What do you get when a male celebrity intentionally and self-consciously tries to be sexy? You get bad beefcake. And hey, in my book there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Silly though it is, sometimes bad beefcake is actually sort of cute. Case in point: recently a whole series of photos of Gossip Girl’s Chace Crawford popped on the web. No question the boy is adorable - but he might want to rethink the fringe suede jacket, ten gallon hat and come-hither smile. (Okay, he can keep the come-hither smile.) Now that’s bad beefcake, and I love it.

Anyway, Mr. Crawford’s recent photo shoot got me reminiscing about bad beefcake from years past, and I pulled together some of my favorite photos for AfterElton.com readers to enjoy. Brad Pitt, Ralph Fiennes, Rob Lowe, Mario Lopez, Sean Connery – all beautiful men – but all with very bad beefcake lurking in their closet.

I hope you enjoy the gallery of schmaltz after the break. And hey, if you have any favorite bad beefcake shots of your own, please share the wealth and post them in the comments!