Rob Rocks

I’ve something of a Rob Thomas fan for a while now. Though I don’t own any of his band’s music, they were ubiquitous on the radio for a while, and I liked everything I heard. Plus, any Matchbox 20 video that I came across on television, with Rob front and center, would usually stop me in my tracks. There’s a reason he made my "Sexiest Men Alive" list a while back.

So, when I heard the rumor about him and Tom Cruise getting caught in bed by Rob’s wife (thus the hastily arranged engagement of Tom to Katie Holmes) I dismissed it, not wanting to believe it for two main reasons: I’ve never seen what’s supposed to be so hot about Cruise, and I just didn’t want to beileve that Thomas was yet another showbiz Scientologist. Mainly it was the Cruise thing. If Rob was gonna hook up with another guy, I’d hope it wouldn’t be plasticky-spasticky Tom.

So I was relieved to hear that Robs denies both the Tom thing and the Scientology thing. But he went a step further than that, and it got my attention.

The SOMETHING TO BE singer is horrified by claims he was caught in bed with the WAR OF THE WORLDS star and has finally spoken out to end the rumours.

But he’s even more offended by reports he’s joined Cruise and other followers of L RON HUBBARD’s Church Of Scientology, which has been labelled a "cult" by some critics.

He says, "If I were gay, Tom wouldn’t be on the top of my list…It would be BRAD PITT.

"I’m more offended by the rumours saying I’m Scientologist.

While I might not have picked Brad Pitt either, though he’s a step up from Tom in my book, I was somewhat impressed with Rob’s declaration. He managed to come across as secure in his sexuality (secure enough to publicly speculate about who he’d do if he was gay) without being homophobic. That moved Rob up a notch in my book.

Of course, it might not be that unusual for a straight male celebrity in Rob’s position — one who likely knows he has a number of gay male fans — to make a statement like that. Still, it’s nice to hear.

Now, if I had to pick a guy for Rob, who would it be?