People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive 2009

If you live in the United States and have ever been through a check-out isle, you know what People magazine is. It is one of the country's most popular sources for celebrity gossip. The first People magazine hit stands thirty-five years ago in 1974, featuring actress Mia Farrow - the then, Great Gatsby star - on the cover. Since then, its popularity has sky-rocketed, and it now has a circulation of close to 4 million and a revenue expected to top $1.5 billion.

In 1985, the magazine started a competition of sorts for celebrity males. It was designed that by general consensus, the man that the majority of people thought to be the sexiest would win. The first man to ever hold the title was Mel Gibson at the young age of twenty-nine.

Celebrity mega-stars are usually the ones to win, such as John F. Kennedy, Jr., Sean Connery, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Richard Gere, Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington, George Clooney, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Affleck, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Matthew McConaughey, Matt Damon, and finishing up with last year's winner, Hugh Jackman.

The winner is typically announced between mid-November, early-December. Some time between yesterday evening and this morning, People magazine announced that this year's winner was Johnny Depp. This is Johnny's second time to win the title. He is not, however, the only man to have done so. Richard Gere was the first two-time winner, taking wins in '93 and '99 at the ages of forty-four and fifty. George Clooney won in '97 when he was thirty-six years old and again in 2006 at forty-five, and Brad Pitt won in '95 and 2000 at the ages of thirty-one and thirty-six. Johnny's first win was in 2003 when he was forty years of age.

Congratulations, Johnny.