Pushing the video off the links

edit: if you're here from facebook, this is the 'selling out' post.


But there's more to this blog entry than moving troublesome screen real estate. I just came off watching the film The Brave One which has one of my favorite actresses, Jodie Foster, in what I can only describe as a perfect Jodie Foster role. The word is plucky. This woman can act, and is, to my mind, very, very beautiful.

Which is difficult, really, because very few famous people truly are beautiful. They may be sexy (however the media wishes to define it) but there are but a scant (pun intended) handful (pun intended) of truly gorgeous women in the movies. There's something about 'perfect' beauty which really doesn't do anything for me. Good makeup and straight blond hair; boring. A smile like lightning and a delightful accent; zing. I actually had a discussion about this with Queer Ranter and he helped pick some of the choices here.

I don't know, honestly, how we got from me wanting to write about The Brave One (which is very very good) to me putting up pictures of celebrities I find attractive, but that is the dichotomy of me, I guess. Trying to be high-minded but falling just short of ribald.

The list, as far as my brain could make: (and in no order at all)

Jodie Foster

While trying to find a decent picture of her on the internet, I stumbled accidentally across a little known fact: She's gay. Or, if not gay, living with a woman for 13 years. :P

She's also astonishingly beautiful, while being the oldest person on this list. She's got a presence that very few other actors can touch, and it doesn't hurt that she's jaw-droppingly amazing in terms of ability. Watch any Foster movie; you can see why she's a big name.

Jennifer Morrison

I'm almost 100% sure I misspelled that, but the masculine/feminine not quite androgynous Ms. Morisson is pretty enough to make me want to strangle her House co-star Spencer for being lucky enough to be marrying the girl.

As Dr. Cameron she can be at turns uninteresting and the best thing on the show. Her outfits can be _SO CUTE_. She did a turn as Lt. Kirce James in the last Command and Conquer game and was quite hot in the uniform, although the major quibble is she never got to fire any kind of weapon.

Sarah Shahi

Er, let's see. Iranian, raised in Texas, plays a Latino on a Los Angeles TV show... For no good reason at all, The L Word has the highest concentration of beautiful women on a show, ever. Clearly they want king of the hill and don't like to share...

Shahi plays a DJ named Carmen who dates the infamous Shane. Their relationship is... I think the word I'm looking for is somewhere between 'melting' and 'plasmatic', but rest assured, it's not mindless. Not that I'm against mindless sex, on a show about lesbians no less, but somehow Sarah manages to rise above that by (surprise surprise) being actually able to act. It would be easy to write the L Word off as soft porn posing as high context, but who the hell cares. It's got Sarah Shahi, and that's all that matters.

Keira Knightley

The most traditional beauty on this list. I don't even know what to say that will be interesting, save the fact that she's still doing small, non-blockbuster films (on your list to see: Atonement). She has a disturbing propensity to get naked at the drop of a hat, which isn't a bad quality in a person but certainly spoils the fun for people trying to make lists of beautiful women, because all the photos on google are NSFW and not quite what you're looking for.

I settled on this one because polka dots are cute. Don't get me started on her accent.

Charlize Theron

The most superficial entry, not due to any fault of hers, but because the sheer hawtness of her Aeon Flux outfit is her only reason for inclusion.

...don't look at me like that >.>

Kate Winslet

Is there really anything to say? She's got the accent, she's got the looks, she takes the Tube, and she makes inadvertent lesbian jokes about Cameron Diaz. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the great love stories of our generation, and her performance is so spot on as to be flawless.

Lauren Ambrose

Slightly more deranged than the rest of the family Fisher, the youngest child Claire from HBO's delightful Six Feet Under exudes charm, insecurity, and humanity. It didn't hurt her case that she's a redhead, and got to make out with Mena Suvari.

I had a crush on Lauren for the longest time. JUST LOOK AT HER. Her character's story is a major crux of the show's end arc, and her final scene is just heartbreaking. To inject so much humanity into a fictional character so breathlessly and with so much punch is no mean effort, and she deserves to find her way into the greater public consciousness, because this girl is amazing.

Jennifer Beals

The 2nd most beautiful woman on the L Word, and the 2nd oldest person here. Beals is a force of nature. 2 of my favorite scenes on the entire show are hers:

A heartbroken Beals walks into the kitchen, and burns her hand on the kettle. The anguished 'Fuuuuuck!' she emits, and the way her face crumbles as what was meant to be a cup of tea turns into only more pain was positively ethereal in its power and sadness. I rewatched the scene ten times, each time growing more impressed.

She and Marlee Matlin, another wonderful actor, share marijuana smoke by the pool. The shot is closer than close, their lips fill the frame, barely touching, the smoke like life passing between them. It's eros beyond your normal T&A, and it's chemistry like nothing you've ever seen in fiction. They are without a doubt my favorite TV couple of all time.

Emma Watson

Even Roger Ebert said of her in Chamber of Secrets, 'firmly in the early stages of babehood.' She's English. She's a babe. She's Hermione. And in a few movies time, she'll be onscreen with Helena Bonham Carter (who is a bloody genius) There is nothing bad to say about this girl.

Scarlett Johansson

The word is smoky. Hazel. She was, and forever will be, Lost in Translation, but I do hope she does more films; she's hands down the sexiest traditional Hollywood girl. It is rare indeed that tabloid girls catch my eye, but don't take that to mean that her reputation is in any way sully. Besides her extremely ample asseture, she has actual talent, believe it or not, and I would be lying if I said part of it did not stem from the fact that LiT is possibly the most beautiful movie about love I have ever seen.