Jude Law: Setting hearts aflutter

Los Angeles, Nov. 18 (Reuters): British actor Jude Law, currently starring as the irresistible cad in the remake of Alfie, was named this year?s Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine on Wednesday.

The chiselled-featured, 31-year-old actor was the top pick of the magazine?s editors to succeed their leading male sex symbol of 2003, Johnny Depp. Law appears on the cover of People?s November 19 issue, which hits news-stands on Friday.

?His warmth is what makes him sexy and it radiates through his eyes,? actor Nicole Kidman, his Cold Mountain co-star, told the magazine. Rachel Weisz, who appeared with him in Enemy at the Gates, added: ?He has the most beautiful eyes you?ve ever seen.?

Law has built a reputation as a serious actor with a list of credits ranging from the role of a robot gigolo in Steven Spielberg?s Artificial Intelligence: AI to a murderous photographer in Road to Perdition.

Law, who earned a Tony nomination on Broadway co-starring with Kathleen Turner in Indiscretions, first gained wide notice with movie audiences and an Oscar nomination playing a spoiled young playboy and the object of Matt Damon?s obsession in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Johnny Depp, 2003’s male sex symbol

He earned a second Academy Award nomination for his role as a Confederate deserter in the popular Civil War drama Cold Mountain. But his most recent films ? I Heart Huckabees, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Alfie ? have been commercial duds. Law, who has three young children by his ex-wife, British fashion designer and actor Sadie Frost, will next be seen in Mike Nichols? upcoming romantic drama Closer.

People bestowed its first Sexiest Man Alive honours in 1985 to Mel Gibson. Other winners have included John F. Kennedy Jr., Sean Connery, Denzel Washington, Richard Gere and Ben Affleck.