Where have all the cuties gone?

Rebecca Eckler, National Post

Yet another American series season premiere airs tonight, featuring yet another young Canadian male hottie. Sigh. What in the world, one has to wonder, did these young men eat with their milk while growing up in Canada?

Take Brendan Fehr, for a start, the 22-year-old star of Roswell, a suspenseful drama that blends science fiction with the pangs of young adulthood. "I didn't ever want to be an actor. I had no intention of becoming one," said Fehr recently in Toronto.

Yet another lucky young thing who just "fell" into entertainment success, crossed the border and now seems only to visit Canada occasionally for interviews. Sigh.

It all started for Fehr, who grew up in Winnipeg, while he was on vacation in Vancouver. He was looking for a quick way to make some easy cash. His friends advised him to try modelling, and, within a week, Fehr scored an agent and landed a guest starring role on the television series Breaker High. It was his first audition. Sigh.

"My agent figured I looked cool enough to be on TV," he explains.

Fehr not only looks cool. He reeks cool. He drips cool. His brown hair is '70s-styled, Beck-like. His nose is model-perfect straight. His lips are wide and pouty. He's definitely a pretty boy, but drinks his coffee black and wears a thick chain, hanging from his pants pocket -- so perfectly cool, it throws you a bit.

Like most stars, the well-known and the not so well-known, his biography features the usual "He currently lives in Los Angles" line at the bottom. Fehr has lived in L.A for just over a year, since landing the role of Michael Guerin on Roswell.

I'm very interested in young stars who make the move south. Don't their mothers worry about them in big bad America? Do people treat them differently because they're, gosh, Canadian? Hollywood can't be all red carpets, parties and paparazzi. I mean, there's got to be some real life.

"Hollywood is not representative of America," says Fehr. "Things are done differently in the United States. I can't explain. It's just not Canadian. There is a difference, though."

Fehr likes being Canadian. His mother still lives in Winnipeg. Plus, at work, the people who surround him don't let him forget where he's from. "On set we have nicknames based on where we're from," says Fehr. "The cameraman calls me his 'Frosty Canadian tall drink of beer.' He's from Florida, so we call him our 'Florida orange.' "

In fact, Fehr flaunts his roots. You can see him occasionally walking around New York sporting a "Canada Kicks Ass" T-shirt.

"Some people freak out when I wear it, but it's not like it says 'The U.S. sucks.' I used to be anti-American. But I've realized that patriotism and nationalism means being proud of your country. It doesn't mean anti-somewhere else."

Yes, he admits, he has changed since crossing the border. Though it's not clear why. It could be, he thinks, the "industry."

"You have to adapt. I'm still being the person I want to be. But you have to develop certain characteristics. You have to be stern-faced and cool and the take-no-crap guy. That's a façade."

The influx of hot young Canadian males seems to have started a few years ago with the notorious Jason Priestley of Beverly Hills 90210 fame. Now, there's Vancouverite Scott Speedman, who plays Ben on Felicity. There's 19-year-old Hayden Christensen, another Vancouverite, who made waves when it was announced he would play Anakin Skywalker in the next instalment of Star Wars. And there's cutie Joshua Jackson, who plays Pacey on Dawson's Creek.

Robin Dunne is another young, good-looking Canadian actor, whose credits include the role of Katie Holmes' college boyfriend on Dawson's Creek, a leading role on the short-lived Manchester Prep and a star turn in Cruel Intentions 2 (which will be released on video.)

The dark-haired Dunne said it was hard not to get caught up in the Hollywood lifestyle at first.

"At first it was kind of wild, especially the situation I found myself in, the lead of a hot new series, but that was fleeting. It was something that you experience, the wild life of L.A., and it's fun, but what's more fun for me, when I'm not working, is staying home with my girlfriend ... we are like hermits." (Of course, his girlfriend, Heidi Lenhart, is the daughter of a former Playboy Playmate and step-daughter of entertainment mogul Haim Saban, of Saban Entertainment. She, too, is an actor.)

Then there's Kevin Zegers, 16, of Woodstock, Ont, who is the badass nephew of Victoria Principal in the new Aaron Spelling series Titans.

He moved to L.A. earlier this year to take the role, and his parents take turns living with him to keep him company.

Zegers, also known for his roles in the Air Bud movies and the more recent MVP: Most Valuable Primate, about a monkey who plays hockey, is modest about his new-found hunk status.

"I don't think of myself as someone special that people would go out and look for," Zegers said in a recent interview with the Post. "I just don't think of myself as someone to be desired."

Much of his fan mail, in fact, is answered by his mother.

And what of the mothers, who not only see their sons leave home at a young age, but at a young age into an often very cruel, grown-up world?

"I'm still my mother's baby," says Fehr. "She trusts me enough, though. Of course, she worried when I walked to the corner store."

And why, according to someone who's living it, do Americans now seem to dig young Canadian male actors like never before?

"Canadians have no attitude," says Fehr. "They dig that. It's refreshing for studios to work with us because we don't have big heads. Many of us never thought we'd ever end up acting. It's not like we spent our entire lives struggling, so we don't have chips on our shoulders."

And, he adds, "it's kind of like finding oil. No one had ever thought to dig here before. They've hit gold."