You go, boy!

Watching the CBS News Sunday Show, I saw a silly puff piece on Patrick Dempsey's hometown in Maine. It's part of an ongoing media barrage about the sexy star, whose five o'clock shadow is a high point in the CBS Sunday night hit, Grey's Anatomy (though Isaiah Washington's steely dignity is just as hot).

I'm feeling ridiculously pleased by Patrick's new (renewed?) star status, and find myself wondering why. I think part of it is that he's close to my age, and it's gratifying to see him as the object of lust for gorgeous women in their 20's. But more than that, it's the Teri Hatcher effect -- a virtual Has Been of A Certain Age suddenly enjoying a resurgence of their career. In our youth obsessed culture, it's great to see these performers in the spotlight. Dempsey was a pretty boy in his youth (think, Loverboy and Can't Buy Me Love), and while he's worked steadily since, he's basically been completely off the radar for at least 15 years. T.V. has been good to him, as it has for other baby-faced actor of that generation -- Rob Lowe's character was the moral center of The West Wing during his 4 seasons on the show, and James Spader has won Emmys on Boston Legal. (To be fair, James Spader was a darling of the indy crowd in such offbeat films as sex, lies and videotape, and Secretary, but he had little mainstream movie success after appearing as a string of shallow pretty boys in 1980s hits like Pretty in Pink and Mannequin.) Of course the line between TV and movies has blurred and performers of very high status now regularly work in both. To the benefit of the viewing public.