Normally I don’t do this, but here goes:
Somebody (the same person, apparently) KEEPS searching my site for references to “David O’Hara”, that great burly (dare I say – blurpy??) Scottish actor who was in Braveheart – and a ton of other movies.
I’ve noticed the prevalence of “David O’Hara” in my Search terms for a while now … and finally this morning … my curiosity was truly aroused by this. (Obligatory What’s Up Doc reference: “My natural curiosity was AROUSED! And I did a little research on Mr. Bankister and Miss Burns …”)
I do not know why this person seems convinced and determined to KEEP checking my blog for posts about this guy. It seems like this person’s thought-process might be: “Maybe this week will be the week that she writes about David O’Hara?”
I even had a strange and pathetic fantasy that it was David O’Hara himself. Did he trip over my blog … does he like what he sees … does he want to make contact with me? Heh heh heh.
I did a search, just to see what came up – and here is the only entry which references that actor.
So. Here goes.
For the person who keeps looking for David O’Hara, whoever you are, even if you ARE David O’Hara, this post is for you:
I have a crush on David O’Hara. Kind of a big crush, truth be told.
Not because of Braveheart, although he was GREAT in that film, but because of The Matchmaker, with Janeane Garofalo, Dennis Leary, and Milo O’Shea. That movie is definitely on a “guilty pleasure” list. There’s a lot wrong with it, the plot isn’t all that great – but the plot doesn’t matter. The plot is just an excuse to tell the love story. And a sweet and interesting love story it is.
David O’Hara is great in the part. Amusing, cocky, intelligent, sexy …
My favorite scene is when he and Garofalo are stuck out on the Aran Islands, and end up in a pub where a singing contest is going on. The movie has a comedic tone to it, yes, kind of madcap, with people racing around, breaking their legs randomly, bumping their heads … but suddenly in that Aran Islands scene, something else happens. I’ve been to the Aran Islands myself, not during tourist season, but on a freezing windy November day … and that scene captures the vibe out there perfectly. The cold outside, the crashing Atlantic all around, the pints of Guinness in dark little pubs with roaring fires … David O’Hara and Janeane Garofalo play 2 characters who resist falling in love. They are wise-crackers, they are cynical, they’ve been burnt … so when they DO start to fall in love (during the singing contest) – there’s a melancholy to it.
The 2 of them play that scene perfectly.
David O’Hara is also in Some Mother’s Son with Helen Mirren, and others. He plays one of the hunger strikers, whose mother lets him die – lets him die for Ireland. The martyrdom of her son is more important to her than his life. Helen Mirren plays a mother in a similar situation, facing a similar dilemma, but she can’t let her son die. O’Hara’s great in that movie too.
I believe he’s actually Scottish, but he plays Irishmen all the time.
And there’s my post.
I hope that satisfies the curiosity of … whoever that person is … who seems to NEED to know my thoughts on this actor.
And David O’Hara – just in case it’s YOU looking for YOURSELF:
I love you deeply. I think you are hot. If I were to sculpt a man who was “my type”, he would look exactly like you. So don’t be afraid. Contact me. If you dare.
Oh my god, I love this guy. And I got to have drinks with him. Oh, yeah. It was classic. So New York. I was sitting at the bar, and in he walked. Rocky Sullivans, the best bar in New York, as far as I’m concerned. Or was, when I was there. We made eye contact, or I panted, and freaked out, but tried to act cool, something like that, and he ended up next to me belly up at the bar. My friend calls it “The night I spent with Carrie’s back”. He didn’t mind because he knew how I had the hots for Mr O’Hara. And so I worked my charms or basically just tried not to get my drool on the bartop and he chatted with me and we drank together for about an hour or so. It was so fantastic almost a fantasy come true except without the taking me home part and he pretty much talked about the home he was buying with his girlfriend but still. I had drinks with David O’Hara and he was HOT!
Carrie:
I hate you very much.
:)
JEALOUS!!!
Finally, somebody on the internet has filled the void in me that needed a place to register that I too think David O’Hara is hot.
I am complete.
hahahaha!!!
Was it you, Emily, running those search terms on my site??
The man’s a babe. No doubt about it.
Oh yeah. Do you want me to get more detailed about how our hands touched reaching for drinks and he was so rugged and handsome and just perfect and I was right next to him, so close you could barely slide a piece of paper between us? And his eyes, looking soulfully into mine? What a perfect New York story it is? I can, you know, if you want, tell you how he is a bit shorter in person but has that meltingly wonderful burr of an accent.
Cause he is a babe, to be sure, but oh my god, he is man heaven in person. This I know.
heh
Sheila,
Please punch her when you get to Ireland.
And no, it wasn’t me. I’m not that persistant about *anything*.
Carrie:
I am beyond jealous. I’m kind of beside myself with … envy.
Ah well, you know, it more than made up for the fact that the only famous people I drank with during my time in New York were him and George Wendt, who, funnily enough, I ran into a number of times in various bars. It was a great memory though, you know, the bar was quiet, it was a weeknight, and if you’ve ever been to Rocky’s you know how you come down the stairs, so you can just imagine the door opening and him in its frame about to descend. I can really milk this you know, but it’s not often I can share my David O’Hara story with people who know who he is let alone lust after him the way I do. I mean, pinch me, I never thought he would be someone I would ever see in person. Not that there’s any famous people I ever think I’ll see in person. But him definately was not someone I thought I’d be hanging at Rocky’s with. But I did. Oh, yeah. Still swoonable years later. Heh. Should I stop now? I can keep going? He even smelt nice…..
I need a cigarette after that last comment, Carrie.
I can tell you about the time I met Liam Neeson, if it helps? Or perhaps how amazingly blue Aidan Quinn’s eyes really are?
heh heh heh
Believe it or not, I’ve met those two as well. And while yes, they are handsome men …
Well. David O’Hara is different. He makes me feel insane.
Very much looking forward to Liam Neeson in the new Kinsey movie, by the way – it looks very weird and cool.
Oh yeah, I was just thinking, you know, they’d be a good come down from such a high. David, I feel I can call him that after our time together, he is just so earthy….he’s got that something. Liam Neeson is very old time movie-star glamour. And Quinn’s eyes are very, very blue. But O’Hara just has that lower lip you want to nibble on, and he juts it out just so, in such a come-hither fashion, you just know he wants you to nibble on it. Just a little. Or something like that.
What’s the Kinsey thing?
It’s a movie coming out about Kinsey, the sex researcher. They’re keeping it very much under wraps right now – although it’s being screened at festivals now – and advance word is that he is fantastic in the part.
I’m excited to see it.
Will keep an eye out for it, haven’t heard anything here yet about it. The Village is doing the rounds here now, and Terminal. I can’t get that excited about watching a man in an airport, even if it is Tom Hanks and features Catherine Zeta Jones as Wilson. The arty-farty theater here reopens in October and I’m looking forward to that.
Carrie – yeah, the artsy-fartsy theatre surely will be the place for Kinsey!
Carrie,
Speaking of artsy-fartsy, you should check out this if you can get the chance.
Hmmmm, I just might. Lot of good things coming up in the artsy fartsy world over here.
Thanks :-)
Oh I know exactly who David O’Hara is – I’ve always noticed him myself, but in my case it’s because big burly Celtic actors remind me of my dad. Do you know who Patrick Bergin is? You might like him too.
Now I see what your type is. Aha.
Patrick Bergin? Er – was he the one in Sleeping with the Enemy? That’s the only thing I’ve seen him in, and he didn’t really do it for me – since in my memory he is kind of sleek and dark and neat-looking.
I like the semi-messiness of O’Hara, the “blurpiness”, if you will.
Boy I’m provincial; I’ve never run into any movie stars, my fervent prayers re: Drew Barrymore having gone unanswered.
Dan –
First of all, I commend you for being the first man to comment in this thread. Good on ya.
Second of all, if you lived in New York you would see them so much you would get bored with them.
“Oh, look, there’s Uma again…”
And I actually had a personal moment of laughter once (over a random coincidental moment) with Drew Barrymore on an empty street in Soho at 8 a.m. … not to make you jealous or anything. I was a bit star-struck – but only afterwards. Because in the moment, we both just burst into laughter at the same random thing …
Later, I was like, “Holy shit … ET!! I love that woman!!”
Well somebody has to represent.
No doubt you’re right about locale playing a role. Boston doesn’t overlfow with celebs like NYC, let alone Quincy. Though I think I may have seen Kay Hanley one afternoon…
I would only be jealous if you actually had drinks with Drew.
Bergin was better in “Patriot Games”, as the IRA leader of the plot to kidnap the Prince of Wales.
Oh yeah, I remember him in Patriot Games!!
Damn! I think I’ll start typing my name in your search bar every day or so. Reading you and Carrie made me sweat, but I don’t feel used–unfortunately.
I can’t think of other roles of Bergin’s now, but I know I’ve seen him be blurpy. Seen him a bit heavier, less sleek. There was some BBC thing I saw him in, also had an IRA theme (he’s in a lot of things with IRA themes) – but in that he was trying to get out of the IRA, and go and live in Australia or something. Can’t remember the name of it, but he was kind of sweet in that/in over his head/not sleek at all.
Act of Betrayal, that’s what it was called. Not that you care. Just had to remember for myself.
How would you characterize Russell Crowe? Is he messy/blurpy at all, or just a hard man?
Anne:
“I know I’ve seen him be blurpy”
Oh, I absolutely love that sentence, on so many levels. You have incorporated my love of blurpiness, and you have also incorporated that made-up word. There’s a nonsensical sense to the whole thing, if you get my meaning.
I think Sleeping with the enemy is what made the real lasting impression on me – how mean and NEAT he was.
Russell Crowe can definitely be blurpy.
He did a wonderful movie called The Sum of Us (before he got famous) – where he plays this jocky shy gay kid living in New Zealand with his dad. He had a big ol’ sexy blurp factor in that movie – and even though he played a gay guy, I think it’s his sexiest performance.
Yes, I’ve seen The Sum of Us. I see what you mean.
In my last comment, I did not mean to imply that gay men cannot be sexy. It’s just … well, you know. I’m straight.
Man I hope blurpy isn’t the new black. Cant’ do blurpy.
Well, when somebody who is kind of a hard man, like RC, plays a gay guy, he’s that much sexier somehow. Like it’s only sexy to have a sensitive side if you don’t show it most of the time?
???
Dan,
It’s a very rare body type. Well, actually, no – it’s not rare, but it is non-existent in New York City, except for certain neighborhoods in Queens. It is not fat. It is big, burly – and if the guy has muscles, it is because he’s on a softball league or he paints houses, not because he goes to the gym.
Blurpy.
Dublin is full of blurps.
Manhattan is blurp-free, more’s the pity.
Anne –
Russell Crowe was more vulnerable playing that kid than I’ve ever seen him. He had no confidence in himself, and that shyness … it was very attractive.
I know people like that kid. It was so real.
Dublin – that makes sense as a blurpy center. The Irish at the local seem to be about evenly divided between blurpy guys and whippety guys.
Dan,
Obviously, I have done waaayyyyy too much thinking about blurpiiness.
I have to give credit where credit is due. My friend Ann Marie came up with that word.
It has incorrect “fat” connotations, so usually guys won’t take it as a compliment if you say, “Wow, I love your blurpy body”. heh. I know I wouldn’t!!!
The fact that the word “blurpy” is being tossed around as though it is valid fills my heart with joy.
Yeah – drinking beer has a lot to do with blurp.
Russell Crowe, oh yeah. He’s got it. Patrick Bergin, not so much. Sean Bean (Sharpe’s Rifles), I think he’s got it. Mickey Rourke used to have it in spades before he got all plastic weird. There’s an Irish thing running through this list.
Red – drinking beer also has a lot to do with burp.
“Obviously, I have done waaayyyyy too much thinking about blurpiiness.”
S’ok – you’ve got me commenting on it and I don’t even go for blurpy types. If women can be blurpy that is.
Mickey Rourke had the Blurp-hot-ness like CRAZY in Diner. Ouch. That’s all I have to say – OUCH!
But yeah, now you would never know, cause of all the work he had done.
Kate Winslet and Drew Barrymore I think would be blurpy and Janine Garfolo (totally mangled her name) before she got all skinny and blonde, but I think the term for blurpy women is zaftig?
Mickey Rourke, Barfly, fantastic. He done a lot of good work before he freaked himself out. I think Carre Otis might be a blurpy woman, speaking of pre-freakout Mickey.
So blurpy=curvy for women?
Then I stand corrected. I do like blurpy. At least blurpy a la Barrymore.
Kathleen Turner would have been a very blurpy woman and so would have Ellen Barkin cause they both have that animalistic thing going on under their skin and that intelligence in their eyes. If I’m on the right track for blurpy women. I can see why zaftig is the preferred word for women, what woman wants to be called blurpy? It’s almost like being called gassy. But for men, that’s ok. I think.
“I think that woman is so hot. She looks so gassy.”
No. Doesn’t have a good ring.
Yeah, hot and gassy, not a good combination. “Wow, she’s so hot she looks like she’s gonna blow!” Well, depending on what kind of movie it is.
Yes. Blurpy is not fat.
Zaftig and curvy is better for women.
Blurpy connotes a certain relaxation in regards to fitness (ie: the person is not a fitness freak) – but NOT laziness.
Maybe “burly” is a better word – but that’s not quite the right word, either. “Burly” to me means … Burt Reynolds or something.
It’s the semi-MESSINESS of blurp-boys I find so attractive.
Burly = Burl Ives.
Blurpy = Yeah, if I needed him to, he could totally kick someone’s ass for me. And he would, too, if some ass kicking needed done.
Carrie – there ya go. That’s right.
Also – just to be clear – I probably would never say any of this to any guy I found blurpily attractive. The word is too ambiguous.
Jason Patrick, in After Dark My Sweet.
How that ambiguous conversation might go:
-Oh, darling, you are so blurpy!
-What, was it the brocolii? Or the beer?
I love this discussion – have been wondering what you meant by blurpy since the post about the guy on the train.
You didn’t weigh in on Sean Bean – do you really think he has it? I would have thought not.
I definitely had the hots for Boromir. He was my favorite.
I think I posted about it, embarrassingly enough.
He’s big enough without pushing over the edge into pudgy. Also … he’s a little bit … messy. heh heh heh
Legolas fan, myself. As you can probably guess.
Ok, OK….I’ll stop.
Er, just kidding.
Anne –
Yes, I did guess! Objectively I enjoy Legolas, but there is nothing objective about my enjoyment of Boromir.
I think one of the things I find most attractive about this whole blurpy thing is that, to me, it is a signal of a lack of vanity. Not a carelessness about their physique – but a lack of self-loving vanity.
I like that.
If you want to see David O’Hara in another fantastic movie (when he was VERY young) and your heart will just thump out of your body — find a copy of “The Bridge” — FANTASTIC!! Just about as good as “MatchMaker” for all the same reasons!
I read David O’Hara asked Janeane Garofalo (his co-star in “The MatchMaker) to marry him. Do you think this is true? Thank you and be well.
Stef