Mark Gallagher, "Cosmosexuals: Screen Acting, Stardom, and Male Sex Appeal" (U Texas Press, 2025)

January 30, 2026·1 hr 11 min·5 clips

How does charisma translate through a screen when the actors are literally larger than life and most of us will never meet them?

An audience survey comes first. New Books Network asks listeners for five minutes of feedback and ties the survey to publishers, libraries, institutions, partnerships, resources, and a stronger NBN. Then the book steps in. Gallagher describes a study that starts with historical French cases and moves into contemporary male stars across Canada, the UK, Australia, Latino stars from North and South America, East Asian stars from Hong Kong and exported to Canada, Nordic stars, and Black British stardom. The range is the point, but he does not pretend it is simple. Global coverage depends on language skills, available films and television programs, research interests, and whether a star can move across international contexts. Miranda slows the catalogue down and pulls out the shared thread: men read as sexy or appealing in more than one place. That leads to spreadable stardom, a useful phrase for asking how appeal travels beyond its first context. Gallagher then gives the larger frame. Cosmosexuality joins cosmopolitan and metrosexual to name mobile forms of male appeal. The interview is patient and academic, but not dry. It is less interested in celebrity gossip than in how acting, stardom, geography, and reception fit together. Jean-Marie Le Pen appears in the French historical frame, while Mats Mikkelsen and Idris Elba anchor later international case studies. Miranda keeps the structure easy to follow, restating the scope, naming the shared question of cross-place desirability, and asking what the term can do. The close returns to the book, Cosmosexual Screen Acting Stardom and Male Sex Appeal, a 2025 University of Texas Press title. Gallagher ends warmly, thanking Miranda for questions that made him think differently and calling the podcast a service to authors, readers, and publishers.

As heard by us

A careful conversation about male stardom, cosmosexuality, and spreadable sex appeal.

Mark Gallagher's conversation about Cosmosexual treats male screen appeal as a global idea, not just a parade of attractive stars. It ranges from cosmosexuality to spreadable stardom, then moves through anglophone, Latino, East Asian, Nordic, and Black British examples.

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Why you'd press play

A global map of male star appeal, from French politics to contemporary icons.

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