A date with your idol

SO, George Clooney, what are you doing Saturday night?

If you fancy a date with your favourite celebrity, all you have to do is ask.

It worked for US Marine Scott Moore who scored a date with Hollywood diva Mila Kunis after asking her out online last week.

The plucky Afghanistan-based sergeant posted a video to YouTube inviting his fantasy woman to the Marine Corps Ball in November. Asked about the ‘love letter’ on live TV, the Black Swan starlet immediately accepted the date.

The stunt left millions of men kicking themselves that they didn’t think of it first.

“It was kind of a bet between me and Marines in my platoon,” says Sgt Moore of the proposition. “I told everyone I was going to do it, but they didn’t think I would go through with it.

“We all talk about what we’re going to do when we get back, and this was my dream,” he says. “I wanted to take Mila Kunis to the Marine Corps Ball.

“I do feel bad for putting her on the spot, but it’s not like I was going to bump into her on the streets of Musa Qal’eh between now and the ball.

“I always thought I had a chance, and sometimes that’s all you need.”

Kunis’s Friends With Benefits co-star Justin Timberlake may join the celebrity Cinderella at the ball after a female Marine posted her own YouTube proposal to the singer.

So is it really possible to upload the lad or lady of your dreams? “Ordinarily, I wouldn’t advise using the internet to ask somebody out,” says Stephen Nolan, of Kama Lifestyles, a Dublin-based dating training company. “But in this case, all credit to Sgt Moore. When a woman is as attractive as Mila Kunis, she’s less likely to get hit on in a respectful way.

“Sure, men will stare at her and fantasise about her — but how many would have the cojones to actually walk up and ask her out? Moore did something that separated him from the crowd, and even if she had publicly knocked him back, I think most men would secretly be thinking: ‘fair play’.”

With Irish men so reticent about chatting up even regular girls, what are the chances of any of them risking public humiliation for love, like Sgt Moore? Whether you have your eye on the newly-single J.Lo or just the girl next door, lads here could learn a thing or ten from the confident marine, says Nolan.

“Irish men are terrified of being knocked back,” he says. “They often have this limiting belief, ‘she’s out of my league’.

“Remember that women are attracted to you based on how you make them feel — not how rich or good looking you are.

“Delivered with confidence and while sober, a simple compliment such as ‘you look stunning tonight’ can be surprisingly effective.

“I lived in Miami for a while, and over there men chat up women in the supermarket or on the street,” he says. “I met the last girl I went out with on the DART. I had worked on my confidence and got out of the mindset that if she said ‘no’ I’d be stuck on the train with everyone laughing at me.

“Confidence is the key to successfully chatting someone up.”

Just like the plot of Notting Hill, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Z-lister Sgt Moore could get his happily-ever-after with A-lister Kunis.

In 1994, Drew Barrymore married Los Angeles barman Jeremy Thomas and the aforementioned Jennifer Lopez has twice been married to unknowns, waiter Ojani Noa and backing dancer Cris Judd.

And giving hope to Twerds everywhere, Twilight hunk Robert Pattinson confessed he once took a fan on a dinner date.

“I was in Spain and she was there and I thought ‘I am sick of seeing you stare at my window all the time’ so I asked her if she wanted to do something.

“I always want to go out with fans, they are the best types of girls,” he says.

Kate Middleton and Katie Holmes reportedly had posters of the men who went on to become their husbands — Prince William and Tom Cruise — on their bedroom wall as school girls.

But red roses, love songs and getting down on bended knee are so last century — millennial romantics are shouting their love from the virtual rooftops on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Earlier this year, a Cincinnati engineer used the Groupon deal-of-the-day website to stage a “grouposal” — offering his girlfriend a ‘$999,999 marriage for just $1’, on which she happily clicked the buy button.

Twitter user Johannes S Beals went one step further — asking the hunky Old Spice Guy Isaiah Mustafa to propose to his girlfriend Angela on YouTube on his behalf.

Although both stunts worked — and Scott Moore secured a date with one of Tinseltown’s most desirable women — some Irish lads still aren’t convinced.

“Let’s face it, as a man in uniform, Sgt Moore was in a pretty good bargaining position to begin with,” says Shane Breslin, editor of Joe.ie.

“No matter what your opinion on America’s foreign policy, Mila would have been turning down a bone fide national hero.

“So should Irish lads emulate him? No way.

“The possibility of a grand romantic gesture falling flat on its face is too great for us to even consider,” he says, “especially one that’s done online in front of a worldwide audience.

“Like Mr Big jetting to Paris to declare his undying love for Carrie in Sex and the City, I think girls enjoy the fantasy of being swept off their feet.

“In reality, most would probably prefer something a little less public, like a weekend in Paris or even a bubble bath,” says Breslin. “So save yourself the embarrassment, lads.”

* See: http://tinyurl.com/6xp6dov