Inspired by the comment section at my friend The Daily Elephant, I decided to coast through some of my young celebrity crushes. There are plenty. So we will cut them in half, this being "The Early Years".
The first celebrity crush I remember having.... was New Kids On The Block around 9 years old.. Oh man, I loved Jordan and Jon Knight. They were my favorites, I didn't care at all about the others. I had the sleeping bag, which I slept in daily, multiple t-shirts, the dolls, a book, tapes, VHS, etc. One summer my Mom surprised me with tickets to their show at Texas Stadium. My Dad took me. I remember being so excited all day, I even went and had my hair french braided and laid out all my New Kids t-shirts hoping to pick the right one. I KNEW, I mean I KNEW that once Jordan saw me it would be over. We go to the stadium and kept walking, and walking, and walking until we were at the very top. They looked like little ants and my Dad sat there holding his ears the entire time, but never complained. Man, I loved them. I still have my New Kids VHS, and ironically, just yesterday at the gym I saw a lady with a New Kids towel from 1990. (yes I know the year) No crush ever compared to my NKOTB love. Ever.
The next crush I remember, Elijah Wood. My love for Elijah began around "The Adventures of Huck Finn" and lasted through "The War." (Speaking of, when I moved last year some things never made it out of the trunk of my car, one of those things..."The War" soundtrack CD.) Elijah lost me with Flipper, but the in between was a wonderful time. I remember my friend Rebecca and I had a "letter notebook" with him on the cover. Do you remember the "letter notebook"? You would write your friend a note and hand them the notebook between classes, then they would write you a note, etc... no? Ok- back to Elijah. My friend Heather and I used to watch North over and over...worst movie ever. In January of 94 some friends and I gave him a 13th birthday party, we made a cake and watched his movies all day. We had a good thing going, and then Flipper came out......
Fortunately that same year of the terrible dolphin film, there was a ray of light by way of a bus. That's right, summer of 1994 was the time of "Speed" and the blossoming of my love for Keanu Reeves. I watched that movie over and over again and just thought he was the hottest thing ever. I was 13, he was 30. However, my parents are 20 years apart so I was 100% positive that I could make this thing with Keanu work. (Little side note of trivia, he is good friends with Joaquin Phoenix according to imdb.com, interesting). I also saw the movie "A Walk In The Clouds" and bought the soundtrack purely for him. However, I could never really get into any of his other movies, so he fell off my radar....Somewhere in all of this young love and pre-teen angst there a fleeting crush on Party of Five star, Scott Wolf. He was engaged to Alyssa Milano at the time (that obviously worked out). That crush didn't last long, but he did earn a coveted spot on the aforementioned "letter notebook."
In 1995, my friend Rebecca and I were dropped off at the movie theatre by our parents to go see Casper. The movie starred Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman, and we enjoyed it. The last five minutes of the movie (this came out in 1995 people but just in case SPOILER ALERT) Casper gets to be "a live boy" for all of 5 minutes. Well the audience sees the back of his head as he walks down the stairs and then there is a very dramatic moment where you see his face. Rebecca and I sat through ALL of the credits just to find out his name, Devon Sawa. We then had my Mom drive us directly to the grocery store so we could search through Big Bop and Tiger Beat for his best photos. We then rented "Little Giants" with him in it. The most exciting moment of my Devon Sawa crush was when "Now and Then" came out. That all star movie with 4 women as children and grown ups with Rosie O'Donnell, Rita Wilson, Demi Moore, etc. Well there was a Devon Sawa BUTT SHOT!!! We were there on opening day, I later bought the movie.. and you guessed it... the soundtrack!
So there you go. Senseless Jewels senseless celebrity crushes up until age 14. There are also still holes in the wall in my old bedroom from where I stapled, tacked, and taped all of these fellas posters over my bed. My parents were good sports :). Prepare yourself, because 15 on is going to be a long one, I may even have to split it up into two more parts.
Who was your childhood crush?
