The Star Market: Has Reese Witherspoon Stopped Taking Chances?

                                
 

 

There's no question that Reese Witherspoon is still in demand, both onscreen — where her latest film, Water for Elephants, finds her in a love triangle torn between two men (just as she was in her last film, How Do You Know, and just as she will be in her next project, This Means War) — and off, where she continues to reign as one of Hollywood's highest-paid actresses. It's not for nothing, after all, that when asked to identify her romantic-comedy competition in a recent New Yorker profile, Anna Faris named Witherspoon right off the bat; the conventional wisdom in Hollywood has it that Witherspoon is the queen of romance, and has been for almost a decade. But what happened to the verve and impressive character work she once showed with her gutsy turn in Election? Will Witherspoon ever surprise us again, or is she too comfortable? To find out, we spoke to industry insiders to answer the question: If Reese Witherspoon were a stock, should you buy, sell, or hold?

Stock History: Witherspoon impressed with her very first film role, the teenage lead in the 1991 drama The Man in the Moon. As she grew up, she played the ingenue perfectly well inFear and Cruel Intentions, but the harder edge she showed in films like Freeway andPleasantville led to her tour-de-force performance as Tracy Flick in 1999's Election, where she earned a Golden Globe nomination. Witherspoon soon became big box office in theLegally Blonde sequels and Sweet Home Alabama, and won the Best Actress Oscar for playing June Carter Cash in Walk the Line. Since then, though, she's had some ups and downs, including her last picture, the underperforming, critically savaged How Do You Know.

Peers: Jennifer Aniston (42), Cameron Diaz (38), Angelina Jolie (35), Kate Winslet (35), Elizabeth Banks (37), and Kate Beckinsale (37)

Market Value: A decade ago, Witherspoon's box office might have seemed like a sure thing: Both Legally Blonde movies made almost $100 million, while Sweet Home Alabamastunned Hollywood with its $127 million gross (not only is it Witherspoon's biggest live-action movie, but it still holds the all-time weekend record for a September opening). Since then, though, she's not quite infallible. Though Walk the Line was a hit, other ventures into drama — Vanity Fair and Rendition — were negligible. (The latter couldn't even crack $10 million.) And Four Christmases was a blockbuster for both her and Vince Vaughn, but her other comedies, Just Like Heaven and How Do You Know, were notable disappointments. Still, Witherspoon's got enough heft to command a sizable paycheck of around $15 million for a major studio picture.

What Hollywood Thinks: "I love her, but if she's one of those people who has her price — 'It's this number, or nothing!' — then that's a problem," said a top manager we spoke to. "You can push them — we do it with clients on a daily basis — and say, 'You have to make choices that are creatively inspiring.' And often, they don't come in the form of the payday or the 4,000-screen release."

Another talent agent agreed: "She's so adorable, but she's hidden herself away in these movies," he said. "How Do You Know felt very ... safe. Election was really the tip of the iceberg of what she can do. I've yet to see her do anything that taxes her since then. I mean, the intelligence behind Election, right down to the way she inhabited her body, the way the molecules rearranged, she was unattractive in every way; it was beautiful how ugly and unlikable she was. And to do Freeway and to take everything we like about her and to pervert it was just great."

So why won't she make those sorts of movies anymore? "With Reese, I think her material buckles under the weight of her price," said the agent. "People aren't eager to pay you $20 million to star in the next smart little indie black comedy. As such, I don't think she's looking to reinvent her wheelhouse; she knows exactly what she's doing. She may have her best work ahead of her, but I don't know if she ever will because her life is so normal and comfortable."

The Analysis: Witherspoon named her production company "Type A" after her personality, and in the early years of her career, she had a reputation for hard-charging ambition. So why does she seem so relaxed right now? It could be motherhood, or her new husband — or, hell, maybe she's earned the right to rest on her laurels. But frankly, we miss the old Witherspoon's guts. A few years ago, she was going to reteam with her Electiondirector Alexander Payne for a promising new comedy called Downsizing, and though it didn't come to pass, she hasn't done anything else to really excite audiences — or critics — in quite some time.

"She should be doing what Elizabeth Banks is doing," recommended the talent agent. "Brilliant guest turn on 30 Rock. Fantastic on Modern Family. But then: a leading role opposite Russell Crowe [in The Next Three Days], opposite Paul Rudd [in My Idiot Brother], and, like, three Sundance movies. Then, getting lead in that new Alex Kurtzman movie [Welcome to People] — and she just had a kid!"

The Bottom Line: Maybe Witherspoon's love-triangle phase reflects her own career indecision: She could go for the weird pick, but she tends to choose the predictable one every time. In our opinion, it's time for Witherspoon to fight for something instead of getting fought over.

Buy/Sell/Hold: Though her career is still successful, to use our stock-market analogy, the investment isn't rising. Sell.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/04/the_star_market_reese_withersp.html

Meh she`s not my favorite actress (i honestly dont think she`s that special) but  a lot of guys do the same thing in this industry and i don`t see them getting attacked.  With that said i have been disappointed in her post-oscar film choices though.

 

 

 

Source: http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/58650190.html

Minnie Driver Monica Bellucci Nadja Auermann Naomi Campbell

January Jones Carbs It Up At Panera

Source: http://bauergriffinonline.com/2011/04/january-jones-carbs-it-up-at-p.php

Gabrielle Union Gena Lee Nolin Gillian Anderson Gisele Bundchen

London Calling

Check out who we spotted across the week in this week’s London Calling!
Jennifer Hudson looking svelte in a little black dress. Keira Knightley pairing a blazer with sexy sheer.
And Guy Ritchie going casual for a night out on the town.
Click the photos below to see the whole gallery!

Source: http://www.splashnewsonline.com/2011-04-23/london-calling-35/

Katherine Heigl Keanu Reeves Kelly Hu Keri Russell

Martins' Mercedes McLaren

Source: http://bauergriffinonline.com/2011/04/martins-mercedes-mclaren.php

Victoria Silvstedt Viggo Mortensen Virginie Ledoyen Vivica A Fox

Beyonce, Jay-Z and Kanye: City of Lights Livin'

After spending the previous day partaking in a Harper's Bazaar photoshoot, Beyonce Knowles was looking cheerful as she exited the Costes restaurant in Paris, France on Saturday (April 23).

The "Run the World (Girls)" singer was decked out in an all-black ensemble with shiny, strappy heels as she chowed down while husband Jay-Z was busy meeting with fellow hip-hop star Kanye West in the City of Lights.

Early reports tell that Kanye has made the trip to Paris to collaborate with Beyonce on a possible track for her upcoming album, though nothing has been officially confirmed at this time.

Meanwhile, Beyonce and Jay certainly aren't roughing it during the European getaway - as the pair are holed up in a $20,000/night penthouse suite at Hotel Le Meurice - with the "luxury pad overlooking the Tuileries Garden, coming complete with a private kitchen, a glass enclosed dining room and an enormous private open air terrace."

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/beyonce/beyonce-jay-z-and-kanye-city-lights-livin-499625

Beyonce Knowles Brad Pitt Britney Spears Cameron Diaz

Drew Barrymore Celebrates a Detox With Jenna, Channing, and Fergie

Drew Barrymore stepped out in LA last night without her boyfriend Will Kopelman in order to toast pal�Kimberly�Snyder’s new book�The Beauty Detox Solution.�Kimberly�gathered even more of her famous friends for the event, including�Hilary Duff,�Fergie�along with hosts�Channing Tatum�and�Jenna Dewan. Channing was able to spend time socializing during a break from working on his next project ?�he [...]

Source: http://www.styleikon.com/drew-barrymore-celebrates-a-detox-with-jenna-channing-and-fergie.htm

Heidi Klum Jaime Pressly James King Jennifer Aniston

'Women should shut up and look sexy' according to top-grossing films

A new study looking at 100 top-grossing movies from 2008 finds that women speak less and show more skin than men. Specifically, men had 67 percent of the speaking roles, while 26 percent of women compared to five percent of men wore sexy clothing (with the same ratio for appearing partially naked).

A vast majority of you said movie heroines can be sexy and strong, but it's one thing to be a well-rounded character who can kick ass and look good doing it, and it's another thing to be silent eye candy. Hailing from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the researchers also point out that women buy around half of the movie tickets sold in the US, so why do they represent such a small number of the speaking roles?

Even more disturbing is the analysis of teen girl sexualization in films. Young female characters, age 13 to 20, wore sexy clothing 40 percent of the time compared to 32 percent of women age 21 to 39 and appeared partially naked the same amount as older women. The younger women were also called attractive more than the 21 and up group.

The researchers say sexing up teen characters in movies is sending a negative message to young girls about their self-worth. But I'd go a step further and say what really concerns me about these numbers is that the movie industry is using female teen characters as sexual objects, contributing to the problem of young girls being the victims of sexual violence. If mainstream movies are constantly glamorizing sexy teen girls, it could be only a matter of time before these male fantasies are acted upon.

Do you think the movie industry's tendency to silence and sexualize women is having an effect on society's view of women and teen girls? Or is it just entertainment that shouldn't be taken so seriously?

By the numbers:

- Only 32.8 percent of the speaking parts were given to women.

- 13-to-20-year-old girls continue to be "hypersexualized in film," according to the study. A substantially higher percentage of young women are shown wearing revealing attire then are men. Young female characters, age 13 to 20, wore sexy clothing 40 percent of the time compared to 32 percent of women age 21 to 39 and appeared partially naked the same amount as older women. The younger women were also called attractive more than the 21 and up group

- 39.8 percent of females wore revealing attire in movies, compared to 6.7 percent of males. And females are shown partially naked 30.1 percent of the time, compared to 10.3 percent for males.

- only 8 percent of directors, 13.6 percent of writers and 19.1 percent of producers were female.

- when one or more female screenwriters are involved in penning a script, the percentage of female characters jumps by 14.3 percent.

Sources

Source: http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/58629541.html

Shania Twain Sophie Marceau Sung Hi Lee Thandie Newton