A star is born, or Matt Smith, come on down...

Magnet #323 - Van Gogh's The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum

Yep, pulling one from the freezer door art gallery today.

This piece isn't Van Gogh's most famous work of art, but it seems to be one of his favorites. In letters, he's almost bemused that he could actually paint this nighttime scene, right on the spot - versus having to wait until the daylight to do it.

It's also apparently the first time he painted a starry background, so it seems fitting to use this painting to talk about another star on the horizon.

Just in case you've been living under a rock, or you missed my Emotional Discourse post, David Tennant is leaving Doctor Who at the end of the year, and the new Doctor, Matt Smith, will be taking over the role after that.

While a smallish number of folks knew Matt Smith's resume, the vast majority around the world had never heard of this kid. And, they all ran to imdb to look him up - check out his Starmeter chart, which basically tracks his popularity (by imdb searches). Ups and downs for most of his pre-Doctor career, and upon the announcement, he shot way the hell up there. They literally had to create a whole new chart for him.

Even more astounding - his Starmeter ranking (in as much as anyone cares about these things). Within a week, the guy went from #24,418 all the way up to #47. He's rated higher than Tom Hanks and Seth Rogen, and he's the only actor in the top 50 without a movie gross next to his name. Shoot, even Robert Downey, Jr. is only at like #42.

Whoa. A star is born, indeed.

eta:
FYI, incidentally, I just compared the Starmeter chart for David Tennant. It's interesting, I don't think he's ever ranked above 100.

Rank the week before the Apr 16, 2005, BBC announcement for when he was taking over for CE: 574

Rank the week after: 650

Rank the week after that (morning shows): 191

This week: 273