London, Nov 17 (IANS) Hollywood actor James Franco has been named leading man of the year by GQ magazine and actress Scarlett Johansson babe of the year.

The actor was recognised by the US edition of GQ magazine for his achievements in the last 12 months and will be one of five special cover stars to feature on the publication's annual Men of the Year issue, reports contactmusic.com.

Franco, who has played gay or bisexual characters in "Howl", "Blind Spot" and "Milk", said: "Basically, it's a wide-reaching approach to whatever - literature, life, politics. It is on the most basic level an anti-normative approach to all of these subjects.

"One approach to things might be to classify everything as, 'This is straight, this is gay; this is Republican, this is Democrat,'whatever. The queer approach is to complicate all of that and see the way all of these different things are intermingled and connected," he said.

Others named are rapper Drake who is breakout star of the year, while actor Jeff Bridges gets the coveted icon of the year accolade.