Here are TV's men of the year. Caroline Kepnes explains why the guys of ''Sex and the City,'' ''Smallville,'' and two other shows deserve our enduring love 

Behind every great man on TV, there's... another great man! And that's why EW.com's men of the year come in pairs. Some of them sit side by side, jumping down each other's throats on a daily basis. Some, on the other hand, rarely appear on screen together. Regardless, the battle of Banker vs. Furniture Designer is as much of a thrill as the perpetual sparring between former child star and... former child star. So, here they are, our men of the year -- vivacious, witty, depressed, evil and, for the most part, mighty fine.

Chris Noth and John Corbett, ''Sex and the City''
As the human equivalent of a pair of Jimmy Choo stilettos, Mr. Big (Noth) isn't exactly designed for everyday use. He smokes cigars, he thinks he knows everything, he's greedy. Yet, thanks to Noth's wink-wink mannerisms, Big is transforming from a dashing commitment-phobe to an aging loner -- which makes him more pathetic, yet also somehow more appealing. On the flip side, Aidan (Corbett) is more like a pair of slides: comfortable, if a little flat. Neither man truly suffices, which is largely why ''Sex and the City'' succeeds: We love the contrast between Big, who knows Carrie well enough to tell her that she's not ''the marrying kind,'' and Aidan, a suitor so kind that we all wish Carrie WAS.

Scott Speedman and Scott Foley, ''Felicity'' 
The question for ''Felicity'' fans used to be simple: Ben or Noel? But this semester...er, season...Speedman's Ben and Foley's Noel are hardly boyfriend material. And we couldn't be happier about it! Not-so-book-smart Ben has confronted ambiguity on all fronts -- his professor doesn't think he can be a doctor; his girlfriend cheats; and his dad is dying. But because of Speedman's emotional spontaneity, Ben is more alive than angsty (his sheepish grin will never get old). Of course, none of Ben's troubles compare to Noel's slo-mo spiral into depression. Foley has played depression for what it is, not a crying/grimacing game à la ''Dawson's Creek,'' but as an inability to feel anything at all. He walks by Felicity --nothing; he gets a great job – nothing. We watch the show -- EVERYTHING.

Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum, ''Smallville''
I didn't salivate at the thought of seeing Clark Kent as a bewildered teen. But the men of ''Smallville'' -- Clark Kent (Welling) and Lex Luthor (Rosenbaum) -- have me drooling like a Pavlovian pup. When Rosenbaum's angst-ridden Lex hides behind the tinted window of his really fast car, it's part James Spader circa ''Pretty in Pink'' and part DC comics, a combination that works because these guys wince and squirm as if they really were coming into their good/evil own. Oh, and they're pretty darn hot. Stranded without Lana in the high school hallway, Clark is a man of steel, encased in a veneer of pretty-boy gloss; and his prematurely bald rival... well, don'tcha just want to give him a healing hug and tell him it's not his fault he's evil? I know I do.

Mario Lopez and Danny Bonaduce, ''The Other Half''
The former stars of ''Saved By the Bell'' and ''The Partridge Family'' are far and away the most vivacious half of this syndicated male version of ''The View.'' While their cohosts Dick Clark (Mr. American Bandstand) and Dr. Jan Adams (he's a real M.D.) often seem bored by their discussions of ''the world of women through the eyes of men,'' Mario and Danny practically burst at the seams when they have to go more than 15 seconds without talking. Perched on stools (I'm guessing that easy chairs were deemed too ''View''-ish), Mario and Danny fly off on tangents with reckless abandon. Lopez is the giddy one -- so thrilled to be on TV that he constantly interrupts a stylist during a segment entitled ''How to Break Up with Your Hairdresser''; Bonaduce is the revealer -- dishing about his obviously unresolved jealousy of former costar/chick magnet David Cassidy and complaining about his wife. Somebody should give these guys a raise -- or at least some potted plants for the barren stage!
 

Sheena Easton, ensconced in the Hilton Night Club for the balance of this year, and Luis Miguel, performing Saturday at Mandalay Bay Events Center, have something in common ... They share a 1985 Grammy Award for Best Performance By a Duo, with Vocal ... Easton won an earlier Grammy as Best New Artist in 1981.

We met Easton first at the Warwick Hotel in New York City in 1980 ... She was promoting her recording of the title song of the James Bond film "For Your Eyes Only," which, with "Morning Train," a single release, earned Easton that first Grammy ... In 1985 she went contemporary with the Prince-written "Sugar Walls."

This led to other best-selling duets with Prince ("U Got the Look") and Kenny Rogers ("We've Got Tonight") ... Easton went on to become the first artist in history to have Top Five hits in all five major Billboard charts -- pop, rhythm & blues, country, adult contemporary and dance ... She appeared in Las Vegas in December at the Riviera in "Colors of Christmas."

Born Sheena Orr in Scotland, she was a student at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and sang with a band called Something Else ... The British Broadcasting Co. (BBC) was producing a documentary entitled "The Big Time: Pop Singer," about a relative unknown singer in the process of becoming a major pop star ... The year was 1979.

That first single, "Modern Girl," recorded on Britain's EMI label for the documentary, became an instant hit and led to her debut in this country ... Easton co-starred with David Cassidy in "At the Copa" for a long run at the Rio and spent most of the summer last year in the Hilton's Night Club ... Talented Lon Bronson will be Easton's musical director.

Easton's story is paralleled by that of Marlene Ricci, who starts a long run Tuesday in the recently rechristened Riviera LeBistro Theatre ... Ricci, discovered by Frank Sinatra, had her story documented in "Cinderella at the Palace," appearing with many of Caesars Palace's top stars including Sinatra, Ann-Margret, Paul Anka, Sammy Davis Jr., Tom Jones and Andy Williams. (Joe Delaney's column) 
 

Crack, booze and a Partridge

Danny Bonaduce was the golden boy in The Partridge Family. But then things turned sour for the sweet little star.

By Gill Pringle

With a face full of freckles and a mop of red hair, little Danny from The Partridge Family was always overshadowed by teen idol David Cassidy.

But when the hit Seventies TV series finally finished, Danny Bonaduce - the actor who played Danny - stole the limelight in all the wrong ways. He ended up living in his car, high on crack and booze.

Today, with the help of his wife, he's fit and healthy, but every morning his pet dog reminds him of his bad old ways.

It's completely bald, apart from a white tuft of hair on the top of his head which resembles a punk Mohican cut - hence its name, Sid Vicious.

"I was so drunk, I don't remember buying him. I was comatose when he woke me up licking my face," he recalls.

"I was even more surprised when my credit card statement told me I paid £1,400 for him!"

Danny, 42, goes on: "I haven't taken crack in 11 years - I was too busy being an amusing drunk, taking off all my clothes in public.

"I can't tell you the amount of times I've driven home naked."

Now he lives in a swanky Hollywood mansion. The £2m home has a Rolls Royce, Mercedes SUV and Stars.and-Stripes painted Ford Explorer parked in the drive.

Tinseltown loves to dish out second chances, and today he's a £350,000-a-year Los Angeles DJ, doubling his income with frequent TV talk show appearances.

"I'm grateful to be allowed back into this business," he says.

"Fifteen years ago I was living in my car, high on crack. I've been chased bypolice, held at gunpoint and visited so many shrinks I can't figure out who's the craziest.

"Showbusiness is in my blood. Really, I'm just a complete asshole who loves showing off and getting attention, just like everone else in this game," he says.

He points out the mansions of his neighbours, who include Kevin Costner and troubled heart-throb actor Christian Slater.

Having recently published his memoirs, entitled Random Acts of Badness, Danny has turned his life around.

But the most remarkable of all his antics is how he met his wife, Gretchen, 11 years ago.

Set up on a blind date, his bar bill for the evening had reached £65 and he was disappointed when she refused to go to bed with him because they were not married.

Not to be thwarted, Danny pulled out the Yellow Pages, called out a minister at midnight and the couple were wed half an hour later.

"I couldn't remember her name when we woke up in bed the following morning, but she set me straight. 'It's Mrs Bonaduce, and don't you forget it!'"

Today she is still his wife, manager and mother of his children, Countess Isabella, seven, and Count Dante, seven months.

The couple have retaken their marriage vows at least six times. But Gretchen's limit came when, tired of his binge drinking, she called in Hollywood's top keeper.

A keeper is a person hired to be with their clients every waking second to stop them drinking or taking drugs.

Danny's arrived on his doorstep and made him take the 20-mile trip to California's most famous rehab centre, Promises, in Malibu - former home to Robert Downey Jr, Charlie Sheen and many more.

"I answered the door clutching a bottle of vodka," says Danny.

"I was going to hit him over the head with it, but when he said, 'Don't you want to get sober?' I thought it seemed like a good idea.

"When they checked me in at Promises, I thought it was a big cruise liner because I could see the ocean. I sobered up long enough to hear my wife agreeing to pay £25,000 for my stay. Three days later, I was still asking to see the captain. The other guests were as crazy as me, so none of them thought it strange.

"I've never been surrounded by so many A-list stars. I'd love to tell you, but you sign a contract that stops you mentioning names.

"Hollywood isn't the kindest place on earth, but in rehab these people are really there for you.

"If I were to call Christian Slater right now and tell him I was about to have a drink, he'd be over here in 15 minutes. It's the best place to make contacts!"

Danny successfully completed a 30-day treatment at Promises, and now plans to stay clean and sober for life.

It's tough because I really enjoyed being drunk, and I'm a high-functioning alcoholic, which means I can carry on with life even though I'm completely smashed.

"I even picked up my daughter from school drunk and went for cocktails while she was swimming.

"If I'd carried on the way I was going, I would have wound up dead sooner or later - either drunk behind the wheel of a car or perhaps shot in the head by a crack dealer.

"Before I went into rehab, my wife shocked me when she told me there hadn't been a single day I hadn't drunk since our daughter was born.

"I'd like to say I'll never drink again, but I've said that before. I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for my wife so it seems fair that I have put the house, the cars and everything we own in her name.

"That way, if I screw up again, at least she's taken care of."
 

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - "The Agency" has woven terrorism into its stories several times in its first season on CBS -- it is, after all, a show about the CIA. Thursday night's (Jan. 31) episode, however, will introduce a more personal dimension to the high-stakes spy work the show's characters do: A terrorist group attempts to assassinate Lisa Fabrizzi (Gloria Reuben), but Matt Callan (Gil Bellows) takes the bullet and is critically wounded.For some viewers, the episode may take on echoes of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York. But Shaun Cassidy, the former teen idol and "American Gothic" creator who's one of "The Agency's" executive producers, tells Zap2it that its genesis dates further back."We took [the story from] an actual incident," says Cassidy, who wrote the episode with co-executive producer Ed Zuckerman. "Agents were shot leaving their office a few years ago. And post-Sept. 11, people in the CIA have been targeted."  There were logistical considerations to make in writing the episode as well, Cassidy says. Bellows asked the producers for some time off because his wife was about to give birth -- just as they were preparing another episode in which his character would figure prominently."We couldn't shoot around him, so we shot him," Cassidy says. By now, the show's crew should be adept at changing things on the fly. The show has had to hold episodes or alter plotlines several times in response to world events. Cassidy and Zuckerman wrote the new episode in about three days; it was filmed in December. After the shooting, the rest of the episode shows the CIA in "crisis management" mode, Cassidy says. Interim director Quinn (Daniel Benzali) is forced to be the agency's public face, while Haisley (Will Patton) works with the counterintelligence unit to identify the shooter -- who was also wounded and lies next to Callan in the hospital -- and find out how Fabrizzi became a target."It basically becomes a criminal investigation that the CIA takes over," Cassidy says. The crisis also reveals some unexpected nuances in several characters."I don't usually like to talk about the show like this," Cassidy says, "but I think it's really special." --- "The Agency" airs at 10 p.m. ET Thursday (Jan. 31) on CBS.