It recently occurred to us that the men (yeah, they're all men) who take New York City's party pix are in a dangerous, fun, peacocky league of their own. And aren't they, after all, the most important people to know if you want to work the benefit circuit and the little red carpets? So who are the hotties behind the hot photos of hotties? Why don't you tell us which lensmens' charms inspire you to give genuinely good face? Ball-rolling: we hear extremely good things about former Patrick McMullan photog Chris Ford and WWD's Steve Eichner. Of course the Times' Bill Cunningham is everyone's favorite uncle. But who really uncaps your lens, ladies and gents?

Today we were going to ask you what direction to go in next as we discover Manhattan's most attractive, and therefore important, people. Shall we look for hotties among architects? Headwaiters? Graphic designers? On a particular block of 52nd street? Do let me know. But while looking for a photo to illustrate the post, we hit a snag. What image immediately communicates the concept "hottie?" Ding ding ding: The Office and bad Robin Williams movie star John Krasinski. Mmm. That's when I realized: John Krasinski is the only celebrity who, given the chance, I would really and truly want to do it with. Weird, right? Aren't we all supposed to have a list? And isn't the list supposed to include, like, Brad Pitt? Personally I wouldn't ride that taut-faced gayseemer after having adopted Angelina Jolie's pussy. And while there are other celebrities I find... compelling (Paul Rudd, and Irish hottie Aidan Gillen, and Dominic West from 'The Wire'), there's no one else I'd actually say yes to. He's my Claire Danes, if you will. Who's yours?

Our lusty summer competition has ended, and the people have spoken. Sorry, Aaron Schlecter and Chris Parris-Lamb. Literary agent Luke Janklow (and his marble-staired townhouse!) is hands-down the hottest straight* guy in book publishing, with 51.1% of the vote. Congrats, Luke, you DILF you.

Well, you can stop overwhelming our inbox with pictures of straight male publishing "hotties." This is the definitive vote. Finally, we will learn who the least mangy and mentally ill mutt at the BARC shelter is for sure. Ladies and gentlemen, please choose the hottest straight man in publishing!

Today the New York Times puts up a video by Will Okun, the photographer and winner of the win a trip with Nick Kristof contest. Umm? He can win a trip with me any day. It helps if you turn down the audio on the Times video, by the way. Blah blah poor people, Africa, poverty shocking, etc. Whatever, pretty fella! It's nice but not necessary that you know some words. Here's a full page of photos of him!

We keep trying to come up with a new word or phrase for "slim pickings." Previously our term of choice has been "skinniest girl at fat camp" but that's not very femiladyist and also, we've said it about twelve too many times. "Shallow bench?" Anyway, this is the last semifinal round of "Hot" Straight Men Of Book Publishing. The winner of this round will face off against Overlook Associate Editor Aaron Schlechter and Chris Parris-Lamb @ The Gernert Company in the finals on Thursday.

Literary agents: they're an interesting breed—often sort of pompous and self-involved, and their jobs basically require them to be good liars. So it makes sense that the "hot guy" and the "agent" circles of the Venn diagram overlap somewhat. (We're saying that hot guys are self-involved liars, sort of!) The winner of this round of the competition will face off against our Round One winner: Overlook Associate Editor Aaron Schlechter, who won by a bit of a landslide, and maybe someone else if we can dredge up enough likely specimens for a round three. Help a sister out!

Our mailbag runneth over with email about our effort to find the hottest straight man in book publishing, but actual photos of hotties are few and far between. What gives, ladies? Well, as it turns out, a lot of you just want to vent your spleens about how there aren't any cute straight men in publishing, and how the ones who do exist so totally know it and are such dicks. Gals, you don't know how good you have it! Try working in blogging—it is just as gay-infested, and there is no HR dept to stop them from IMimg you at 7:45 a.m. with the gory details of last night's conquest(s). Anyway. After the jump, we've got our first round of hotties for your perusal. Remember: we're looking for the skinniest girl at fat camp here, people. Oh, and please do continue to send us your submissions. Editorial only, please include jpgs!

So it's summertime, and let's be honest, that means three things: everyone is wearing fewer items of apparel, which means everyone's kind of horny, and also everyone has summer half-day Fridays. Oh! Right. Except us. Hmm, but you know when I did used to have summer Fridays? Back in the halcyon days of, oh, 9 or so months ago when I worked in book publishing. Hey, that gives me an idea! Let's have you send me your nominations for who you think are the hottest straight guys who work in book publishing. I know, it's like shooting fish in a huge, huge barrel with not so very many fish in it. But that's why I need your help.

Let's all take a moment and cross our fingers for our all-gwowed-up Intern Neel, who is competing to become Glamour's new sex and relationships advice guy. He'll need all the luck he can get! Psych. His competition is some redheads, one of whom is a single dad. Congratulations, Neel! Let's just hope no one finds out about your small "chutney bottle."

Sure, Microsoft Research's spot-the-kitty game is a cute way to make people prove they're not bots (instead of making them read a twisted jumble of letters). But it's no match for the delightfully cruel Hot Captcha: Look at nine people, and pick the three hot ones. Hot Captcha works by grabbing photos from the classic site Hot or Not that are rated very hot or very, um, not. So forget all you learned from Dove's Real Beauty Campaign and click on someone pretty. — NICK DOUGLAS