What do Skinny Genes singer Eliza Doolittle and The Wanted heartthrob Jay McGuiness have in common? In addition to having heaps of talent, they’re dedicated to a compassionate, vegetarian lifestyle – and it’s that dedication that has netted them each the title of PETA UK's Sexiest Vegetarians.
Thousands of votes were cast in this year’s poll on PETA.org.uk to help PETA choose the winners, who faced stiff competition from 99 other finalists, including Leona Lewis, Joss Stone, Russell Brand, Sir Paul McCartney, Joaquin Phoenix, Natalie Portman and Chantelle Houghton.
Over in the US, Russell Brand and Kristen Wiig took out the sexiest celeb vegetarian honors for 2011.
Doolittle is a lifelong vegetarian, thanks to her mother, Tony award-winning Les Miserables star Frances Ruffelle. She’s been known to sing the praises of her vegetarian diet in interviews, saying of one trip to Jamaica to film a music video, “Oh my God, the food was amazing! I’m vegetarian so I didn’t have any jerk chicken or anything, but I did have some bean soup – it was so yummy!” Some of her favourite dishes include nut loaf, veggie pitas from Nando’s and vegetarian sushi.
McGuiness has also loved animals from an early age. In an interview, his mother described his childhood habit of ignoring his family’s football matches in favour of “talking to … the ladybirds … He loved animals”. He shares his home with his lizard, Neytiri, and says that if he were ever to advertise a product, it would have to be “Quorn, the fake meat. I’m a veggie and I eat it a lot”.
Previous winners include Leona Lewis, Anthony Kiedis and Fiona Phillips.
Source: PETA UK