Gee, it's been a while since I did an in-depth analysis comparing Hollywood starlets. In this corner, Catherine Zeta-Jones:
Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones dumped her longtime talent agent because she's jealous of the success of Nicole Kidman, according to movie insiders. The Welsh stunner fired William Morris agent George Freeman, who has represented her for 10 years, after husband Michael Douglas advised her to do so. And Hollywood sources say Zeta-Jones made her move to rival agency Creative Artists Agency last week because she's frustrated that Kidman gets first refusal, writes website Page Six. An insider says, "Nicole gets first look at every script. Catherine doesn't. Nicole and Catherine had very similar careers until Nicole's divorce from Tom Cruise. Then audiences found her sympathetic. No one finds Catherine a very sympathetic character or as likeable.
No one finds an overly litigious diva sympathetic? Zounds.
I've always had a sneaking suspicion that, in real life, CZJ is exactly like Charlie, the character she played in High Fidelity: pretty, shallow, and with an undercurrent of immature viciousness. Naturally, I have no rational basis for this opinion.
On the other hand, there may be something to her complaints about the "sympathy" angle. Let's take a look:
1995
Kidman - To Die For
Zeta-Jones - Blue Juice
Advantage: Kidman
1996
Kidman - The Portrait of a Lady
Zeta-Jones - The Phantom
Advantage: Kidman (Choosing between a Billy Zane cheesefest and another Jane Campion-helmed film about good women making bad choices may seem like a no-win, but Kidman's actually quite impressive in Portrait)
1997
Kidman - The Peacemaker
Zeta-Jones - n/a
Advantage: Zeta-Jones (The Peacemaker is up there with Days of Thunder as a movie Kidman should omit from her resume with extreme prejudice)
1998
Kidman - Practical Magic
Zeta-Jones - The Mask of Zorro
Advantage: Zeta-Jones (Family-friendly swashbuckling beats a poor book adaptation any day)
1999
Kidman - Eyes Wide Shut
Zeta-Jones - The Haunting, Entrapment
Advantage: Push (Kidman makes an ill-advised film with her soon-to-be ex, while CZJ obviously took every role thrown her way after Zorro)
2000
Kidman - n/a
Zeta-Jones - High Fidelity, Traffic
Advantage: Zeta-Jones (Kidman drops out of sight and CZJ makes the two best movies of her career)
2001
Kidman - Moulin Rouge!, The Others
Zeta-Jones - America's Sweethearts
Advantage: Kidman (Surely there were better offers than a role second-billed to Julia Roberts?)
2002
Kidman - The Hours
Zeta-Jones - Chicago
Advantage: Push (I hated both movies, but I can't fault either woman's acting)
2003
Kidman - Cold Mountain, The Human Stain, Dogville
Zeta-Jones - Sinbad, Intolerable Cruelty
Advantage: Kidman (even counting Dogville)
Weird. Zeta-Jones holds her own until le divorce, and then Kidman starts running away with marquee roles. Of course, Kidman has demonstrated time and again that she is an accomplished actress, not unwilling to play against type. CZJ, since 2000, has played: a spoiled brat urban hipster (HF), a pampered drug lord's wife (Traffic), a spoiled brat Hollywood star (AS), a conniving Depression-era socialite (Chicago), and an icy gold-digger (IC). If Mrs. Douglas wants meatier roles, perhaps she should stop playing variations on the same character in every film.
Certainly the public felt for Kidman after the split with Cruise. Rumors abounded about their marriage, from her hesitancy about Tom's Scientology to those of a less savory nature, that put Kidman in a very sympathetic light. Zeta-Jones, meanwhile, marries a co-star 25 years her senior, gets photographed smoking while pregnant (it does keep the birth weight down, I hear), sues a magazine for $900,000 in "emotional damages" after it published unauthorized wedding photos, and fires the manager who engineered her successful movie career.
Hmm. Sounds like only a Playboy spread will salvage her career at this point.
I concur with Denny. That having been said, if she does in fact pose for a Playboy pictorial, I'll observe it. I won't even read the articles.
Seriously though, we don't know for a fact that CZJ is good enough of an actor to pull off the weighty roles that Kidman's been getting. Reviewing Pete's list of movies, which of these required her to extend herself emotionally, to stretch herself into a new and different personality, to project herself into unfamiliar roles and genres? Probably her toughest gig was Chicago, because she had to learn first-hand the rigors of Broadway dance. Everything else is fluff.
CZJ was a dancer/singer/actress when she was younger Britian so she really didnt have to stretch too far for her role in Chicago.
please place "in" between younger and Britian..
Thanks
Catherine Zeta-Jones has been singing and dancing since she was a child, appearing in British theater productions and starring in the London revival of 42nd Street when she was 17.
So, in a sense, even Chicago was fluff.
EDIT: Beaten to the punch again. Figures.
Please place a 3rd period at the end of your sentence to properly indicate an elipse...
And the first word in any sentence should also be capitalized.
This is the funniest series of grammatical corrections I have ever seen on any blog anywhere. It has my vote for next year's top 10 apcb comments.
On Dr. Elmo's advice, I shall eschew using his email address on your blog and instead use yours - except that you seem to post with your URL, so I'll just use that.
I bow to my fellow commenters' superior ignorance.
"The Phantom" a cheesefest? Man, I thought it was one of the best (before or since) of the comic book-y adaptations.
That movie proved that Treat Williams doesn't get enough work.
Dammit, now I'm going to have to make a point to not see Ocean's 12. Looks like Zeta-Jones is joining one of Hollywood's more complex actresses, Julia Roberts, in the follow up to what I thought was a decent remake of the original Ocean's 11. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=8&u=/ap/20040211/ap_on_en_mo/people_zeta_jones
My opinion of CZJ took a nose dive after she became a cellphone shill. Though, even before then, she struck me as a status-obsessed gold-digger in her relentless pursuit of (the then married) Douglas.
Pete makes some good points about her mono-dimensional acting, too. (I really liked her Traffic. Though, Del Torro stole that show). But unless it will get me some action from the fairer sex, I'm boycotting all future Zeta-Jones movies and product endoresements. Her patented, "you wish you were me" facial expression is like fingernails on a chalk board.