Don't panic

Trust me, this is no cause for alarm.

Radar Magazine has just released "The Hype Report--The expanded list: The world's most overrated people, places, and things," and yes, Jake Gyllenhaal came in at number 27.

I'd never heard of Radar, except as a technology unrelated to entertainment and popular culture. Billing itself as "fresh intelligence" on "pop, politics, scandal, style," this rag appears to be an anti-media form of media coverage (anti- as in anti-hero, not as in against) for pop culture. I'm about as out of step with pop culture as someone my age who isn't incarcerated in solitary confinement or in a coma could manage to be, so I can't say the magazine's premise holds much appeal to me, but it sounds refreshing compared to the alternatives, especially those so-called "entertainment" turds. Yes, I called them turds.

Generally, whenever I see something I consider unduly negative about Jake, my involuntary reflex is to jump to his defense, because goodness knows he needs my protection in the big bad world. That isn't necessary here, because Radar is not making any claims about Jake's talent as an actor, his intelligence, or his overall quality as a human being. They are referring strictly to the quantity and repetitiveness of media references to Jake over a given period.

Guys, Jake isn't shirtless. That's his leg--his foot's on the dash!

Here's How We Ranked 'Em

Media references from the past three months + duration, in months, of overratedness.
Divide that by "inherent appeal" on a scale of one to five.
EXAMPLE: Posh and Becks = 90000 + 96 months since marriage.
Divide that by 2 = 4848.0 = #1.

I'm not sure who determined the "inherent appeal" factor, nor is their definition available in the online article. I'd say that while Jake himself has an inherent appeal of 5 out of 5, the stories that have been most propagated about him over their sampling period had an inherent appeal to me of 1. Multiply the inanity of the two most popular rumors by the number of mindless twits who took them and reposted them all over the net, add in the number of tabloids that first invented, then ended, then rekindled, then ended again (because both parties refused to play) a relationship, and then add in the number of clueless folks who seem to want to blame one or both of the subjects of the gossip for that invention...*catches breath*...suffice it to say, if the editors of Radar lived in my world, where "entertainment" shows and gossip rags and blogs are avoided like carbohydrates, Jake would easily have been number 1.

All photos: IHJ.