Handsome, humble Ross "The Intern" Mathews is the boy next door made good

Sex sells. And scandal? You bet your Lohan. But sweet? Nah. Sincere? No way! See, there’s always an exception. And sometimes, it’s the small-town boy with the September 24th birthday sitting right in front of you.

In person, Ross Mathews is cute, (newly) in shape and a charmingly funny/quirky/single young gay man. But where’s the dirt, kid?

“Listen,” Ross says, leaning over his desk at NBC. “My life is so boring when I’m not at work. I have a dog and I walk her.”

He looks at the giant framed photo of his beloved rescue pooch, Louise, sitting on his desk.

“I have a few close friends, and we get dinner occasionally, but usually it’s me and my dog,” he says. “Wouldn’t it be a way juicier article if I was, like, club-hopping? That’s what the kids call it, right?"

“Well,” he laughs. “I’d better totally stop wearing underwear.”

A NEW EXPERIENCE

Today, Mr. Mathews is scared.

Now, lest you get the wrong idea, Ross is a pretty brave guy. He’s jumped out of a plane on The Tonight Show, shared the View table with Barbara, Joy and Elisabeth and allowed America to watch him shed more than 41 pounds on Celebrity Fit Club. (Plus, he’s eaten dessert at the same table as Perez Hilton and lived…without fork wounds to the eye.) But today’s adventure is something he’s never done before.

“Hello, everybody,” he says in one of his Talky Blog videos. “I’m panicking! Because I’m running so late for a photo shoot…and it’s a big deal and it’s kind of fun. I have to get all dressed up, and it’s in the Hollywood Hills.”

Ross’ eyes get wide with excitement and he pulls the camera in close.

“Can you believe that?” he whispers. “I’m so nervous about it and have, like, anxiety tummy.” He grins, his eyes sparkling. “Seriously,” he says, as if he can’t believe it himself, “when did my life go from working at McDonald’s to having a photo shoot in the Hollywood Hills? That’s ridiculous!”

ONCE UPON A TIME

Every good story has to have the right beginning, and Ross’ is no exception. He grew up with a supportive family in a small town in Washington state called Mt. Vernon, which exports more tulips than all of Holland. Did you know that?

“Nobody does!” Ross laughs. “I was just me in a small town, which wasn’t the easiest thing, but I didn’t know any other way to be.”

He sold berries by the side of the road, watched hours of ice skating and was a total theater kid in high school, winning Thespian of the Year, 1998 and double state champion in individual events in forensics. He even went to the senior prom as a freshman with the most popular girl in school.

“My popularity was done by the end of the evening,” he laughs. “But for one night, I was totally it: capital I-T.”

He worked at Lane Bryant in the mall, did his friends’ makeup with a burnt cork and stayed after school in the debate room so he wouldn’t miss the Spice Girls appearing on Oprah. Las Chicas Picantes were actually his first concert, and after buying a brand-new outfit to wear to see SpiceWorld, he heard the horrible news: the unbreakable Spice bond was, well, broken by Ginger.

“She was my favorite, and then the bitch dropped out of the band!” he says. “I was devastated!”

He graduated college with a degree in communications and moved to Los Angeles, where he landed an internship at The Tonight Show.

“I just felt it in my soul that this was the start,” he says. “Meanwhile, I was cleaning out coffee machines, so nobody else saw this as the beginning of anything big.”

On his last day, the person who was supposed to cover the Ocean’s Eleven premiere dropped out. Since he was known around the office for his clever jokes, Ross stepped in and pulled it off.

He’s been a regular on The Tonight Show ever since, doing everything from presenting at the Country Music Television awards (“in a bedazzled outfit”) to co-hosting and producing a behind-the-scenes webshow (The John And Ross Show) and writing a daily blog (nbc.com/rossblog).

“We’re almost up to a million hits a month now,” he says. “It started as nothing, but just by doing it every day and being very diligent, I’ve turned it into something, which I’m so proud of.”