Paul Walker on the Wild Side

A California dream, to be sure -- six-foot-three, tan, buff, blue-eyed and blond -- leading man status has nonetheless eluded Paul Walker until the Fast and Furious franchise earned big box office bucks and the 30-year-old actor took top billing in Timeline, director Richard Donner's adaptation of Michael Crichton's best-seller.

The actor's recent outings have distanced him from the teen scene (She's All That, Varsity Blues, Pleasantville, Meet the Deedles) that preceded his more visible success in Furious and Joy Ride. And Timeline should capture another audience altogether -- a time-travel thriller about student archeologists who visit 14th-century France in the middle of a feudal war, the film also stars Billy Connolly, Frances O'Connor, Gerard Butler and Anna Friel. Medieval-loving men will relish the elaborate battle scenes and spectacular swordplay, and modern-man-loving women will swoon over Walker in tights.

Despite recent reports the dreamboat is dating Honey star Jessica Alba (with whom he costars in the aquatic thriller Into the Blue, filming now), the main woman in Walker's life is Meadow, his five-year-old daughter with a former girlfriend.