Julia Roberts and George Clooney have been promotingTicket to Paradise, opening on Friday, for weeks now. In anew interview with PEOPLE, Julia was asked whether or not George, who’s been crowned PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive twice, should be considered for a third reign. Her response:

"Yes! Third time's a charm," and then the two joked about Batman and how George, who is now 61, still has his own teeth.

关键词是“开玩笑”,因为它不会be George. But it is almost that time of year. PEOPLE announces the SMA in November so we’re coming up on SMA season which means Paul Rudd is about to give up his title. Paul was SMA in 2021 after Michael B Jordan in 2020. As for who it’ll be this year…?

Sarah just posted aboutJonathan Majors in his villain eraand he could definitely be a contender in my opinion. Jonathan is at the top of the list of most sought-after actors in the business right now. He’s the MCU’s new big bad. There’s a Paul RuddAnt-Manconnection too since he’ll be showing up in the nextAnt-Manmovie in February, just a month beforeCreed IIIcomes out. But before all that, in just a few weeks, in November, which as I just said is SMA month, he hasDevotionreleasing for the Thanksgiving box office. Also… the thirst is strong for Jonathan Majors on social media.

The timing makes sense for Jonathan, and it doesn’t. I’m not sure that they’d do a Men’s Health cover so close to a PEOPLE SMA cover. And also, while he is definitely a big deal in the industry, I don’t know that he’s a household name yet. He will be, very, very, very soon, no doubt, but until your aunt, uncle, nephew, niece, boss, dentist, and manicurist are aware of him, he’s probably still a longshot.

Glen Powell, however, who co-stars with him inDevotion, might be closer. Because everybody sawTop Gun: Maverick. And the thirst is strong for Glen too on social media, especially sinceSet It Upis still a thing. Every week on my feed there’sSet It Upactivity, and the movie came out over four years ago. Just this week a tweet aboutSet It Upwent super viral:

And Glen responded to it:

Is he *enough* of a household name though?

And, well, should Glen Powell be the Sexiest Man Alive before Chris Evans who has never, ever been the Sexiest Man Alive?

Remember, last year Page Six thought they broke the story –and that article is still up- that PEOPLE would name Chris Evans as their SMA. Page Six claimed at the time that they’d heard from “multiple sources” and when Paul Rudd was eventually confirmed, I wrote abouthow curious I was(and still am) about whether or not there was a fake-out, and if PEOPLE deliberately punked Page Six to keep their surprise.

If Chris Evans wanted the title, PEOPLE would surely give it to him, no question. Is he finally ready for it or will he continue to pass?

We’ll discuss more about possible SMA candidates in the coming weeks, and the complicated history of the title and how it remains exclusionary, but for now, I’m ready with my predictions, I have two of them: Trevor Noah or Simu Liu.

Back to Julia and George though,Ticket to Paradisehas opened in many other territories and its box office outside of North America is already at $72 million. It opens in North America on Friday against The Rock’sBlack Adam.Black Adamwill win the box office, butTicket to Paradisewas strategically planned as counterprogramming; projections are sitting at between $12 million on the low side and $15 million on the high side which means it should top $100 million on total gross fairly soon. And they’re hoping it will have legs, the kind of movie people keep talking about and go see on the second or third weekend. It’s definitely a test of Julia and George’s domestic star power though.Per Variety, one of the reasons Universal released it in other markets first is because “stars still have big followings overseas, where audiences are more loyal to celebrities than they are in North America”. Will be interesting to see how North American audiences respond to two of the biggest movie stars of our time.