The View From Here II

About halfway through a cover story on Jessica Alba in the new issue of Rolling Stone, I stopped reading and asked myself, “Why am I reading a cover story on Jessica Alba in the new issue of Rolling Stone?” My point wasn’t that I was somehow “above” Jessica Alba and shouldn’t have been bothering to read about her, but rather that Alba's career to date didn’t justify the existence of the story.

I’ve never seen "Dark Angel", but I know that not enough people watched it for even Fox to keep airing it. And I’ve also never seen Honey, but I know that it made less money than Uptown Girls (and I haven’t yet stumbled across a Brittany Murphy cover story).

Sin City was a modest success, but not one that Alba can take credit for. And while it’s true that Fantastic Four is doing well, this cover story was written several weeks before that movie was released, and it's currently busy exceeding industry expectations.

The thing is that Alba has very quickly joined an elite group of actors who continue to get parts because of their ability to sell magazines.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have been somewhat redeemed by their success this summer, but make no mistake, these two are not box office gold. The seven live-action movies Jolie made between the first Lara Croft movie and Mr. & Mrs. Smith each grossed an average of about $30 million. Meanwhile, while it’s arguable that Pitt was key to getting Troy over, the rest of his box office clout hangs precipitously on his share of Ocean’s Eleven and its sequel.

There are many others, of course -- actors who are considered A-list primarily because of their “celebrity”. (Who was it who actually said the words, “We need a big star like Orlando Bloom to 'open' Kingdom of Heaven”?) But I promised myself I’d keep these entries short.