We don’t need a celebrity magazine to tell us that Jersey guys are sexy, but the accolade sure doesn’t hurt.
Five gents from New Jersey made People magazine’s brand-new “Sexiest Man Alive” list, ranging from a 36-year-old pop star (Kevin Jonas) to a 68-year-old TV legend (Kelsey Grammer).
Although all three Jonas Brothers—Kevin, Joe and Nick—grew up in Wyckoff, Kevin is the only member of the band who still lives in the Garden State because of a promise he made to his wife, Danielle, also a New Jersey native. “I got a year not in New Jersey,” Kevin told New Jersey Monthly with a laugh last year. “Most of my work was elsewhere.”
The couple are raising their two daughters in Denville, just a few blocks from Danielle’s parents’ house and many of her childhood friends. Although Kevin joked about moving back to Jersey, he also proudly said: “We are true Jersey, through and through.”
Filmmaker and actor Zach Braff, also on the list, grew up in South Orange and Maplewood, attending Columbia High School. New Jersey means so much to him that he not only films projects here, but also sets many of his projects in New Jersey.
“I love my hometown and I want to tell stories about my hometown,” the 48-year-old told New Jersey Monthly earlier this year.
Braff’s directorial debut, in 2004, was even called Garden State; he wrote, directed and starred in the highly lauded film alongside Natalie Portman. His newest feature, A Good Person, which came out in March, filmed in Braff’s hometowns as well as locations in Clifton, Elizabeth, Morristown and other local towns.
As part of its “Sexiest Man Alive” cover story, People each year puts together a list called “Sexy at Every Age,” which features one man at every age (from 20 to 70 years old). Two sixty-something Jerseyans made that list: Jersey City native Nathan Lane, who is 67 years old, and Kelsey Grammer, who spent part of his childhood in Woodbridge and Atlantic Highlands and is 68 years old.
In the category of “Sexiest Morning Host,” a Jersey guy, Nate Burleson, is a runner up. The CBS Mornings host and former NFL wide receiver lives in Franklin Lakes with his wife and kids. (Mark Consuelos won that category; he’s not from Jersey himself but is married to his Live cohost Kelly Ripa, a proud New Jersey native.)
Grey’s Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey, a Maine native with no Jersey ties, covers the issue as this year’s “Sexiest Man Alive.”
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