If he could call his then-11-year-old daughter a “rude, thoughtless little pig,” we don’t want to know what he’d call us if we were late for dinner.
Why We Overlooked It
On 30 Rock, Saturday Night Live and the Oscars, he never balks at making fun of his flawed (though fantastic) middle-aged self. We believe there’s actually a good man beneath all that good hair.
The dark side he has occasionally but dramatically unleashed, not just on movie sets but at least once with his mother and sister in a London hotel room. Plus, we’re pretty sure he can lose weight a lot faster than we can.
Why We Overlooked It
Because we fell in love with his overbite when he played Laurie opposite Winona Ryder in the 1994 version of Little Women. And because (speaking of feminists) we couldn’t resist having Gloria Steinem, who was married for the first time at age 66 to Bale’s late father, as a mother-in-law.
That crack arrest. And Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the series that was his deeply disappointing follow-up to The West Wing. (Everyone predicted Sorkin’s take on a late-night comedy show would beat out Tina Fey’s, but luckily it didn’t. That we could never have forgiven.)
Why We Overlooked It
His dark screenplay for The Social Network is stunning. And we’re totally convinced that he speaks in sparkling dialogue at all times, even over breakfast.
Hillary apparently got over this, so we should too, but . . . we’re still smarting over Monica.
Why We Overlooked It
He must have such a big... brain. And a talent for reinvention that has made him more impressive now than ever, with his powerful global charities, his support of his wife’s ramped-up career and his slimming down for his dazzling daughter’s wedding.
A long history of drug abuse (he claims his first experience was at age eight). And seducing us on Ally McBeal, then just up and vanishing in the middle of his story arc.
Why We Overlooked It
The guy has cleaned up so spectacularly that the bad stuff is, yawn, old news. Now he stars in one huge movie franchise (Iron Man) and is building another (Sherlock as stud). Add that he married a lovely, successful, grownup woman and -- swoon.
High-octane narcissism that’s off the charts even for a superstar. (Witness the temper tantrums when he and his friends don’t win music awards.)
Why We Overlooked It
An otherwise-enlightened creative force, he’s spoken out against homophobia in hip-hop, counts Maya Angelou and Nina Simone among his role models and loved his mother, the impact of whose death he described as “like losing an arm and a leg.”
Irish eyes that are soulful but smiling. And he spent three hours trying to talk his 70-year-old costar, Dame Eileen Atkins, into having no-strings sex with him.
Answering this question fully would have taken up all the pages of this magazine. So let’s just say, What didn’t we have to overlook?
Why We Overlooked It
In his best-selling autobiography, Life, the Rolling Stone confesses to the most depraved debauchery -- yet manages to sound, as Maureen Dowd put it, like a “consummate gentleman.” Plus, he’s half of the genius that wrote “Satisfaction.”
He sometimes patronizes his Morning Joe cohost, the adorable Mika Brzezinski. Hey, Mika, would you like us to let him know we think he looks like a doughier Matthew Perry (who’s already a little too doughy)? And he lets certain guests get away with blathering.
Why We Overlooked It
Mika has said, “I take responsibility” for keeping mum too often. And it’s clear from their obvious affection that he recognizes she’s his better half. We also like that Scarborough is a true political maverick who lets his conscience dictate his positions.
