Justin Bieber’s Man Crushes: A Delightfully Bizarre List

GIF by Paul A. Rosales

Justin Bieber once named Ben Affleck his bromance crush, explaining only as a pop star could that the Batman actor’s “vibe is cool.” According to the “Sorry” singer’s Instagram, however, he has more than one celebrity man crush.

On Tuesday, the Biebs — whose mental state seems a bit shaky at the start of his Purpose tour — posted not one but two photos of Ryan Gosling in the 2012 film The Place Beyond the Pines. The caption was the same on both of them: “What a beast.”

Beast-mode Bieber, who’s back home in Canada at the moment for a few tour dates, has given a few random celebrities shout-outs like this on his feed. His eclectic list tells us everything — and at the same time absolutely nothing — about our favorite over-tattooed and underappreciated (well, in his mind) 22-year-old heartthrob.

1. Ryan Gosling: Is it the Canadian connection? Is it that Gosling’s character and Bieber have face tattoos in the exact same spot? We will never know based, on his bizarre and vague, “What a beast” caption. But let’s be honest — who doesn’t have a crush on the Gos?

2. Bill Nye the Science Guy: The scientist’s memorable show went off the air when Justin was just 4, but — random alert! — he still has a special place in the perfomer’s heart. “If I meet bill nye the science guy my life will be complete .. What if I pulled up with Bill nye everywhere I went.. Meeting people like, “hey this is my homie bill” . Shoutout bill for helping us all get out of science class to watch a movie,” Bieber wrote. And all good points. Now we wish Nye was our homie.

3. Taye Diggs: We’re not exactly sure what the dynamic is between these two, but Bieber has been bizarrely name-checking — and possibly mocking — the Murder in the First actor on social for several years now. The latest is this photo with the caption, “Taye Diggs when you smile I smile.”

But he’s also posted several tweets like:

And:

And:

One time Diggs responded, but it made the whole thing even more mysterious:

4. Bill Murray: Bieber took a break from posting shirtless selfies to give the movie superstar some love on his 65th birthday back in September. It’s not the strangest thing Bieber has done. Fact: If you don’t have a soft spot for Bill Murray, there may be something wrong with you.

5. Drake: Bieber posted a photo of himself hugging his fellow Canadian crooner while Drake was, well, mostly obscured by a hanging snowflake. In the comments, crazed Beliebers argued whether or not they’re dating. News flash: they’re not.

6. James Dean:

This one actually made us kind of relate to the mostly unrelatable pop star. Don’t all coming-of-age teens, which is exactly what Bieber was when he posted this, hope to possess a little Dean swagger? Bieber took it a step further, actually posing like the late screen icon, whom he views as king. But we pity the person Bieber has on his payroll who is forced to follow him around all day and take photos of him just for his Instagram feed.

Bieber’s peculiar posts about Gosling this week feed into the rumors that he’s on edge during his tour. In the new issue of People, a source says his struggle is real, but he’s just burned out.

“Two months into it, and he already feels beat,” says the source. “He’s not losing it, though. He’s just trying to find ways to focus.”

As for walking around barefoot and climbing trees in parks, “Visiting parks and meditating calms him,” added the source.

Maybe posting photos of his man crushes calms him too?