According to its founder, Brandon Wade, the site connects rich people with good-looking people who want to gallivant around the world on the rich person's dime.

CNN: New site promises hot people a free ride

It was because we needed people looking at that intelligence, good intelligence produced by the CIA and other agencies -- we needed people looking at it from the point of view of what do we need to understand from this intelligence about these connections to allow us to develop a Defense Department strategy for the war on terrorism.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: DOD Briefing on Intelligence Matters

The marketing idea, though, is universal: Capture the aspirations of potential customers with good-looking people.

FORBES: Trompe L'oeil

"Compared to the good-looking cuddly animals, snakes are far down the ladder in terms of how people feel about them, " said Mr Caillabet.

BBC: Python skin trade worth a billion - and often illegal

Some of the silent actors were theatre- or vaudeville-trained, some were just good-looking people who were drawn to Hollywood, and did what they were told to do or imagined that they needed to do.

NEWYORKER: The Artists

Since these are for the most part produced in Rio de Janeiro and feature characters drawn from the upper-middle class, they tend to reflect a world where good-looking white people in expensively casual clothes flit around in a perpetual summer, attended by maids.

ECONOMIST: Brazil: Half the nation, a hundred million citizens strong | The

Most people dress up to go out - the bella figura (looking good) is important.

BBC: An evening out in Rome