{"id":115007,"date":"2025-11-03T04:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T04:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/115007\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T04:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T04:08:10","slug":"i-still-want-to-kiss-josh-hutcherson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/115007\/","title":{"rendered":"I Still Want to Kiss Josh Hutcherson"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Photo: Kenny Laubbacher\/HBO\n <\/p>\n

There are plenty of reasons to be excited about HBO\u2019s latest comedy series, I Love LA. It\u2019s from the brain of Rachel Sennott<\/a>, and the trailer includes a montage of two characters shopping while high in Erewhon<\/a> and drive-by flashing the Church of Scientology. The show just premiered on November 2, with seven more episodes airing weekly, and the first episode alone sets us up with the concept: Maia (Sennott) is an aspiring PR maven whose best friend turned frenemy, Tallulah (Odessa A\u2019zion), comes to town to wreak havoc on her life. But my favorite part of it all? My childhood obsession with Josh Hutcherson, who plays Maia\u2019s boyfriend, Dylan, is about to pay off.<\/p>\n

For as long as I can remember, Hutcherson has starred in films as the sweet boy next door: He broke our hearts in Little Manhattan and Bridge to Terabithia, then mended them with his portrayal of Peeta Mellark in the Hunger Games<\/a> series. While many girls were Team Edward, I was firmly Team Peeta. I could not care less about a pale vampire; what I wanted was an artsy little blond who was obsessed with me. Peeta\u2019s loyal and kind demeanor wooed me from the first page of the novel, but it was Hutcherson\u2019s onscreen portrayal that really captured my heart. Anyone could\u2019ve played him, but to me, Hutcherson was him. The midnight premiere in 2012 was one of the best nights of my life: I gathered all my friends \u2014\u00a0and my pillowcase with Peeta\u2019s face on it<\/a>, which I had been sleeping on for months \u2014 chugged a Frappuccino, and sobbed as the credits rolled. I saw the movie two more times in theaters that week alone.<\/p>\n

Now that I\u2019m an adult, I know that not everyone shared my same obsession with Hutcherson back in the day. But I hope that when people see I Love LA, they\u2019ll finally see where I\u2019ve been coming from. As Dylan, he\u2019s a devoted Spanish teacher who has a picture of his girlfriend as his iPhone\u2019s wallpaper. In Maia\u2019s life, he\u2019s the only person close to her who\u2019s not connected to the entertainment industry, and he is also potentially the only one who can keep her grounded. Some gems of dialogue include \u201cYou look like a baby\u201d (a compliment about Maia\u2019s birthday post on Instagram); \u201cEvery year, you become more and more yourself \u2014 and you\u2019re skinnier now, which I know you love\u201d; \u201cBaby, it\u2019s because she\u2019s insecure\u201d; and \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of drugs for a Tuesday. I have class ma\u00f1ana, so I can\u2019t\u201d (in the face of a mountain of coke). Dylan even tells Maia he\u2019s okay with her having a threesome (with some small stipulations, but still: I\u2019ve never been more in love with a fictional TV boyfriend and wanted him to be mine).<\/p>\n

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Photo: Kenny Laubbacher\/HBO\n <\/p>\n

In a USA Today<\/a> review of the series, Dylan is described as \u201cthe only halfway tolerable character\u201d but that he also \u201clacks much in the way of personality other than loving Maia and sometimes reading nerdy history books.\u201d Sorry, is that not the perfect personality for a boyfriend in his late 20s? I don\u2019t want them to have any more hobbies than that. He\u2019s easygoing, constantly encouraging a frantic Maia. When he shows her two shirt options to wear to her birthday dinner and she says \u201cneither,\u201d he shakes his head in agreement. He agrees to a last-minute dinner party to get Maia out of a bind \u2014 without a single complaint, except that it might not be his best work. (\u201cI normally have more time to prepare,\u201d he says, a kitchen towel slung across his shoulder.) When there are not enough seats on the couch, he happily sits on the floor. As Maia fakes a jealous freak-out to get rid of an unwanted houseguest, Dylan earnestly says, \u201cI only think about you when I jerk off. Then when I do watch porn, I look for girls that look like you.\u201d In that moment, I did catch myself swooning.<\/p>\n

To see Hutcherson enter the raunchy world of Sennott, who co-wrote Bottoms, feels like my middle-school crush on him has finally grown into adulthood with me. If you don\u2019t believe me, just know that the first three minutes of the premiere have done more for me than all the sexy Peeta and Katniss fanfic I used to read as a sixth-grader. Sex during an earthquake? Wattpad could never come up with that.<\/p>\n

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