Malice’s hard truth

Published February 20, 2026 4:27am ET



Once a generation, Hollywood produces a leading man whose face and eyes tell very different stories. Jake Gyllenhaal, Jeremy Irons, even Jimmy Stewart: Each wears beneath his movie star looks a bone-deep suggestion of depravity and decay. Two weeks ago, I would have said that Gen Y’s representative on the list was Robert Pattinson, the vampiric star of Twilight and The Batman. I now know better. English comedian Jack Whitehall, at a glance the world’s handsomest man, has knocked Pattinson aside with all the grace of an out-of-control lorry. With apologies to Whitehall’s mother, romantic partner, and friends, the 37-year-old is clearly evil. 

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