Handicapping the Vanity Fair 'New Hollywood' Cover Girls
Vanity Fair is out today with the cover for its annual Hollywood issue full of young, female acting talent for the "next decade." Let's crystal-ball gaze: in ten years which will be opening pictures and which will be pitching Proactiv?
The magazine uses this issue to features what it considers to be the next wave of big Hollywood talent, and they're often correct. They even help pay off Annie Liebovitz' debt by hiring her to shoot them. But for every Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Renee Zellweger or even Sienna Miller there is a Alison Elliott, Gretchen Mol, Monica Potter, Marley Shelton, Sarah Wynter, Brittany Murphy (RIP), or Alison Lohman. So, just who are all these girls and should we even bother learning their names? Some yes, some no. Here they are, from left to right.
Abbie Cornish
What She Has Going for Her: An excellent turn in Jane Campion's Bright Star. She's pretty in a conventional way.
What She Has Going against Her: A critic's darling doesn't always translate into big box office. If she can't make people money, she's be doing BBC literature adaptations for the next 30 years.
Staying Power: Decent, but depends on her next move.
Kristen Stewart
What She Has Going for Her: A rabid female fanbase thanks to Twilight, getting edgy playing a stripper opposite James Gandolfini in Welcome to the Rileys, getting all girl power in The Runaways. Everyone wants a piece of Miss Stewart.
What She Has Going against Her: She got real famous real quick, and her "I'm so different and angsty" shtick is tiresome. Having a career after being the center of a cultural juggernaut is not easy, just ask Mark Hammill.
Staying Power: Excellent in the short term. The long term looks a bit fuzzy.
Carey Mulligan
What She Has Going for Her: Her performance in An Education has everyone raving and she's an cinch for an Oscar nom. She's also in Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps.
What She Has Going against Her: She's in Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps.
Staying Power: Better than average, especially if she can work her cute pixie aesthetic into being a thinking man's sex symbol.
Amanda Seyfried
What She Has Going for Her: A supporting figure in hits Mean Girls, Big Love, Mama Mia!, she is the star of Nicolas Spark's latest emotionally manipulative masterpiece Dear John and then makes out with Julianne Moore in art house sure-fire Chloe. Everyone from middle America to the coastal elites are gonna love this girl.
What She Has Going against Her: Sometimes her performances tend to be on the wooden side, and we have a feeling she won't age well.
Staying Power: Even better than fellow mean girl Rachel McAdams'.
Rebecca Hall
What She Has Going for Her: She was the one who wasn't Scarlett Johansson in Vicky Christina Barcelona, the one who wasn't Frost or Nixon in Frost/Nixon, and the one who isn't Blake Lively in The Town.
What She Has Going against Her: Rebecca Who?
Staying Power: Find a rich producer and latch on, Rebecca. It doesn't look good.
Mia Wasikowska
What She Has Going for Her: A critics darling for In Treatment, the HBO show that is only watched by critics, she'll be in every megaplex (and in 3-D!) as Alice in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.
What She Has Going against Her: This is why the studios used to change actresses names.
Staying Power: Burton muses don't have a great track record (where is Winona?), but talk to us after we see how Alice does in the theaters.
Emma Stone
What She Has Going for Her: Pretty and funny in Superbad, funny and then pretty in The House Bunny, and pretty funny in Zombieland, she could be the new go-to girl for the sassy girlfriend in gross out comedies.
What She Has Going against Her: Comedy is a man's game, and we have yet to see her do anything dramatic. Also, we can't quite pair her name to her face. She needs to get out there more.
Staying Power: Very good if she sticks to the funny and finds a starring role of her own.
Evan Rachel Wood
What She Has Going for Her: She has been in Oscar hits The Wrestler and Thirteen. Also doesn't have a horrible singing voice.
What She Has Going against Her: She's committed to the doomed Spider-Man musical on Broadway and she continues to be linked to the bloated '90s artifact Marilyn Manson.
Staying Power: Unless she cleans up her act and gets a bankable role soon, not good, sadly.
Anna Kendrick
What She Has Going for Her: Has the name and face recognition of Twilight without being too linked to its phenomenal success. Instead she'll be better known for her inevitable Oscar nomination for Up in the Air. Also, she is pretty, quirky, obviously talented, and her role in Up in the Air shows she can do the serious as well as slapstick.
What She Has Going against Her: We're stumped.
Staying Power: Jump on this bandwagon.