Ryan Gosling fans occupy themselves with protest in NYC

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Chanting "Bradley Cooper is just fine, but Ryan Gosling is divine," a well-behaved group of protesters occupied the sidewalk outside People magazine's New York headquarters on Friday to protest the magazine's choice of The Hangover star as 2011's "Sexiest Man Alive."

While hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters descended on the streets nearby, the Gosling supporters – far fewer in number – raised placards that read, "Ryan was Robbed!" and "You Messed Up!", and held up cutouts of the handsome actor's face. Another popular chant was "one, two, three, four, Bradley Cooper's such a bore. Five, six, seven, eight, Ryan Gosling's super great!"

The snub to Gosling, 31, who grew up in Cornwall, Ont., was also noted this week by his Ides of March co-star George Clooney (a two-time winner of the title) who quipped in an Extra interview earlier this week, "It's got to be Ryan [Gosling] don't you think? He's been training and working so hard for it, Ryan Gosling has – he really wants it.

"The whole time we were on the set of Ides he was like, 'How did you pull that off?' So I called up Brad Pitt and we worked with him for weeks, the walk, we told him how to train, everything."

On Facebook, supporters of the Canadian actor created The Pro-Gosling People Magazine Protest, while a "human rights" petition was launched on Change.org that currently has 3,668 signatures.

Even comedian Stephen Colbert, of The Colbert Report got into the act, taking People magazine to task for picking Cooper as Sexiest Man when previous years' winner – such as Matthew McConaughey and (tongue in cheek) Nick Nolte – were still alive. "Sexiest Man Alive should be like the Supreme Court: Once you are picked, you are sexiest for life," the comedian said.

People Magazine, however, staunchly defends its choice of the 36-year-old Cooper, who joins the ranks of previous sexy winners including Johnny Depp and its first recipient, Mel Gibson in 1985.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to the "sexist" man alive, not the "sexiest." This online version has been corrrected.