Ooooh-lala...

Oh, that face: brooding eyes, Gallic nose, sensitive lips.

It is a face made for display beneath rumpled hair, the face of a young man bringing his older girlfriend fresh croissants and cafe au lait on a lazy morning as they recuperate from a night of love in a charming pied a terre along the Champs Elyssee.

(No, forget the Left Bank immediately.... this fantasy features lots of money and a kept younger man, okay? Go find your own fantasy if you don't like it... we're talking diamonds and poodles and doormen here.)

His name is Adrien Brody. He is.... an intellectual Keanu? A Heathcliff for the 21st Century? An Italian painting come to life?

He is an actor. Naturally. All the pretty ones are.

We don't care what he is. We're just glad we get a chance to sit and look at him.

The boy, well, okay, make that a man (he's somewhere in the neighborhood of 28 and will be that lovely age forever, so far as we are concerned), has been around cameras a long time. Born to artistic royalty -- his mother is famed photographer Sylvia Plachy -- Brody grew up in New York City and has been performing on stage or in films since he was a child. Super stardom has eluded him, but there's plenty of time. Perhaps if we Tarts could get together and picket the studios, we could hasten the process?

There's a lot that could be said about Adrien Brody... but we're not going to say it. Frankly, we were in the middle of an epic fantasy involving him and the ferris wheel that whirls in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower when the annoying Tart City deadline intruded -- so Adrien and moi must be going now.

Just look for him in next year's The Affair of the Necklace.We are confident his performance in this film will say it all. He stars in it, along with Hilary Swank. It's set in 18th Century France -- which means we may have to adjust our fantasies slightly to account for ruffled cuffs -- and as Adrien is set to also co-star with Christopher Walken and Simon Baker in this flick, I think we can safely say he's going to be the hottest thing in it (with apologies to Swank fans).

Want to see him in action? Here's his filmography:

New York Stories (1989)
King of the Hill (1993)
Angels in the Outfield (1994)
Nothing to Lose (1995)
Bullet (1996)
Solo (1996)
The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997)
Six Ways to Sunday (1997)
The Undertaker's Wedding (1997)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Summer of Sam (1999)
Liberty Heights (1999)
Oxygen (1999)
Restaurant (2000)
Bread and Roses (2000)
The Affair of the Necklace (2001)