I think people think Clint Eastwood is at death’s door or something, because everyone seems to be falling all over themselves to recognize him and his enormous talent. Which is right no – Clint is awesome, and he deserves every award you can throw at him. But I have a feeling people are just trying to get in there before he kicks the bucket. In my mind, though, Clint has still got a good decade or two. He’s 79 years old – and his mother is still around.

Anyway, Clint is GQ’s Man of the Year, and they have him on the cover (GQ honored other people too – here’s the list). I love Clint’s face. There is no bigger rebuke to the Botoxed, waxy, severe, gross, plastic faces of modern Hollywood than Clint’s grizzled visage. Sigh. I love him. In the cover interview, Clint even blasts “teenage twits” and says we’re “juvenile” as a nation. Clint is about to shank us.

Clint Eastwood is better known for his fists than his fashion sense, but that didn’t stop GQ magazine from naming him a man of the year.

Eastwood joins Barack Obama, Tom Brady, the three stars of “The Hangover” and “Star Trek” actor Chris Pine on five special covers for the December issue (www.gq.com), which hits newsstands Tuesday.

Eastwood talks politics, love, religion, diet and women in a wide-ranging interview with deputy editor Michael Hainey, who calls the 79-year-old the “patron saint of late bloomers.”

Eastwood gained fame for his acting in the spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s, but won his first Oscar (for directing) for “Unforgiven” at age 62.

His new movie, “Invictus,” is the true story of Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) and the mostly white South African rugby team that helped usher the country out of apartheid.

“The world needs this kind of story nowadays,” Eastwood said. “It’s just…everybody’s so screwed up. It seems like our country’s in kind of a morbid mood, because of the recession or whatever.”

We’re “becoming more juvenile as a nation,” he said. “The guys who won World War II and that whole generation have disappeared, and now we have a bunch of teenage twits.”

Eastwood meditates twice a day, avoids saturated fats and does 30 minutes on the elliptical machine each morning.

He used to “find meaning” in chasing girls, but says he’s now happily monogamous.”I never thought I’d get there, but I did. It feels good.”

[From the NY Daily News]

In another piece of Clint news, last week he received the French Legion of Honor, presented to him by President Sarko himself. It’s basically France’s lifetime achievement award, and Clint received it for his body of work as an actor, director, composer and producer. Clint actually looked pleased and honored to receive the award – I figured he would scoff at something like that, but he looks genuinely happy. He told the press, “This is a wonderful honor. It is just a great pleasure for me. I really love France. I love movies, and I love the appreciation that the French people have for movies.” He also promised to learn French for the next time he came to France, which is cute. Fun fact: Clint is fluent in Italian, probably from all of the films he shot in Italy in the sixties. Good stuff. I wonder what honor is coming for Clint next? Perhaps a Nobel prize, or something. Does the Nobel committee give prizes for being awesome?

GQ Magazine cover courtesy of Who’s Dated Who. Additional photos of Clint and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, from Clint’s Insigna of Commandeur ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France on November 14, 2009. Credit: Fame.