June 2014: The Hottest Global Magazine Covers!

The grand return of The Smoking Nun's take on the hottest, most beautiful and alluring magazine covers from around the world for June 2014. Best of the Best: "Out" mag's cover of Matt Bomer. Wowsah! Starting with those blue eyes...

And then some... Hugh Jackman on three global covers of Men's Health...

And then some more... The best of the rest...

And the dubious WORST magazine covers of the month...

R.I.P. Actor Paul Walker @ Age 40

Sadness... R.I.P. *

Kate Winslet Shimmers On Cover Of November 2013 'Vogue'

Okay, so yes, for sure, Kate Winslet has been photoshopped and re-colored to a point of near absurdity, but there's no doubt that this is among the most beautiful images of the 38-year-old actress I have ever seen.

Kate is the the youngest person ever to accumulate six Academy Award nominations—and she finally picked one up in 2008 as Best Actress for "The Reader." She also won an Emmy Award for her performance in the (dreadful) 2011 miniseries "Mildred Pierce."

But hey, she'll always be that girl that starred with Leo DeCaprio in 1998's "Titanic," which garnered an Oscar for Best Song for Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On," right?

Bradley Cooper Beams On December 2012 'Esquire' Cover

Bradley Cooper, who has Hollywood's most beautiful teeth, decorates the December 2012 cover of Esquire. Now that's a holiday gift, for sure. Ooh la la! *

William Levy At Last Tackles Hollywood: Three Upcoming Roles!

Congrats to William Levy for at last breaking through in Hollywood! It's about damn time! He will soon begin filming roles in three flicks: Addicted, Tyler Perry's Single Mom's Club and Rio Sangre.

Will has begun shooting scenes in Atlanta for Addicted, an erotic thriller based on the book written by best-selling author Zane. In that film, he will share the screen with Boris Kodjoe. He joins Sharon Leal, Tasha Smith, Emayatzy Corinealdi and Tyson Beckford.

After Thanksgiving, Levy will also begin filming scenes for Single Mom's Club (god, I hate when director's put their own names in the film's title; so pretentious...). He will play a character named Manny. Let's hope that Manny translates to "man" and that he takes off his shirt. A lot. Britches, too, would be just fine, thanks.

In the horror-western Rio Sangre, Levy has the role of Brujo. Chris Wyatt is directing. The flick is being written by William Bivins and Ken Karn. Alex Vega also is attached to star.

Both films are expected to be in theaters in 2013. Most recently Levy recurred on VH1′s Single Ladies and starred in Univision’s Sortilegio and the telenovela Triunfo del Amor.

Of course, earlier this year, he brought ABC's dusty ole Dancing With the Stars some of its highest ratings ever. Can't wait to see William's star rise high! *

 See all William, all the time on The Smoking Nun's ultimate William Levy English-language fan blog here!!!!

Bond's 'Skyfall' Dominates The Weekend Box Office

No surprise here: The latest Bond film Skyfall, which opened in theaters over the weekend, was the largest debut ever for a 007 film (both unadjusted and adjusted for ticket price inflation). The flick garnered $87.8 million, obviously earning the top spot at the box office. Meanwhile, Daniel Craig's fame has burgeoned all the more, with a brigade of magazine covers over the past couple months... At the box office, in second place was Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph, followed by a bunch of movies I've never even heard of. *

Hurricane Sannnndy Is Coming! Countdown: 5 Hours

Sandy, my darlin', you hurt me real bad... you know it's true... *

Adele's 'Skyfall': Among The Best James Bond Themes Ever

New mama Adele's stupendous new James Bond theme "Skyfall"—one of the best songs of 2012—apparently moved Mr. Bond, Daniel Craig, to tears. He tells Yahoo! Movies, "I cried. From the opening bars I knew immediately, then the voice kicked in and it was exactly what I'd wanted from the beginning. It just got better and better because it fit the movie. The more of the movie we made, the more it fit."

Director Sam Mendes, meanwhile, also heaped praise on Adele: "She came in very early before we started shooting and her main concern was, 'I write songs about myself, how can I make a 'Bond' song? My answer was,'Just write a personal song!' Carly Simon's 'Nobody Does it Better' was a love song."

"Skyfall" was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London with a 77-piece orchestra. Adele teamed with Paul Epworth, who co-wrote and produced her massive hit "Rolling In The Deep," which is also oozing with classic Bond instrumentation.

The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 last week at No. 8. This week it dips to 13, while it's 19 on iTunes, and No. 2 in the U.K.

I have a feeling it's destined for U.S. chart-topping action once the movie hits theaters. I remember when Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" was first released and inched its way up the single chart—until the release of Titanic. The rest is history.

"Skyfall" ranks up with some of the best previous JB themes, including "For Your Eyes Only" from Sheena Easton, "Live and Let Die" from Paul McCartney & Wings, "A View To A Kill" from Duran Duran and "All Time High" from Rita Coolidge. *

Best Global Magazine Covers: October 2012

Our monthly look at magazine covers around the world reveals somewhat slim pickings for the beginning of fall 2012... Where are all the sexy guys? We do have David Beckham on Europe's Esquire, but really, can't we do better... while Colin Farrell—looking a bit overly airbrushed—casts an odd expression on Men's Health overseas (also appearing on Details). Adele continues to dazzle on Rolling Stone. And Brazil's edition of Billboard offers a fun mash-up of Lady Gaga and Madonna. On the cover of Elle, Britney Spears has never looked more comely.

The celeb that appears on more covers this month than any other: Blake Lively, who begins a new season of Gossip Girl, in addition to her recent nuptials with perpetually gorgeous Ryan Reynolds. Daniel Craig is runner-up, as promotional wheels start turning for upcoming bond flick Skyfall (whose kickass new theme is sung by Adele).

Looking ahead, here's hoping that as the WB's Arrow gains traction, we'll be seeing Stephen Amell begin to grace covers of Men's Health, Men's Fitness... and The Smoking Nun's roster of candidates for 2012's Sexiest Men Alive.

And speaking of, we certainly can't leave out the best mag cover of the month: William Levy's appearance on People En Espanol as its encore Sexiest Man of the Year. Oh, yes! *

Confirmed! Adele Will Sing James Bond Theme For 'Skyfall'

After rumors have been swirling for months, it's confirmed that Adele will perform the theme song for the next James Bond film Skyfall. Fantastic! Of course, that puts the Brit singer/songwriter in the lofty company of such acts as Sheena Easton, Shirley Bassey, Duran Duran, Madonna, Paul McCartney & Wings, a-ha, Tom Jones, Lulu and Rita Coolidge.

One thing's for sure. Even if Adele were to belch into a mic, she can't do worse than previous Bond flop "Another Way To Die" in 2008, from Alicia Keys and Jack White.

Directed by Sam Mendes, Skyfall will again star Daniel Craig, along with Judi Dench, Ben Whishaw, Ralph Fiennes, Ola Rapace, Albert Finney, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris and Bérénice Marlohe. The 23rd Bond film opens in theaters November 9. *

Joe Manganiello Deemed 'Sexiest Man' For 'People's' Emmy Poll

Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara were voted the “Sexiest Man and Woman” on People magazine's 2012 Emmys poll. Meanwhile, Joe covers two mags: the Spring/Summer (huh?) 2012 issue of Australia's Remix mag; and Summer Girl. We have the pics!

Manganiello recently grew a full-on beard for his role as werewolf Alcide Herveaux in the upcoming sixth season HBO's True Blood, which begins filming in January. He also trained for five months to add muscle for the role, following his beefy role in Magic Mike.

There's still talk of a follow-up flick after the enormous success of Mike. Manganiello told Hollywood.com earlier this year, "We're actually talking about the possibility of doing a prequel... because if you want to do the sequel, then you lose Mike [Channing Tatum]. Otherwise, what's Mike going to do? So you would do the prequel, and how they got there."

Tatum also is up for the idea: "Yes, yes and yes!" he tweeted in a Glamour interview over the summer about the possibility of a second Magic Mike installment. "We're working on the concept now. We want to flip the script and make it bigger." And as we all know, bigger is better when it comes to Joe.*

Happy Birthday, Kevin Zegers!

I've never understood why actor Kevin Zegers hasn't become an A-list Hollywood star. With nearly 40 film roles since 1993, the Canadian kid star has only grown more hunky as he's matured into a handsome 28 year old... just celebrating his birthday yesterday, September 19.

He has a lead role in the 12-part big-budget mini-series Titanic: Blood and Steel, about the building of the fated ship... That began airing yesterday... uh, on CBC in Canada. It is supposed to screen on Encore in the U.S. in October. Zegers is also the male face of a spanking new ad campaign for Curve.

Perhaps his upcoming role in the highly anticipated feature film The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones," due for August 2013 release, will finally be the flick to break Zegers. It's based on the first book in the best-selling series by Cassandra Clare. The story follows Clary Fray, a seemingly ordinary teenage girl, who finds out some whacky shit about her past when her mom is taken from their home in New York by a demon. Kevin plays Lightwood, the gay brother of Isabelle (Jemima West). He's in love with Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower) and dislikes Clary because Jace is in love with her and not him.

Kev has had a recurring role on Gossip Girl and major roles in Felicity Huffman's Transamerica and The Jane Austen Book Club. Truly, it's time this guy caught his break and stopped being "the poor man's Zac Efron." *

September 11

I watched a movie today I had sworn I never would. "Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close" is about a son's quest to understand his father's death on 9/11. It was my way to pay tribute, after 11 years. And I wept. Quietly. Privately. And with sadness.

Then tonight I visited the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, along with many dozens of others. It was a beautiful, sunny, crisp Tuesday, just as it was 11 years ago when I stood in that same spot. And yet it will never be the same. *