10 Times Leonardo DiCaprio Made Your Tummy Flutter

9. When 'Leomania' Exploded

Remember Leomania? This was his heart-throb-cover-star-pin-up-for-the-post-pubescent-Google-generation-to-fawn-over phase. At approximately the time the Titanic sank and Leo selflessly gave a floating door to a stuck-up English floozy in order to submit to the watery elements rather than spend another second with her, he was catapulted into the hearts and minds of fangirls and fanboys the world over. And this was before the incessant rise of film fanatics who cry into their mother's armpits if a factual error appears in a film review. Almost overnight, DiCaprio became a huge sex symbol who appealed to not only the female population, but to men, chimps and sea life too. With the benefit of hindsight, however, it's a minor miracle that Titanic didn't completely derail DiCaprio's career given how atrocious it was. It's a testament to Leo's acting ability that he used his considerable talent and savvy to forge a motion picture path far and away from the mania that followed. He even confirmed during a 2007 Time interview that "I have no connection with me during that whole Titanic phenomenon and what my face became around the world. I'll never reach that state of popularity again and it's not something I'm going to try to achieve either." We'll never know how close he came to being another Corey Haim.