Catherine Deneuve. Still.

Jaclyn Smith in her Charlie's Angels days would also be a contender.

Yes, certainly.

To me, he's just not real. Someone said they needed an actor to play a young Superman, and someone drew him, and then breathed life into him. That's why the exaggerated manly jaw. Still the prettiest. Dare I say...prettier than Legolas?

It's the lumpy that bugs me. We have news anchors here with squarer, more manly jaws (flamingly gay news anchors, in point of fact, with total Mary Sue names) than Welling, and the manly jaw doesn't bug. It's that the outline on his is wonky. It's off, and displeasing to the eye.

My iMac's destop pic at the moment is Ian McKlellan and Dom Monighan (prob. spelled that wrong) at a rugby game - Dom's got a little leaf painted on his cheek and these to-die-for cool sunglasses on. Dom is not pretty. Dom is sexy as hell. Hobbit or no. Ian is not pretty or sexy, but extremely handsome and kind-looking. It's nice that there are so many flavors of fun-to-look-at.

Catherine Deneuve. Still.

She is truly and literally beautiful. I don't think anyone is getting my definition of pretty (which really, look it up, TW is next to it in the dictionary).

Um... I wonder if I can use examples instead of definitions.

Robert Redford=pretty Paul Newman=beautiful

Farah Fawcett (in her hay day)=pretty Sophia Lauren=beautiful

Nah, they're not capturing what is in my head. Never mind.

eta...

Ooh, I think tina gets it, and possibly Plei.

That guy on Birds of Prey? Pretty.

AD? More beautiful than pretty.

CC? Pretty.

I didn't watch BoP, but yeah. Beauty has a (visual) depth that pretty doesn't, maybe? I do think Jaclyn Smith straddles the line between pretty and beautiful most successfully.

CC managed to cross it, in the beginning of The Wish, when she was in that spectacular leather outfit--but it wasn't the outfit. It was either her make up, or (maybe even) her acting. She did a great job betraying her pain with her face, and I think that helped.

Pretty has a lot to do with smooth and regular and symmetrical and nothing-out-of-place. KK is pretty. Pretty can also be beautiful, but it isn't necessarily. It's also a juvenile characteristic, and a fairly static one. It has more to do with absence of flaws than with anything really animating the face.

Beautiful, by contrast, is all about life. Beautiful people may have their pretty characteristics, but that's not what makes them distinctive. The sort of people who look good in pictures, but leave you saying, "but the picture doesn't capture what s/he's really like" is beautiful. Allyson Mack is beautiful, as are AH and AD, Gina Torres, Johnny Depp.

Hot gets into some pretty serious YMMV range -- for me, it's sometimes beautiful, but it's almost always the opposite of pretty -- instead, it tends to be strong-featured and quirky and craggy and (in men, anyway) scruffy. It's why I prefer Boromir to Legolas-standing-around, although Legolas-in-action-with-weapons is beautiful and therefore transcends.

I find Charisma Carpenter to be that insanely too-pretty-to-be-human type of pretty

I think she's pretty, but not that pretty. TW is beautiful, but I can't be captivated by him once I saw an interview. He's not bright. That makes him far less attractive. Now, MR? with his wicked wit and sly grin, that's hottitude.

"Newsradio"

Beth: Pretty means pretty. Cute means pretty, but short or hyperactive – like me!

Lisa: Then what's beautiful?

Beth: Beautiful means pretty & tall.

Lisa: Gorgeous?

Beth: Pretty with great hair.

Lisa: Striking?

Beth: Pretty with a big nose.

Lisa: Sexy?

Beth: Pretty and easy.

Lisa: Voluptuous?

Beth: Pretty and fat.

Lisa: Exotic?

Beth: Ugly!