Let me start off this post by saying I’m absolutely thrilled One Tree Hill‘s James Lafferty won last week’s vote. I’m pleased as punch, whatever that means. Until I started doing research for his profile (which you can view by clicking here), I wasn’t familiar with James. I saw him (and loved him, for the record) in S. Darko, but had never seen One Tree Hill. When I saw the number of nominations James received and added him to the poll, I decided to check out some of his work. So I guess I’d like to take a minute to say thank you for turning me on to a whole new obsession before we dive into a little chit chat about some changes I feel I need to make this week.

Okay, so last week’s vote was kind of awesome in one way and awful in another. Clearly James winning was a great thing. Those of you who voted for him are probably happy and I’m happy because I’ve been introduced to some new Man Candy which is always great. Here’s the problem though. As much as I appreciate your passion for Mr. Lafferty, the number of times his name was written into the other box before and after I added his name to the poll has made it a little difficult to decide who should stick around for another week and who shouldn’t. For that reason, I’m bringing all the candidates from last week forward to this week and I’m going to make a few changes to the write in nomination process. In case you’ve forgotten since last week, let’s take a quick look at your nominees again along with the one non-James Lafferty write in nominee from last week’s poll.

Candy Candidate Number One: Keegan Allen (Returning Nominee)

While James technically came in first and second (first with write in nominations accounting for 18.53% of the votes and second in the actual poll with 12.24% of the votes after I added him to the poll), I’m counting Keegan as second as there were a few nominations for Liam Hemsworth in with the write in nominations. Earning 12.24% of the vote, there are clearly a lot of Keegan Allen fans out there trying to get this Pretty Little Liars star a win.

Candy Candidate Number Two: Wes Bentley (Returning Candidate)

These days, Wes is probably most well known for his work in The Hunger Games but I’ve been in love with this man since his stellar performance in American Beauty. I have yet to see him in a movie I didn’t love him in.  Even if I hadn’t decided to bring all of last week’s candidates back to compete again, Wes would’ve been returning coming in third with 9.79% of your votes.

Candy Candidate Number Three: James Van Der Beek (Returning Candidate)

I never got into the whole Dawson’s Creek thing and although I later fell in love with Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson that love never really extended to James Van Der Beek … until now. I abso-freaking-lutely love him on what is quickly becoming one of my favorite television comedies, Don’t Trust the B**** in Apartment 23. Like Keegan and Wes, James garnered enough votes to stick around another week regardless of whether or not I had chosen to bring everyone back, ending the week with 9.09% of the vote.

Candy Candidate Number Four: Michael Pitt (Returning Nominee)

I have loved Michael Pitt in everything I’ve ever seen him in and I’ve seen pretty much everything listed on his filmography. This guy is quite simply one of my favorite actors and I have every confidence he’s going to have a long and successful career. Will he also have a Man Candy win? The likelihood of that seems to depend on the week. He finished this week with 8.74% of the vote – not far behind James but not far ahead of our next candidate either. I suppose only time will tell but if you want him to win, make sure you vote!

Candy Candidate Number Five: Tom Payne

I get why Luck was cancelled in theory, especially considering my position on animal rights, but that doesn’t mean I’m any less brokenhearted over the whole thing.  My only solace is knowing that when someone is as talented and gorgeous as Tom Payne, it’s hard to imagine that person won’t have a phenomenal career. I’m thrilled that he’s still in the running. He only got 8.04% of your votes. Seems like a small number in theory but it would’ve been a strong enough finish to keep him around for another week regardless.

Candy Candidate Number Six: Timothy Olyphant

Out of all the Candy Candidates we’ve talked about thus far, Timothy is the only one that was really in any danger of not making this week’s poll. To be honest, I kept him because I just couldn’t bring myself to take him off. I freaking love Timothy. I’ve taken him off the poll a few times before but voters always seem to write him back in. How about you just, ya know, vote for him while he’s on the poll so that he can get the win? Timothy only got 1.75% of your votes but I’d like to think that’s because fans were still reeling from Justified‘s epic season finale and couldn’t bring themselves to vote.

Candy Candidate Number Seven: Liam Hemsworth

Confession: I didn’t love the big screen adaptation of The Hunger Games but I still love me some Liam Hemsworth so I was excited to see his name among the write in nominations. I had his brother Chris Hemsworth on the poll a while back but he didn’t earn enough votes to stick around. Will Liam have better luck? Only time will tell.

Okay, we’ve come to the part of the post where I have to fill you in on the changes this week. I’m sure there are a few people that are going to be a little bit unhappy with me here, but I have to do what I think is fair. I’ve disabled the “other” option on the poll but I still welcome write in nominations. I’ll be accepting write ins via Facebook, Twitter (links at the bottom of the page) and the comments section at the end of this post. If you write in a nomination here or on Facebook, and that comment gets more than five likes, I’ll add the person’s name to the poll and you can vote for your nominee as many times as you like through the poll. Twitter will work a bit differently. I’ll comment on this post with the name of any nominees sent via Twitter (along with your Twitter name, if you like) and people will then be able to “like” that comment. Five likes gets the nominees name added to the poll. 

One final thing to mention about write in nominations and it’s an important one. MEN CANNOT WIN A MAN CANDY MONDAY PROFILE MORE THAN ONCE. CHECK THE ARCHIVE BEFORE NOMINATING SOMEONE. The following men have all been featured and can therefore not win again:

• Charlie Hunnam
• Ian Somerhalder
• Jensen Ackles
• Jake Gyllenhaal
• Joe Manganiello
• Garrett Hedlund
• Ashton Kutcher
• Jason Momoa
• Robert Pattinson
• James Franco
• Alexander Skarsgård
• Lukas Rossi
• Joseph Morgan
• Alex Pettyfer
• Aaron Eckhart
• Matt Bomer
• Mike Vogel
• Paul Wesley
• Taylor Kitsch
• Jared Leto
• Alex O’Loughlin
• Josh Dallas
• Misha Collins
• Jared Padalecki
• Johnny Depp
• Jamie Dornan
• Wilson Bethel
• Nick Wechsler
• Cress Williams
• James Lafferty

If you missed one of those profiles, just click the name and you’ll be able to view the profile in a new page. Each profile features a complete filmography, the man candy’s vital stats and a gallery full of great pictures. Just please make sure you check the list well. You can also view the complete Man Candy Monday archive blog by clicking here. You may want to bookmark it because I likely won’t be including the full list at the end of another post. It’s frigging long. Okay, enough blah blah blah – let’s get down to the voting!

Don’t like your choices? Nominate your favorite man candy (after checking the list please) by commenting below or by leaving your nomination in one of the following places:

• Girl In Stereo’s Official Facebook Page
• Man Candy Monday’s Official Facebook Page
• Girl In Stereo’s Twitter Page
• Man Candy Monday’s Twitter Page

While you’re there, why not give us a little like and a follow? It’d be much appreciated. Also, you may want to take a minute or two to check out some awesome products from E.L.F. cosmetics. Reviews and makeup tutorials coming soon. Make sure you stay tuned for that!

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