Clint Eastwood, Chris Pine Among GQ’s Men Of The Year

One’s a hot young star in a budding franchise. The other, a screen legend who has became a serious Oscar threat behind the camera. So what do Chris Pine and Clint Eastwood have in common?

Both are among GQ’s Men of the Year for 2009, a selection that also includes Tom Brady and President Barack Obama. (They’ve also both gone to the final frontier on screen — Chris in this summer’s “Star Trek,” and Clint in 2000’s “Space Cowboys.”) And each was quite candid with the mag in their separate interviews.

Clint, 79, said monogamy and parenthood late in life has been good for him after a career in a female-filled Hollywood.

“I’m a loyal citizen to the family. And that wasn’t necessarily a given thing. That was acquired,” he said. “I think when you’re younger, you’re driven by a lot of hormonal effects. I just—it’s like Everest: ‘Because it’s there’… There’s a lot of people who learn a lot faster than me, that’s for sure.”

But the star hasn’t slowed down his filmmaking, with his latest directorial project, “Invictus,” arriving on December 11 and already garnering his now-customary Oscar buzz. And as he heads into his 80s, he told the mag he’ll be ready to go when the time comes.

“Yeah. I’m not one of these guys who want to check out early. But when you check out, it’s when you’re supposed to check out,” he said. “I take care of myself. I like working. That’s when I’m feeling my best.”

The same is true for Chris, who told the mag he was ready to take some time off when “Star Trek” came calling.

“I said, ‘Are you kidding?’ That’s the last thing I want to do,” he said.

But the sci-fi reboot was a success with both fans and critics – and launched the star into both the limelight and the unwanted lenses of paparazzi cameras.

“I made the mistake of talking to one of these guys outside my apartment,” Chris said of one encounter. “I said, ‘Do you have a family? What do you tell them at the end of the day? ‘Daddy had a good day, he got a shot of Lindsay Lohan’s beaver?’’”

And while he’s hoping for a long career, the actor – who previously starred alongside Lindsay in 2006’s “Just My Luck” before her subsequent fall from Hollywood’s good graces – said he’s at the mercy of fate.

“I’ve learned that when you make big life decisions, life says, ‘F*** you. This is what you actually have in store,’” he said. “I still assume that, any day, I’m going to be exposed as a fraud. That, like I once heard Gene Hackman say, the acting police are going to burst in and take away my card.”