My Dearest Maximum Leader:

Please stop blogging under the influence. This is simple craziness. First, everybody knows that Helen of Troy was the most desirable woman in history. How does everybody know that? Because she started a legendary war. In fact, she had a face that launched a thousand ships. Neither Sophia Lauren, back in the day, nor Jennifer Love Hewitt have been so desired that a war started.

Also, there are some women around the French court back in the day that caused quite a stir as well, but I can’t, for the life of me, think of their names.

Max –

If you must make a list of desirable women, why not confine yourself to women who were truly desirable in their private life rather than those who were periodically adept at appearing so in the movies or on television?

I must throw out that the list was in no particular order. I would gladly put Helen at number 1 if I were to order the list.

You know… There are lots of women that could make this list. I was hard pressed to stop adding them.

Well, I have to worry about a man who thinks of Jennifer Love Hewitt before he does Ava Gardner, or who gives a place to Irene Langhorne but not Evelyn Nesbit.

Following up FLG’s suggestion, why not make two separate lists — one while entirely sober and one while just the opposite?

You didn’t even mention Ingrid Bergman! My faith in your ability to make lists, let alone be ruler of the world, is severely shaken.

B - that is unforgivable. I don’t know how I forgot Ingrid and remembered Deborah Kerr?

I insist that Parker Posey be added at once.

FLG, Heh. And Madame du Pompadour is one of the ladies you are thinking of. It wasn’t so much her beauty as it was her prowess. BTW, to ready herself for an evening she would not only submit herself to taxing beauty treatments, she would quaff 84 oysters….

What, no Grace Thorsen?

One of the most beautiful women in show business is Julie Andrews. Because she had all but one squeaky clean movies, nobody really sees her as desirable. It is much more interesting to see her in interviews where a true, mature woman appears out of the film images. She should have been cast as one of the worlds great courtesans at least once.