The love affair that hasn't ended

The love affair started 24 years ago when, at 5, in 1983, Alyssa Milano was cast as Tony Danza’s tomboy daughter, Samantha Micelli, in the sitcom Who’s the Boss? That’s when a generation of guys, including myself—guys who are now, like Milano, into their thirties—fell full-on, flush-cheeked, terminally in love with her. Her geekier fans are still reeling from the epsiode when Samantha got her first bra.

What is it about her you ask? Can I define it?’ Well I say, "She’s the girl I never got over.”

The fact that Milano looks as appealing now as she does in syndication only intensifies the collective crush. Insight into the former Samantha Micelli’s life as a grown-up: She’s a UNICEF ambassador and the founding ambassador of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Disease Control, an organization to which she recently pledged $250,000. (“The fact that these diseases can be eradicated was like, well, this is a no-brainer,” she says. “It’s like a sale in global health!”) She has a successful line of Major League Baseball wear for women called Touch by Alyssa Milano, an entrepreneurial sideline the baseball fanatic created out of, she says, necessity. “I was sick of going in to purchase stuff and not being able to find anything that wasn’t pink,” she says (she’s a diehard Dodgers fan who has a blog on the MLB website). “It drove me nuts ’cause it was some guy’s answer to ‘What are we gonna do for the women? Oh, we’ll just make it pink, they’ll love it!’” Lastly, and most important, Milano is available.

Milano has taken a fancy to baseball players. Her last three boyfriends—Carl Pavano, Barry Zito, and Brad Penny—have all been Major League pitchers. Hmmm maybe I need to resurrect my baseball career, I don't know, just a thought.