Red Carpet: Blood Suckers and Beauties

It's that time again. A random selection of actresses that were out and about last week. You can always interpret "random" to mean: people Nathaniel wants to say something about.

pics reworked from originals at Zimbio and Just Jared

Anna Paquin.
Who knew when she was hyperventilating onstage at the '93 Oscars that she'd make good as an adult star, too? She never found a film role as magical as her debut (The Piano) but her career suddenly has new life, courtesy of the undead (True Blood). And she looks pretty good in a cheongsam too. That Globe win didn't convince Emmy to bite but they've long had a history of ignoring younger actresses (Claire Danes' immortal portrayal of "Angela Chase" didn't win) and snubbing women in genre shows altogether (Sarah Michelle Gellar's Buffy, Mary McDonnell's President Roslyn... Gillian Anderson's Agent Scully was the exception to the rule). Emmy prefers their women fully matured and working the procedurals as cops, doctors, detectives or lawyers. That's just the way it is.

Jamie Campbell Bower
I loved hearing him sing in Sweeney Todd (even though it did make Depp & Bonham-Carter sound even shakier) but I assumed he'd disappear, the movies not always having suitable employment for 'a mere slip of a girlie boy' (Thank you Hedwig, the ever quotable). But employed he is. He's in the next Twilight film as a glittery bloodsucker and he has a key flashback role in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows two-parter as "Gellert Grindelwald". That's the wizard that Dumbledore was entangled with in his youth (in more ways than one apparently given the posthumous "outing"). Would that Rowling had had the guts to out Dumbledore while the books were still running.

Alfre Woodard
Just didn't want you to forget about her. No movies on horizon. Only one TV film. I would totally watch a series w/ Woodard in the lead role (provided it wasn't a procedural). Who's with me?

Katharine Heigl
She's beautiful and apparently tasty, too ---- >

Though I find Grey's Anatomy insufferable on multiple levels, Heigl's Izzie was the one among the dozens of completely obnoxious characters that I could get into. Not that Izzie wasn't obnoxious. But the performance was good and when performances are good who cares about whether or not the character has a pleasing personality? Heigl's transfer to bigger screens felt effortless too. So I guess I'm a little bit of an admirer if not quite a fan yet. The Ugly Truth will probably be a huge hit when it opens (people love that 'men are from mars / women are from venus' shtick) but the trailer indicates that the plot takes a detour into Cyrano de Bergerac-land with Gerard Butler playing Cyrano to Heigl's Christian as she tries to win her own Roxanne (Eric Winter) and that is beyond ridiculous. Why would KATHERINE HEIGL need help with that?

P.S. Hate the new hair. In my humble opinion only one person alive was ever meant to be equally beautiful with all the hair colors in the world and that person is Linda Evangelista.

Melissa Leo
This is a paparazzi snap from the set of The Fighter starring Mark Wahlberg. She's so "Flo" here [Tangent: Diane Ladd is awesome. Discuss]. I bet Melissa smiles this enthusiastically every day in this post Frozen River world. It must feel good to be suddenly in demand at 48. The Fighter is her 11th (11th!) film since the miracle year of 2008. You'll see her in Hilary Swank's Amelia follow-up Betty Anne Waters (more on that here) as well .

Lynn Collins
I'm still trying to erase her complete blandness in X-Men Origins: Wolverine from mind. It's blocking my view of the rest of her career which seems more interesting: True Blood, The Merchant of Venice... "RC" in Bug (points for that). Besides, it's probably not fair to judge anyone solely on Wolverine. Even Hugh Jackman was less than Hugh Jackman, you know? Next up for Lynn: playing busty "Dejah Thoris" in John Carter of Mars. The clothes averse character and the eager actress I've paired to your left. On going naked for Allure, Collins proclaims...

Women with confidence in their bodies are the sexiest thing, so I put on my cape of courage and did it. It was quite liberating!

I know I've mentioned the film a few times already and it doesn't even start filming until 2010 but I used to stare at those Mars book covers a lot as a child. I'm curious about the movie for multiple reasons not the least of which is Pixar's Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo and WALL•E) directing live action.
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