Who needs Fabio when you've got Fauci?
Pandemic expert Dr. Anthony Fauci was the inspiration for the top-selling 1991 romance novel "Happy Endings," according to the book's author, Sally Quinn.
Quinn reportedly told the Washingtonian that the brainy and sexy male character in her 500-plus page tome, whom she called Michael Lanzer, was modeled after Fauci, who blew her mind during a dinner meeting in Washington, D.C., nearly 30 years ago.
"I just fell in love with him," Quinn said.
The 79-year-old Brooklyn native has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, where he served under President Ronald Reagan.
If it's true that life imitates art, President Donald Trump may want to keep his top doc away from Melania Trump. The story revolves around a first lady who has a fling with a National Institute of Heath scientist during the HIV pandemic. Quinn had already decided on the book's female lead, but was trying to decide who her love interest would be when she met Fauci.
The Cornell grad fit the bill of being "really brilliant, and compassionate, and kind, and decent, and honest. All of those things _ and sexy."
Sadie Grey, the book's fictional first lady, meets the dashing doctor on a Bahamian beach after her husband dies. Sparks fly between the pair, according to the Washingtonian's account of the story.
According to Quinn, Fauci knows he's the inspiration behind her brainy Romeo.
"I think he was a little embarrassed," she said.
