‘Supernatural’s’ handsome leading men are being groomed

The hotties from Supernatural arrived much the way we thought they would — looking manly in jeans and boots and sporting the just-outta-bed hair that actually takes time and lots of skill to get just so.

The hotties from Supernatural arrived much the way we thought they would — looking manly in jeans and boots and sporting the just-outta-bed hair that actually takes time and lots of skill to get just so.

Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles star in the WB drama as demon-slaying brothers who ride into small, usually rural towns cowboy-style — a '67 Impala instead of horses — to rid the place of whatever ghost or urban legend inhabits it.

The series pilot explains how they came across this sort of work because, well, there's no known college-degree program. It involves fire, women nailed to ceilings, explosions and dialogue such as "Don't be afraid of the dark? You kidding me? Of course, you should be afraid of the dark. You know what's out there."

Supernatural, which premieres Sept. 13, stars two very handsome young men who have established themselves on other WB shows, tapping into the hot genre of the moment: paranormal, sci-fi, horror, speculative fiction, whatever you want to call it. And it offers a decent pedigree in McG, who directed Charlie's Angels, and Eric Kripke, who gave us Boogeyman.

The network that 7th Heaven and Buffy the Vampire Slayer built is like an old-school movie studio the way it selects and nurtures its talent. During a panel before TV critics Friday, Brad Turell, WB's vice president for communications, described how Padalecki and Ackles have worked their way up through the network's talent system. Padalecki broke out while co-starring in Gilmore Girls, Ackles in Smallville.

The Supernatural pilot looks great, at least. WB wants to make it look theater-ready, which, I must warn you, is difficult to pull off week to week.

But without a show that hangs around for a while, Padalecki and Ackles can't become stars and grace magazine covers and be hired to do feature films, all of which pay dividends back to WB, which uses the publicity to promote others through the same pipeline.

"We want them to go off and become big stars — it only helps their shows," Turell said. "They can go from a bit part in a show to a star in a series to starring in their own films."

And if they don't become A-list worthy, they can always marry one who is. The network couldn't be happier for WB alum Katie Holmes (Dawson's Creek), whose romantic interlude with Tom Cruise, whether real or not, has given her career, and WB, priceless notoriety.

Around here, publicity is what matters.

That and whether your name is spelled, and pronounced, correctly.

Source: Star-Telegram Tv Critic