Friday 26 June 2009

Mail launches another feeble attack on Hollywood actress

The Mail has its not-very-sharpened claws out for another Hollywood actress. After attacking Megan Fox for being the 'dumbest Hollywood star ever' based on almost no evidence, it's now asking if 'anyone' can take Cameron Diaz seriously in a new straight film role.

In fact, the headline asks 'will ANYONE now take Cameron Diaz seriously'. The journalist who penned the article - Lina Das - clearly isn't much a film buff. She begins:
We are so used to seeing Cameron Diaz fulfilling Hollywood's perception of her as a sexy, sassy, fun, but lightweight actress - thanks to a string of sexy, sassy, fun, but lightweight movies - that it's hard to believe anyone could take her seriously.
Which firstly assumes that being a comic actress is somehow easy and therefore 'lightweight'. Being good at comedy is not easy - just ask anyone who sat through You Don't Mess With the Zohan or The Love Guru.

But also, Das seems to believe being in 'serious' films is somehow unusual for Diaz. She mentions that: 'Three years ago, she ventured outside her comfort zone to play a troubled sister in the family drama In Her Shoes. It was well received by the critics, but it flopped'. But if the critics liked it, surely that shows SOMEONE does take her seriously?

And before that there was Gangs of New York, Vanilla Sky and Any Given Sunday - none of which were exactly a barrel of laughs. And even some of her comic roles - such as Being John Malkovich and Last Supper - have hardly being the type of knockabout stuff of Shrek and Charlie's Angels that Das seems only to have seen.

It's shoddy journalism, but more than that, there seems to be a perception that because Diaz is 'sexy, sassy' she can't possibly be taken seriously. In the same way that FHM's 'sexiest woman in the world' Fox can't possibly be anything other than an airhead.

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