Gay Belfast 2007 Hunk of the Month

Zach Gilford is a native of Chicago, Illinois (US) the actor Zach Gilford attended the prestigious college of his hometown, Northwestern University. Eager to try his hand at professional acting after graduating, he started his career out strong when he was cast in the role of Matt Saracen on the popular US series "Friday Night Lights", a show based on the movie of the same name, about a small town in Texas where high-school football is among the most important things in life. Zach has now made his feature-film debut starring in Larry Fessenden's "The Last Winter." His other credits include the feature "Rise: Blood Hunter" (opposite Lucy Liu) and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." He has also appeared in college productions of Equus, SubUrbia, Women and Wallace and The Laramie Project. Outside acting the Chicago hunk spends his free time backpacking, ice climbing and diving expeditions in Alaska, New Zealand and Australia. His birthday is January 14. In a recent interview he said "I’d love to do some movies. I’m back and forth to L.A. a lot trying to get a job when this is over. If movies aren’t an option, then I hope I opt out and go on to something else because I don’t consider myself the type of person that says, ‘I’m an actor, it’s what I’m meant to do.’ That’s not me. It’s fun and I have been able to do it so I’ve kept doing it. But if it ends up not being fun, I’m not scared to move on to something else. On getting Friday Night Lights he said "I had read the book and seen the movie, which I loved, so I was really excited about it. And the script was sweet. I went in to audition again and again. I had to go out to L.A. seven times before I got the part." You can see Zach naked in The Last Winter now and 'Friday Night Lights' is coming soon to Gay Belfast!

The hunk this month is James Haskell the hot blond rugby hunk who plays for the London Wasps and England. At 18 years James Haskell started his London Wasps and England representative debut, the youngest Premiership player for London Wasps, his first match against NEC Harlequins and the latter for England Under 18s. After only one season with England U19s he was called up to join the England U21s, where he gained recognition as the only player to have played each and every 20 games for that age group, during two successive years.

After the team achieved the Grand Slam at that level in 2006, he was selected in May 2006 for the England team in May 2006 that played the Barbarians at Twickenham. As a powerful and dynamic back rower and excellent ball carrier, he was called up for the England Sevens in 2006 playing in Dubai and George. Swiftly followed selection for the England Saxons team. James having played in both Saxons matches against Italy and Ireland in February 2007. On the 17th March 2007 James made his debut in the England senior side in the RBS 6 Nations Cup against Wales at the Millennium Stadium Cardiff.

He has an unusual attribute for a Rugby Player having beaten Olympic cyclist Rob Hayles in a charity sprint cycling race at Twickenham Stadium! This event was to raise money for his former England U21 team mate Matt Hampson and other injured players. He singles out Lawrence Dallaglio as his sporting hero for his inspirational leadership and advice and says his parents and former London Wasps Coach Warren Gatland, have played a huge and significant part on his career to date. Check out his website.

Although the contestant totty level on Dancing with the 'Stars' is pretty low Albert Reed does stand out as a fine example of a Gay Belfast Hunk. Albert Reed was born in 6th March 1985 in Miami then moving to Florida's Vero Beach. While working in a restaurant waiting tables a modeling agency came calling and that started his career. With focus on finishing school, he modeled only part-time, booking odd-end jobs for extra money. After graduating high school he found himself overwhelmed with the desire to become something more. He moved back to Miami to pursue modeling and PR work in clubs. After living there for four months, Albert realized that the atmosphere of Miami was unhealthy and hindered his personal growth. Therefore when a series of modeling jobs were offered to Albert in Europe, he didn't hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity to travel. He started in Greece and Italy, where he lived for about six months, experiencing what other countries had to offer. While working hard between castings and jobs in Europe, he returned to the states for jobs such as the fall Abercrombie & Fitch shoot. Albert has now settled down in Los Angeles and New York, where his modeling career continues to flourish. He's expanded his interests to acting and a possible music career -writing songs and recording music with his band. A self-proclaimed free spirit, Albert won't stop working his hardest until he's accomplished his goals. By the way things look right now, that shouldn't take too long.

Early life: Born in Billingham, England, where Bell grew up with his mother and older sister. His father left after his birth. Jamie Bell was a pupil at Northfield School, then the Stagecoach Theatre School. He was a member of the National Youth Music Theatre, performing in their 1998 production of Bugsy Malone at the Queens Theatre alongside other future stars Hannah Spearritt and Sheridan Smith. He took dance lessons from the age of six when he saw a girl dance out of rhythm and told his mother he could do better. This experience would later help him in his award-winning role of Billy Elliot.

Career: Bell acted as Honorary Jury President of the 2001 Giffoni Film Festival. Since his film debut in Billy Elliot, he has appeared in a number of diverse roles, including the crippled servant Smike in an adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, a young soldier in Deathwatch, a teenager on the run in Undertow, a gun-toting pacificist in Dear Wendy, and a disaffected Southern California teenager in The Chumscrubber. His most recent roles are a young seaman in Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong and a marine in Clint Eastwood's war drama Flags of Our Fathers. He has roles in two upcoming films: Hallam Foe and Jumper. He turned down Thea Sharrock's West End production of Equus; withdrawing from negotiations when he was not offered the contract for the play's Broadway run - Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) finally got the role. He will next work on the films The Stanford Prison Experiment and Defiance. He's expressed interest in working with Martin Scorsese and Cate Blanchett.

Personal life: Bell briefly dated actress Evan Rachel Wood, with whom he appeared in the Green Day music video "Wake Me Up When September Ends". He has the letter E tattooed on the inside of one arm, in reference to her. Wood left Bell when she started dating Marilyn Manson in early 2007. He currently lives in New York.

Luke Treadaway was born on 10th September 1984, 20 minutes earlier than his twin brother, Harry. He was raised in the village of Sandford in Devon. By the age of 11, Luke and Harry were playing in bands together covering the Kevin Ayers song Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes, and Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed.

In 2004, Luke and Harry took a year out of drama school to film Brothers of the Head. They were initially told the film was simply about a band of brothers from the '70s. So when they learnt the roles were actually of the 18-year-old conjoined twins Tom and Barry Howe. During rehearsals and throughout the shoot, Luke and his brother Harry remained connected to one another for 15 hours each day wearing a sewn-together wetsuits or a harness and also slept in one bed to simulate the conjoined nature of their characters. They were on a strict musical diet of tracks from the '60s and early '70s. After filming Luke then continued his acting career his first was the role in The Innocence Project for BBC television. It was filmed in Manchester over 8 months. He had to learn a lot of specialist law language for the role of an idealistic law student, Adam Solomons. The series was based on real projects working in the USA and the UK in which students sign up at voluntary legal advice centres to work without payment on cases involving the public good and investigate possible miscarriages of justice. Luke's next role was in a short film God's Wounds, which he did as a favour for one of his friends. His part was very small.

In mid November 2006 he started shooting his second feature film - Dogging- A Love Story - a romantic comedy it will be released in the UK later this year. Luke and Harry were asked to model for Vivienne Westwood who fell in love with the boys after she saw 'Brothers of the Head'. They modelled on the Milan catwalk in her Autumn/Winter 07/08 Men's Collection. Luke has recently been seen (naked) in the powerful and controversial drama Clapham Junction for Channel 4.

Gay Belfast Hunk of the Month for July: James McAvoy

Born in 1979 in Glasgow, Scotland, James McAvoy is making a name for himself as an up and coming movie star with movies such as Starter for Ten (2006), The Last King of Scotland (2006) and the Chronicles of Narnia. He will soon be seen in the movie Atonement with Keira Knightley.His T.V. appearances include Shameless and State of Play, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune and Band of Brothers. Since 2000, James has lived in London firstly with Jesse Spencer, star of House M.D. and Neighbours and later with his new wife Anne-Marie Duff who played Fiona in Shameless. He was brown hair and blue eyes and stands 5 feet and 7 inches. For school he studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

Some Facts:
He is a baritone for singing
He can play the guitar
Is a talented gymnast, fire eater and acrobat
Also a Grade 4 fencer
As a child, he wanted to become a missionary.

Model turned Actor Steve Sandvoss was born in 1980 in New York City. The hunky lad went to school in the "burbs" and in Connecticut. He originally had studied Chinese thinking about going into international business, but changed his mind later. He attended Harvard and graduated cum laude, studying poetry and prose writing. He also acted in several plays and directed readings of his own work. He got into acting in a serial program on the US TV network NBC playing a football star competing against Will Estes. He decided to move to California because that's where everything happens. Within 3 weeks, he was cast as Aaron in Latter Days (2003), playing a Mormon Missionary who falls in love with a gay party boy in Los Angeles. He is now in the new DVD movie Rumour Has It [2005] with Jennifer Aniston and has just finished a play in L.A. called "Tape". He has accumulated a large fan base due to his starring role in Latter Days (2003) and will likely carry it over into whatever future projects he engages in.

Is there anything Justin Timberlake can't do? The Memphis-born megastar has been a successful kids entertainer, the poster boy for millions of girls as a boyband member, a Grammy-winning solo singer and now a credible movie star - in fact, everything he touches turns to gold. In his spare time, he is also a bit of a ladies' man who has dated Britney Spears (not his best decision) and Cameron Diaz, opened restaurants in the US, and even seen his own clothing line fly off the shop shelves. Timberlake got his first showbiz break at the tender age of ten, when he was hired to sing and dance on American television's Mickey Mouse Club alongside Britney and Christina Aguilera. Next, aged 14, he soared to even greater levels of fame as a member of the boyband *NSYNC, before releasing a brace of solo albums that have sold millions worldwide. Now the heartthrob has landed the lead role in gritty new movie Alpha Dog, one of three films he will be seen in this year, is based on the true story of a gang of rich kids in LA who kidnapped a kid because his half-brother owed them money from a drug deal. The film also stars A-list Hollywood types Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone. According to Justin, they had no problems accepting him as an actor. Alpha Dog is in cinemas across the country.

Significant other: Young, free and single after his recent split with Cameron Diaz

Career high: Ditching *NSYNC and going solo. His debut album Just-ified went platinum and won a Grammy

Career low: Controversially exposing a bare-breasted Janet Jackson during a half-time Super Bowl gig

Words of wisdom: "True love to me is when she's the first thought that goes through your head when you wake up, and the last thought that goes through your head before you go to sleep."

John Barrowman has come a long way since presenting Saturday kids show Live and Kicking back in the 90s, working alongside TV great Andi Peters. These days the hunky out actor and all-dancing golden boy of musical theatre stars in Tourchwood, the Doctor Who spinoff is a busy bee. He's plays Captain Jack Harkness, a bi-sexual inter-galactic time-travelling con-artist! who has a taste for both the ladies and gents! However, we are also impressed with civil partnership to his partner of 16 years architect Scott Gill. For the ceremony at Cardiff's St David's Hotel, Glasgow-born Barrowman sported a kilt. Around 40 people attended the private ceremony at a function room in the hotel. Afterwards, Barrowman said it was important gay relationships were accepted. Scott Gill has been with the actor for 16 years "It feels great and I think more gay men and gay women should go ahead and do it as long as they're serious about it," he said. "It's not really recognition but it's important for people to see the normality of the entire situation and it forces people who don't agree with gay men and women...to have to accept us. "We deserve the rights like everybody else. "It's been a long wait but we legitimised our relationship to each other a long time ago when we signed our mortgages together and this is just something that forces people who don't want to recognise it that they have to." Following the morning ceremony, Barrowman headed for Cardiff's New Theatre to play Jack in afternoon and evening performances of pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk. Barrowman said partner Mr Gill would remain at the hotel with family and friends, adding: "Scott's already seen it twice". His offical website is: www.johnbarrowman.net. To buy Torchwood - Series 1 Vol.1 (2 Disc Set) [2006] click on the link.

Sprint hurdler Andy Turner may not have matched Colin Jackson's gold medels yet - but he's beaten him with hunky good looks. Andy was born and brought up in Nottingham and comes from a sporty family where his father and brother were both County standard Athletes. At school he was scouted by Nott's County Football Club, where he played for two years. He subsequently switched from Football to Athletics because of his love for the athletics. In 1997, Andy won both the AAA's and English Schools' under 17 titles over the 100m hurdles in addition to being at the top of the Long Jump rankings. He was not a full time athlete until five years later in 2002, making his debut as a member of the under 23 Great Britain team in a match against Germany. He ran 13.97 for the 110m hurdles, braking 14 seconds for the first time. Andy has been Britain's top sprint hurdler since 2003, following his brilliant victory at the Loughborough International match. He then went on to make his debut as a senior at the European Cup in Florence, finishing in fifth place clocking 13.71, just 0.05 seconds outside of his fastest time ever. In 2004, after a successful indoor season Andy was placed third in the European Cup smashing his personal best. His success for the UK recently means he is diffently the one to watch.

Hannibal Rising star Gaspard Ulliel's dream has always been directing a movie, and after finishing at lycée (French high-school) he studied cinema at the University of Saint-Denis. But fate made him an actor (for the moment). He began his acting career when still at school, in a TV film called "Une femme en blanc". During the following years, Ulliel continued working on TV and making short movies such as "Alias". He made a cameo in "Le pacte des loups", and was then discovered by director Michel Blanc who gave him a role in "Embrassez qui vous voudrez". Then Ulliel took summer stages at the Cours Florent, and was asked by director André Téchiné to star in "Les égarés" as Emmanuelle Béart's lover. Ulliel has been nominated to the Cesar twice, in 2002 and 2003. His role as Manech in "Un long dimanche de fiançailles" (A Very Long Engagement) brought him to stardom. Hannibal Rising [2007] will bring our young hunk to a much wider international audience.

Daniel Craig, one of British theatre's most famous faces who was waiting tables as a struggling teenage actor with the NYT, is now starring as James Bond in Casino Royale (2006). Esquire magazine's "Best dressed male" in 2006 was born Daniel Wroughton Craig on March 2, 1968, in Chester. His father (Tim Craig) was a merchant seaman turned steel erector, then became landlord of 'Ring O' Bells' pub in Frodsham, Cheshire. His mother, (Olivia) was an art teacher. His parents split up in 1972, and young Daniel Craig was raised with his older sister, Lea, in Liverpool, then in Hoylake, Wirral, in the home of his mother. His interest in acting was encouraged by visits to the Liverpool Everyman Theatre arranged by his mother. From the age of 6, Craig started acting in school plays, making his debut in the Frodsham Primary School production of Oliver!, and his mother, Carol, was the driving force behind his artistic aspirations. The first Bond movie he ever saw at the cinema was Roger Moore's Live and Let Die (1973); young Daniel Craig saw it with his father, so it took a special place in his heart. He was also a good athlete and was a rugby player at Hoylake Rugby Club.

At the age of 14 Craig played roles in 'Oliver', 'Romeo and Juliet', and 'Cinderella' at Hilbre High School in West Kirby, Wirral, UK. He left Hilbre High at 16 to audition at the National Youth Theatre's (NYT) troupe on their tour in Manchester in 1984. He was accepted and moved down to London. There his mother and father watched his stage debut as Agamemnon in Shakespeare's 'Troilus And Cressida'. As a struggling actor with the NYT, he was toiling in restaurant kitchens and as a waiter. Craig performed with NYT on tours to Valencia, Spain, and to Moscow, Russia, under the leadership of director Edward Wilson. He failed at repeated auditions at the Guildhall, but eventually his persistence paid off, and in 1988, he entered the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the Barbican. There he studied alongside Ewan McGregor and Alistair McGowan, then later Damian Lewis and Joseph Fiennes, among others. He graduated in 1991, after a three-year course under the tutelage of Colin McCormack, the actor from the Royal Shakespeare Company. From 1992-1994 he was married to Scottish actress Fiona Loudon, their daughter, named Ella, was born in 1992.

Daniel Craig made his film debut in The Power of One (1992). His film career continued on television, notably the BBC2 serial 'Our Friends in the North' (1996). He shot to international fame after playing supporting roles in 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' (2001) and Road to Perdition (2002). He was nominated for his performances in the leading role in Layer Cake [2004], and received other awards and nominations. Craig was named as the sixth actor to portray James Bond, in October of 2005, weeks after he finished his work in Munich (2005), where he co-starred with Eric Bana under the directorship of Steven Spielberg.

Craig's reserved demeanor and his avoidance of the showbiz-party-red-carpet milieu makes him a cool 007. He is the first blonde actor to play Bond, and also the first to be born after the start of the film series, and also the first to be born after the death of the author Ian Fleming in 1964. Four of the past Bond actors: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan have indicated that Craig is a good choice as Bond. Too right he is! James Bond - Casino Royale (Daniel Craig) [2006]

The 2007 hunks are: Zach Gilford, Daniel Craig, Gaspard Ulliel, Andy Turner, John Barrowman, Justin Timberlake, Steve Sandvoss, Luke Treadaway, James McAvoy, Jamie Bell, Albert Reed, James Haskell.

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