Darcy vs Grant

What is it about Mr Darcy that makes him so...fanciable? I've been doing more chick lit reading than I care to admit over the past year (all in the name of research for thesis, of course) and it seems that the Darcy profile is one that has been copied by authors ever since. But I don't get it, really I don't. Sure it would be nice in theory to have a rich, handsome man telling that in spite of the many negative aspects of a potential union, he can't live without you. In reality, though, he's a smug prejudiced git who can't get over class prejudices until he meets someone who, through force of personality, makes him figure she's just been born in the wrong family. His own family leaves just as much to be desired as the worst elements of the Bennetts. He's opinionated, brooding, and set in his ways. There is no evidence of a sense of humour. About the best that could be said of him, besides the handsome and rich part of course, is that he seems intelligent enough. He domineers and controls his friends and is contemptuous of many. Whilst he may be a good landlord, he wants to keep the feudal status quo.

Personally, I'm not sure I wouldn't take Lizzie's first response and run with it.

And what about Hugh Grant? The sweet but spineless heroes he plays are also fodder for the daydreams of many. How many women have sat glued to the screen watching his wiggling butt in Love Actually as he proves a Prime Minister may be able to mix it with Billy Bob Thornton's smarmy president in defence of all things British (the speech he gives is, in my opinion, one of the better screen political moments that doesn't involve Martin Sheen) but he is still painfully, annoyingly both unable to dance and unable to act in his private life without a swift kick up the behind - or in the case of Love Actually, a letter that all but declares someone is in love with him.
So, in the immortal words of - I can't remember, who was it? - where have all the good men gone, where are all the gods? If the above are anything to go by, they were never truly a part of fiction in the first place. Or at least not in any form that you could live with in the real world.