Benedict Cumberbatch Fans Power Star to Sun's Sexiest Man Award, Topping David Beckham

It was a good weekend to be Benedict Cumberbatch.

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The Curious Case of the Modern Sherlock

The ascending star had a busy Sunday, on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United States, there was the premiere of the second season of Sherlock, the critically-acclaimed, modern-day retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's mystery stories, in which he plays the central sleuth; and over in the UK, he was voted The Sun's Sexiest Man by the tabloid's readers. Or, to be more precise about it all, readers of Tumblr blogs.

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Cumberbatch is a hit online, the subject of much adoration on social media sites and fan fiction. And so when The Sun began its very scientific poll, the fans of the spindly, intellectual Brit launched into action, flooding the vote and encouraging their Cumber-obsessives to do so, as well. The result? Cumberbatch took home the award in a walk, finishing with 7115 votes, more than doubling the tally of the second place finisher, David Beckham.

The victory is even more impressive when the rest of the list further explored: coming in fourth, fifth and sixth were Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Niall Horanthree, three of the singers in One Direction, while Ryan Gosling came in seventh place.

Fans rejoiced with the news; "This result was brought to you by Tumblr," one user wrote (with the message receiving a mass of re-blogs), while another exclaimed, "YAY GUYS!! WE DID IT!!! We’ve got the power! He even got double the votes than David Beckham (2nd place) heehee! ALL THE FEELS! I LOVE THE SHERLOCK FANDOM!"

Seems like looking like an otter is the new sexy, something of which Cumberbatch is well aware. Next, he'll test the limits of his sex symbol status by playing a villain in Star Trek sequel, as well as Smaug and the Necromancer in The Hobbit.