Jake Gyllenhaal, inches from the Golden Oscar Academy Award"In Perfor's preliminary study (Amy Perfors is a graduate student in cognitive science from MIT) the arrangement of vowels According to Perfors, people might make a subconscious connection between a sound in a language and the meanings associated with sensitivity because they're smaller compared to the big, round back vowels that come from down in the gullet.
That means the same male faces were rated as slighty hotter when they were given stressed-back-vowels names such as Jake, Ben, Matt, or Rick than when they were given stressed-front-vowels such as Paul, George, Tom or Lou.
Ben Stiller with Teri Polo in "Little Fockers" (2010)That means we may perceive Jakes and Bens as cuter and gentler than Pauls and Scotts. (To my ear, front-vowel names also sound crisper and more straightforward than back-vowel names)" -extracts from "Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes?: Bodies, Behavior, and Brains--The Science Behind Sex, Love, & Attraction" by Jena Pincott (2009)
"For Simmons, stardom equals box office. In his mind there are only 24 true movie stars working in Hollywood right now (he doesn't appear to rank them, but this is the order in which they're listed): Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Robert Downey Jr., Christian Bale, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Russell Crowe, Jeff Bridges, Steve Carell, Seth Rogen, Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Mark Wahlberg, Ben Affleck, Jake Gyllenhaal, Justin Timberlake, and Kevin James. And what do these guys -- no women, notably -- have in common? "All of them can open any movie in their wheelhouse that's half-decent," says Simmons. "If it's a well-reviewed movie, even better." Source: www.ifc.com
