Is Hugh Jackman The Perfect Man?

• Lori Palminteri
• Uncategorized
• August 16, 2021

Down in Florida, I was watching the movie “Eddie the Eagle” with my parents, a feel good film about the true story of underdog Eddie Edwards who worked his way into Olympic ski jumping starring Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman. The movie is better than I think any of us thought it was going to be, and we’re enjoying the family flick.

“That’s how every man thinks he looks in blue jeans,” my Dad says about Hugh Jackman’s character, who plays a hard boiled American coach.

“How many more gay things are you going to say about Hugh Jackman this movie?” I retort to my dad, who, about twenty minutes earlier, commented on Hugh Jackman’s perfect teeth.

This is a rhetorical question: “Is Hugh Jackman the perfect man?” Yes. Yes, of course he is. He’s both Wolverine and a Broadway star. He can kick ass AND tap dance (swoon). Additionally, people I know who’ve worked with or met him say he’s the nicest guy ever. I’m unsure what is happening in Australia that they seem to produce the best looking (men and women) people ever. Before COVID, I toyed with the idea of moving to Australia because they are thirsty for comedy over there and since I’m failing to become a star in stand up comedy here, I figured I had a better shot there. Additionally, the surf on the other side of the world is amazing. And maybe I’d find a husband.

I’m unsure if it was the pandemic, getting older, or a decade of repressing my vulnerable side that is making settling down so appealing to me— a notion I previously detested. While my last relationship wasn’t my “forever person,” at no fault of either party, it did fulfill something I almost never allow satisfaction: letting someone else to take care of me some.

It was nice. To be honest. It was nice leaning on someone from time to time. Delightful, even, to have dinners and go on walks with another. My love language is quality time, and while by nature I am introspective and reclusive, I let myself forget the level of companionship I was craving.

There are plenty of people in my life who have found a soul mate. And there are plenty of people I deemed to have settled, and could have potentially found someone who matched them better. My mind has not changed about the many people whom I believe settled out of fear of being alone, however, my level of empathy as to why those choose comfort, familiarity, and stability has increased. There is a greater value in it than I previously gave it credit for.

It’s pop culture gossip that suggests Hugh Jackman might actually be gay. The reasons being not so much for his love and talent of musical theater, but the fact that his long time wife is kind of homely looking. We have been groomed to believe that men who are that good looking and charming would prefer multiple partners and super models over ‘a ball and chain.’ And look, maybe Hugh Jackman is gay. Maybe he and his wife have an arrangement and he sleeps with other women. Maybe they’ll live long monogamously and die together. Maybe they’ll get divorced tomorrow. Honestly, I don’t really give a shit. Being invested in celebrities love lives whom you don’t know are for people who aren’t getting any. And even though I’m not really getting any right now, my life isn’t so boring and empty that I give a shit about relationships of people I will never meet.

The point is— the exception for an exceptional man is the shallowness of inherit desire. And I’m not even saying it’s not mostly true. If anything, it’s most likely I will side with cynicism. Perhaps it’s the ideal of a young romantic, a part of you the rest of your body attacks for no reason, like an allergy: But I don’t need the perfect man, so help me god, just the feeling that my soul is on fire.