Elle "MustKnowSeeHearWatchRead First": October 2005

For many showbiz hopefuls, restaurants are a purgatory endured while waiting for their big break, but not for Bradley Cooper. "When I was a kid I wanted to be a cook or an actor," he says. Now he gets to be both: In Fox's new dramedy Kitchen Confidential, loosely based on bad-boy celebu-chef Anthony Bourdain's best-selling memoir, Cooper plays Jack, a culinary whiz struggling to reignite a once-hot career derailed by his appetite for debauchery.

It wasn't just Cooper's mesmerizing blue eyes and way with a line that landed him the job. "He really knows how to weild a knife!" marvels the show's creator, Darren Star. "I think Bradley's in the same position George Clooney was in before ER -it's coming together and he's prepared."

After garnering buzz for his stint on TV's Alias, the Philadelphia native researched Bourdain's hedonistic side on the set of this summer's blockbuster Wedding Crashers with notorious bons vivants Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. "Those guys are phenomenally professional," Cooper says, "but they can really throw down." On deck for the 30-year-old is Failure to Launch, a comedy with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey about grown men who move back in with their parents. In his downtime, he's learning to play guitar because "women like guys who play guitar, and I'm getting lonely," says the "very single" Cooper. The hot, funny guy who can cook and is lonely? Now that's hard to swallow.

-Pauline O'Connor

	The Comebacks (2007) Role: Cowboy Status: Theaters 10/19/07
	Nip/Tuck (2007) Role: Aidan Stone Status: Season 5
	Midnight Meat Train (2008) Role: Leon Kauffman Status: Post-Production
	Older Than America (2008) Role: Luke Status: Post-Production
	Case 39 (2008) Role: Douglas J. Ames Status: Completed
	All About Steve (2008) Role: Steve Status: Filming
	He's Just Not That Into You (2008) Role: ? Status: Filming
	Yes Man (2009) Role: ? Status: Filming

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© Bradley-Cooper.com, 2007.