Desire to be taken Siriusly

Date of birth: Keanu Charles Reeves was born September 2nd, 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon.

Appearance: Millennial multicultural with a hint of spaniel around the eyes.

What's with the kooky name? His father, Samuel Nowlin Reeves is half Hawaiian. In Hawaiian, Keanu could mean "a cool breeze over the mountains".

How do you pronounce that? Keanu pronounces his name Key-ah-nu, the way it is commonly pronounced on the islands. The correct Hawaiian pronunciation, however, is Kay-ah-nu. Many of the Hawaiian words have incorrect pronunciations in general usage.

Gosh, you're rather well informed: The rise and rise of movie star Keanu coincides with that of the Internet, so there is a breathtaking amount of trivia about the star floating around cyberspace. A personal favourite is Keanumandu, the Temple of the Society for Keanu Consciousness, a cyber religion that believes Keanu is "this century's premier avatar of divinity and peace".

So we know everything there is to know about Keanu? Not quite. Some frequently asked questions go unresolved.

Like. ..: "Is Keanu gay?"

And is he? Who cares? That at least is the reaction of most of the people who contribute to alt.fan.keanu reeves. Keanu is happy enough not to clear up any misunderstanding. It might all be something of double bluff. Keanu has such strong cross orientation appeal that it might be better for him not to "come out" as straight. "There's nothing wrong with being gay, so to deny is to make a judgment," Keanu told Vanity Fair. However his added remark that he'd never had a male sexual experience didn't make it into print. In the meantime the rumours and other bizarre stories persist.

What stories? Oh, I couldn't repeat them, especially not the one about him and David Geffen "marrying" on a beach in Mexico, and then going on a mad spending spree with the music business billionaire's credit cards.

Sounds appealing. This dude will go far. He would if he could concentrate. In his younger days he wanted to be a professional hockey player, then he took up acting, but at the moment he's not making movies, even though he can earn at least 57 million for each new project. He has pulled out of the sequel to his biggest hit Speed, and is instead touring playing bass with his, sorry the neo grunge rock band, Dogstar.

You cannot be Sirius. I certainly am. You can even see him on the poster, lurking, bearded, in the chiaroscuro. It seems that Keanu is the new world's Daniel Day Lewis, a crazy poet warrior actor too beautiful and gifted for just one lifetime.

I know the feeling: In your dreams.

So, Keanu is an exceptionally wise, talented and idealistic actor then? Yeah, sure. The closest Keanu ever came to appearing smart was when he played a data courier with a 80 gigabyte hard disc in his head in Johnny Mnemonic. The film, and presumably the hard disc, crashed so catastrophically, that the star earned the nick name Johnny Moronic.