Bonus celebrity crush: Sophia Bush

This celebrity crush stars in the longest-running show on the CW network. Though she has the same last name as America's worst president ever, she's been an active campaigner for Barack Obama in 2008 and a tireless advocate of LGBT equality, among other progressive causes.

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Is it just me, or does her mouth look
a bit like Kristen Bell's?

Name: Sophia Bush (images | Web site | blog | Twitter)
Hometown: Pasadena, Calif., according to her Wikipedia profile. She was born to a photo studio manager mother and an advertising and celebrity photographer father. After being the 2000 Tournament of Roses parade queen, she attended the University of California for three years before landing her TV break on One Tree Hill, then on the WB network.
Best Known For: And One Tree Hill, the little show that could, has opened a lot of doors for Sophia, including directing a couple of episodes of the series. She and her co-stars have landed spokesperson gigs for a lot of products, and she's appeared in horror remake The Hitcher and the comedy John Tucker Must Die (co-starring fellow crush Brittany Snow), among other roles, since her breakthrough. 

Humble Beginnings: Sophia debuted on the big screen in the Ryan Reynolds-Kai Penn comedy National Lampoon's Van Wilder. Early TV guest appearances included Nip/Tuck (sharing a kiss with fellow crush Kate Mara) and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.
Political Activism: As stated above, she campaigned for Barack Obama in the 2008 election cycle. She also appeared in "The Gaythering Storm," a Funny or Die parody ad targeting the hateful Proposition 8 that banned same-sex marriage in California.

More recently, she helped raise funds for Gulf Coast residents affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Her environmental activism earned her a couple of awards in 2010.

On a sadder note, her 9-year-old second cousin was the youngest victim of last year's Arizona shooting spree, in which Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) was targeted by a crazed gunman. The child's funeral was picketed by the loathsome hate group the Westboro Baptist Church (because the child's family is Catholic), though Arizona state law required the alleged humans in the WBC to keep some distance.

Missed Opportunities: After initially landing the female lead role in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Sophia was replaced by Claire Danes because the filmmakers thought Sophia appeared too young when paired with the film's John Connor, Carnivale star Nick Stahl.
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: In addition to being a strikingly beautiful woman, I admire the hell out of her advocacy for LGBT equality and environmental responsibility. She's not afraid to speak her mind on issues -- taking to Twitter recently to question Michael Vick's renewed image as a role model as represented by his new sponsorship deals -- and, in a refreshing change from other people with the last name Bush, she's on the side of what I'd call the good.

With Kate Mara on Nip/Tuck.

TV and Web series credits: One Tree Hill, season 9 (Amazon | iTunes) * One Tree Hill, season 8 (Amazon | iTunes) * One Tree Hill, season 7 (Amazon | iTunes) * One Tree Hill, season 6 (Amazon | iTunes) * One Tree Hill, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * One Tree Hill, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * One Tree Hill, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * Punk'd, season 6, episode 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * One Tree Hill, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * One Tree Hill, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Nip/Tuck, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, season 7: "Romance Looming" (Amazon | iTunes)

Film and TV-movie credits: Chalet Girl (Amazon | iTunes) * Southern Discomfort (2010 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Table for Three (2009) (Amazon | iTunes) * A Gaythering Storm (2009) (Funny or Die) * The Narrows (2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Hitcher (2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * John Tucker Must Die (Amazon | iTunes) * Stay Alive (2006) (Amazon | iTunes) * Supercross: The Movie (Amazon | iTunes) * Learning Curves (Amazon | iTunes) * Point of Origin (2002 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002) (Amazon | iTunes)