McDreamy Vs McSteamy (Suzanne Forster)

The L.A. Times Sunday edition had an article on the hot new male movie stars who are coming from television. It featured Patrick Dempsey from “Grey’s Anatomy,” who’s already gone on to movie star fame and is currently starring in Enchanted. It also mentioned as possible breakout stars Kyle Chandler of “Friday Night Lights,” John Hamm of “Mad Men,” and Jeffrey Donovan of “Burn Notice.”

Of that bunch, I can only personally comment on Dempsey and Donovan. I haven’t seen the other shows. I first noticed Dempsey in Sweet Home Alabama and realized he’d stolen the movie when I wanted Reese Witherspoon’s character to go back to him rather than reunite with her ex-husband. Actually, after the scene in Tiffany’s, I couldn’t figure out how she could ever leave Dempsey. That wonderful husky voice and those eyes, which are a lethal combo of bedroom and sad puppy dog, just did me in. He’s also part of the reason I continue to tune into “Grey’s Anatomy” every week, even though I need Dramamine from the switchback turns in his relationship with Meredith.

Donavan is a brand new discovery. I’d been hearing the buzz on “Burn Notice,” which is on hiatus from the USA network until January (I believe, although I’m not sure how the writers’ strike might affect that). Anyway, I finally figured out how to find “Burn Notice” among the 500+ shows offered on my cable package—they don’t make it easy!—and the attraction was immediate and intense. To Donovan and to the show. They’re both great, and I’m not at all surprised that he’s been tapped for a movie role opposite Angelina Jolie in The Changeling, an upcoming film by Clint Eastwood.

What the article started me thinking about was the appeal of these two men, and particularly Dempsey. I remembered all the fanfare when Eric Dane came aboard “Grey’s Anatomy” as Dr. Mark Sloan, aka McSteamy. I found myself wondering how Shepherd’s more low-key appeal would ever hold up against a charisma powerhouse like the new Dr. Sloan. I really thought McSteamy would take the show by storm, but that never happened, and it didn’t take very many episodes for me to realize that it was no contest. McDreamy by miles.

That’s just me, of course. There are probably lots of McSteamy fans out there, and yes, he is gorgeous and sexy, but I found myself wondering why he didn’t work for me. Both Shepherd and Sloan are supremely confident and highly skilled surgeons. They command the space they’re in, whether it be operating room or bedroom. But Dempsey’s Dr. Shepherd promises sensitivity and depth of feeling, whereas Dane’s Dr. Sloan comes across as all surface. Beautiful surface, to be sure, but essentially vacuous if you look long enough, which may be exactly what Dane and the show’s creators intend.

There have been a few glimpses here and there of something more in McSteamy, and I’m very curious to see what might come of it, but so far it’s not been enough to put him in competition with Dempsey or any of the other male actors in the show, for me anyway. I find Dr. Webber, the former chief of staff, much more appealing. And besides, Mark Sloan doesn’t have those incredible wounded eyes, or the emotion that burns through them. Maybe I’m just a sucker for the whole puppy dog thing.

So, is it vulnerability that makes actors like Dempsey and Donovan so appealing? In “Burn Notice,” Donovan is a wonderful combo of tough and tender (despite his great desire not to be the latter). He has the weirdest—and funniest—relationship ever with his mother. He doesn’t seem to be able to turn down her crazy requests or to resist almost any opportunity for heroism that comes his way, no matter how badly he may want to. And it’s not just beautiful women he rescues. It’s kids too. What saves him from being too noble to live is the narration that gives us his darker, cynical side. That, coupled with his inability to ignore anyone in need, is pretty irresistible.

Both Dempsey and Donovan are eminently capable of portraying men who could fall in love and be hurt by a woman. In fact, Dr. Shepherd has suffered plenty at the hands of Dr. Gray, and vice versa. And Donovan has an interesting relationship brewing with the ex-girlfriend on his show. But to me, McSteamy seems vulnerable to nothing and no one. He comes across as narcissistic, but he doesn’t even project the typical narcissistic sensitivity to rejection.

The axiom about beauty being skin deep is so familiar that I rarely give it much thought, but this exercise in comparing beautiful men bought it home to me. The merely beautiful may have to power to catch our eye, but not the power to hold our attention. And if you look too long, beauty alone can begin to seem repellent. There’s nothing there to make it real and human, or to make us care.

Recently I saw the movie Beowulf, based on the Old English heroic epic poem. The animated Beowulf is a massive figure of a man, rough-hewn, frightening and forbidding. Some might call him a ruthless killer. But he also so clearly yearns for Queen Wealthow, a woman he can never have, that I just melted watching him. Like Mark Sloan, he seems vulnerable to no one and nothing, including dragons—except Queen Wealthow. And that’s the key to it all, in my opinion. Because when Beowulf is tempted by a sorceress and succumbs, the darkness descends. The epic poem’s story is well known, so I hope I’m not giving anything away by saying that he ultimately brings ruination upon himself and the kingdom he comes to rule. A movie review I read claims his fall is brought about by pride, but I like to think it’s because he betrayed his pure love and desire for the queen.

Beowulf has even more physical beauty, pride, and charisma than McSteamy, but he doesn’t leave me cold the way Mark Sloan does. Beowulf is essentially a cartoon character in the movie, but he comes across as more human than Sloan, and it’s his vulnerability that makes the difference. It reveals his depth and complexity, but for the vulnerability to work it has to be coupled with strength, bravery, and all the other attributes we think of as heroic. Plus, for me, some shadings of darkness. Sorry, I just like that extra bit of intrigue in my heroes.

I’d love to know what you guys think, especially if McSteamy is a favorite of yours. I didn’t catch every episode of "Grey’s Anatomy," and I may have missed something in Dr. Sloan that others have seen. And if it isn’t either Sloan or Shepherd who work for you, then who does? And finally, to bring all of this back to romance novels, which of these emerging movie stars would you most like to see star in a romance novel? Right now I think I’m leaning toward Jeffrey Donovan. He may not have the eyes, but he has potential in all other ways, and he is such a sexy bugger.

Smiles,
Suz