methodwriter85

As an aside, here's a real IT Boy: It is so cool to see an actual fresh discovery come out of nowhere who wasn't from a rich, connected family make it big. You really don't see that too often. It's actually pretty genius. Will is an It Boy because he's a blank slate everyone can project their fantasies onto. When he's not, people will shrug and move onto the next thing.

Chapter 24 -When Will is stunned after reading the hit piece on him. "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani -When Will hits his breaking point with the paparazzi following him. "Rumours" by Lindsay Lohan -When Bellona Carter runs through her plan to make Will look like a boring square. "Hip to be Square" by Huey Lewis and the News Oh, by the way, that reminds me, Mark- you can start using the term "hipster" in place of the term "yuppie" pretty much at this point in the timeline. There were "Die, Hipster Scum" shirts being worn in 2006, so 2005 feels like a reasonable year to start using that term.

Yeah, here we have spots of sand along the River and the Bay but some are questionable to actually call a "Beach."

Wait, you mean hanging out at the toxic dump formerly known as Times Beach/now known as Route 66 State Park isn't doing it for you? This would have been a pretty big story when you were in college. Kind of like Missouri's answer to Love Canal. Alright, fine, I'm going to pretend it's either Laguna Beah or Dana Point. As a side note, I don't live close to a beach, but I don't live far from one, and it's kind of sad I never go. When I lived in Western PA for a bit I realized they didn't see seagulls flying around, which is such a common experience as someone who's lived on the DelMarVa peninsula for the vast majority of my life. There are these little things about growing up coastal that you don't realize until you're not in a coastal area. Even if you're not a big beach/Shore guy.

I was scrolling on Twitter and found this and it made me laugh and think of this quote from you.

It's Los Angeles. "Upper middle class" means a family needs to be making at least a quarter of million a year to comfortably meet their bills and they live in a house that's worth at least 1.5 million. Personally I like to pretend Tim's a Val from a really good part of Encino so that's okay.

I'm going to share my initial thoughts to this chapter- "Mark, I can feel Private Tim's eyes rolling all the way from whatever upper middle class Los Angeles suburb he hails from."

Probably? He is straight so he was never a major character.

Yeah, Brad's never really been attracted to stable guys. Although Jake isn't unstable, but he does have the whole special forces thing going on to make up for the fact that he's not fucked up. LOL

Yeah, I'm trying to remember the cousin I'm thinking of. Dark hair, fixed up the El Dorado? I think he may have been Gathan's brother. There's a scene where he's smiling as he drives up in the El Dorado he fixed up. Really adorable scene.

Well, yeah. I think it's telling that Will has never been with a Golden Boy type, or at least got really serious about one. I think Will is attracted to guys he wants to "fix" in some way.

I was looking at Beau Mirchoff in something and he kind of gave off a loveable Hayes vibe. Like who was the cousin with the dark hair that fixed the 1968 El Dorado? I think Gathan's brother?

You know, it occurred to me that Will's two most serious relationships in the series (Zach and Travis) were with guys who WEREN'T the Golden Child type. Zach may have been a talented football player but he was enough of an asshole that nobody really liked him and he was somewhat of an outsider with the Hayes family. Travis was downright the black sheep of his family. (Maybe why Travis seems to sympathize with Jeremy because he knows what it's like to not be the favorite son of a family?) And I think that's interesting. Would someone like Will really be able to have a relationship with a guy who has also never been told no, always been the favored child, and never really failed at anything he tried to do, or would it drive him crazy? Would Will even be attracted to a guy like that? Will seems to be a "fixer" type- if he were with a Mr. Perfect type I think he'd get bored really easily.

I used Grok to make my Jack fancast (Louis Partridge) look 40 years old and with hazel eyes. This was the base photo:

Did you get an invite to Bryan Singer parties? (Just kidding, Bryan Singer wasn't a thing until about 1997 and you were already too old for him at the ripe age of 20.)

Chapter 22 -When Will absolutely hates his life as the new It Boy. "I Just Wanna Live" by Good Charlotte I'm so glad we're in 2005 now. I think music goes on an upwards trajectory for about the next 10 or so years. The fact that it coincides with the fact that I go from 19 to 29 in that time period is just a coincidence, right? -When Jeremy decides to go and have a talk with Will and charts his helicopter. You know, like any average 19-year old boy. "Change Your Mind" by the Killers

I mean, a Jensen Ackles or David Boreanaz type of career (starring roles in television shows that go for a really long time) is a probably the most stable type of career you can have as an actor (and they say that type of acting career is probably the most conducive to a personal life), but our Travis is definitely going to take some risks, I think. You're right that he's going to aim higher. Hey, it doesn't have to be a preppy lacrosse player with a perfect face. I can also go for a tall, kind of goofy-looking comedian type. My current infatuation is this comedian on TikTok named Tristan Green and I just find him adorable because of his humor. Although a previous recent infatuation was an Old Spice model named Grady Eldridge and WOW am I not helping myself with Private Tim's "you only like a certain type" allegations in regards to that one. LOL

Okay, true, but I think he should have been at the level Hugh Jackman hit.

To a point. Neil Patrick Harris has had a wonderful career, and his musical theater background really helped him stay in the public eye in drier years for him, but he's also never been an A-list leading movie star. Matt Bomer is another example of an openly gay man who has had a wonderful career but he undeniably hit a glass ceiling. It's especially jarring in Matt"s case because there is no way he wouldn't have gotten the leading man push if he had not been outed. I mean, that face card is insane. Luckily for him Ryan Murphy adores Matt and has kept him pretty gainfully employed. In Travis's case, he has to figure out if he's aiming for Tom Cruise/Leo DiCaprio type fame, or if he's going to go for a working actor type of fame, which would allow him much more personal freedom.

This is where I'm kind of just like, "And how exactly does Travis plan on keeping this relationship secret? Uhhh...."

I am shocked the copy hasn't gone for broke and stated something like "Young Mr. Schluter, who's stunning good looks bring to mind the late John F.Kennedy Jr..." I mean if there ever was an eternal It Boy, it'd be John John. Would it be factually true that Will looks like a Kennedy? Probably not, but would a tabloid puffing him in order try to sell tabloids invoke the name? Hell yeah they would.

Eh, I tried. Any time I tried editing the hair color it disappeared the headband of the crown so I was just like, oh well. Here he is with a nice buttery blond! I used a photo of when Dylan Sprouse had bleached hair and then brought it to a nice warm blond color which works well with his skin tone.

I actually disagree. The sexiest he's willing to dress is a pair of tight leather pants and an unbuttoned shirt. He wasn't trying to look sexy. He was trying to look fierce and outrageous.

For funsies I put my JJ fancast in the golden gladiator outfit using Grok. This was fun!

The thing to remember is that Will is the type of character that will pretty much always steal the show- that's just who he is as a character. He's so intensely charismatic and reactive that he's always going to take up a larger than life space wherever he goes. It's why Mark clearly loves writing him so much, and why Will has played a large part in almost every single book since Poor Man's Son. Travis, however, by virtue of being Will's boyfriend, can't also be a larger than life character because otherwise it'd be too much. He's more of an introvert, mellow, observant type of guy. You see similar dynamic with Matt Carrswold and Wade Danfield.