Sexiest Author
Paul Auster

Why: Because his book-jacket photo is as brooding and slyly charming as his prose. The Brooklyn native has been the object of bohemian crushes for years (his first wife was writer’s writer Lydia Davis; his second, equally hip novelist Siri Hustvedt).

Loved in Translation: “We get a lot of French tourists hoping to see him,” says an employee at Park Slope’s Community Bookstore, where Auster has been known to check his e-mail. “Once, a girl was asking about Paul just as he walked in. She started shaking, then broke down in tears.”

Sexiest Ex
Patricia Duff

Why: What do Ron Perelman, Mort Zuckerman, Mike Medavoy, Bob Torricelli, and Frédéric Fekkai have in common? A certain sultry blonde (who made a fortune divorcing Perelman).

Close Encounter: “I once bumped into her on 60th and Madison,” says a secret admirer of the Democratic fund-raiser. “She let me kiss her on the cheek. That experience is way up there in my sexual history, ahead of at least ten great lays.”

Photo Credit: AP Photos