We have found the next teen sensation, ladies and gentlemen, and he's male.
Not a shock, really. While pop tarts like Britney Spears may get more searches, many young boy heartthrobs are also popular with Lycos users. The latest one to rocket up the charts is actor Ryan Merriman. He's so dreamy!
Merriman, who grew up in Tulsa (also home to those where-are-they-now boys the Hansons) has been acting and modeling since he was six years old. He played the son of one of The Mommies on that 1993 sitcom and also played young Jared on The Pretender.
In the past two weeks, Merriman has made two television appearances that have his on-line fandom all aflutter. The first was a starring role in a TV movie called Luck of the Irish. Merriman plays a teenager who discovers he is actually descended from leprechauns, and he must battle an evil leprechaun for control of a gold chain.
He also appeared on the show Touched By An Angel on March 18 in what female fans online are calling "the perfect role." He played a young aspiring photographer who catches his eye doctor father having an affair. Distraught, he gets drunk, crashes his car, and is rendered blind. He then lies in a hospital bed and looks very cute for the remainder of the show while dealing with his emotions and those of his philandering father.
Once Merriman fans had recovered from being bashed on the head with obvious metaphors, they hit the Internet to search for their new sweetheart. Searches for Ryan Merriman have rocketed up 460 percent over each of the last two weeks. Last week he received more searches than either model Cindy Crawford or basketball star Vince Carter.
Merriman has spawned quite a web following. Check out two fan pages on Angelfire: this one has younger pictures, while this one is a bit more up-to-date. Merriman also has his own page, complete with appropriately vapid and grammatically challenged web diary. The latest edition is headlined "There's No Place Like Being ????? Home For The Holiday's."
Apparently, all your punctuation are belong to Ryan Merriman.
TOMORROW: The New Lycos 50.
