apatow even goes one better -- he lets their female counterparts be just as funny and messed up and terrified as they are. Apatow's always crude but he's never mean, a striking, tricky combination. His films feature constipation, inconvenient arousal, and barfing. His characters fumble with bra straps and contraception. This is what we're like, he says, in our most intimate moments. It's pretty ridiculous. And that's what makes it -- and him -- so real, and so appealing.

-- Mary Elizabeth Williams

Who: Jacques Pepin
Age: 71
Know him as: Chef and host of PBS's "Fast Food My Way"

Yeah, yeah, leave it to Salon to prefer a Frenchman to a great American like Rachael Ray. Believe me, I know. But get with the times: It's 2007, people. Even the congressman who came up with "Freedom Fries" admits it was a stupid idea. Besides, Jacques Pepin could beat the yummers out of Rachael with his whisk hand tied behind his back. And he could do it in 20 minutes. This won't be a surprise to you if you've watched his show on PBS, "Fast Food My Way," which, if you're trying to learn to cook, clearly outshines anything Food Network could even hope to do.

That's what's sexy about the guy: He's perhaps the preeminent authority on classic French cooking techniques in the U.S. these days -- he was Charles De Gaulle's personal chef, for God's sake -- with more than enough credibility to become the stereotypical snobby Frog if he wanted to be, and yet he's on TV showing people how to make dessert out of just berries and a store-bought cookie. And that's not out of character for him, either; this is, after all, a guy who turned down a chance to be chef in JFK's Camelot to go work at Howard Johnson's. (And he's proud of his work there, too.) But he cooks what he likes, the right way, and he's good enough to know that he doesn't need to win Michelin stars or make foams just because he can, as long as he's making things that taste good. It's the sexiest trait in a chef.

Also, I'm a sucker for an accent. Come on -- you knew it was coming.

-- Alex Koppelman

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