In the feature-length adaption of Sex and the City (2008), one of the movie’s main characters, Samantha, returns home and unexpectedly meets her new neighbor: a chiseled, gorgeous man in the buff, seductively washing himself in an outdoor shower. Toward the end of the scene, the neighbor, who is played by Gilles Marini, turns to acknowledge Samantha, and as he does, the audience glimpses his baguette. Before his sultry box-office debut, Marini was an internationally known supermodel who acted in daytime television dramas, but his tastefully silhouetted side-knob earned him overnight mass appeal. The following year, he competed in the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, when he and his partner, dancer Cheryl Burke, finished in second place by the narrowest, most bitter-sweet margin. While 44-year-old Marini has become somewhat of a fetishized sex object for the modern age, his dramatic bone structure and bulging muscles belie the man he is beneath the surface: a compassionate, intelligent, and deeply feeling husband and father who loves dogs, and strives to encourage inclusivity and understanding in his adopted home of America.
