A Pretty Penny
It’s every geek’s dream. Purchase your new apartment right across the hall from a blonde bombshell who’s outgoing enough to overcome her neighbors’ natural shyness and genuinely enjoys the company of her socially awkward friends amid the attentions of the muscular jock-type suitors that regularly come calling. If it seems too good to be true, it’s probably because it’s the premise for the successful sitcom Big Bang Theory. After all, stereotypical geek or male model, the general rule of thumb is no attractive woman will ever live in an apartment that directly borders yours or be seated next to you on an airplane. In hindsight, the Lost travelers should have been more suspicious something was amuck as there are never that many good looking people on the same flight.Air travel aside, Penny, played by Kaley Cuoco in Big Bang Theory, epitomizes the modern day nerd crush. Genuine and unassuming, the Midwestern aspiring actress who pays the bills by waiting tables is everything her intelligently inclined counterparts are not. Gifted in social skills, if not traditional academia, she prefers to gush over pop culture as opposed to atomic fusion, while holding more stock in horoscopes than scientific theory. Still, it is her contrast to the typical geeks on the show, many of whom struggle to even communicate with their female friend, that sets penny apart as the ultimate infatuation. She stands as the perfect model of the type of girl such guys could never land, finally interacting and living in close proximity. Over the course of the show, however, Penny shows her own knack for traditionally nerdy behavior. Whether it’s her surprising natural aptitude for Halo 3 or brief obsession with fantasy-game Age of Conan, her subtly inclinations towards geekdom make her all the more endearing to four-eyed fans across the country.Off-screen, Cuoco is somewhat of a tomboy, enjoying kickboxing, bowling and banging on the drums. She was a nationally ranked amateur tennis player in her youth, still enjoying table tennis as a more convenient hobby.