Prime Cut

Christopher Lee (You probably know him from Lord of the Rings as the Saruman the White Wizard gone bad.) says Hollywood is obsessed with finding good looking young actors rather than good actors. I would agree. It's irritating because it gives the silver screen a homogenous feel. We need some good ugly actors! What will we do when Steve Buscemi retires?

The bad habits of the music industry are spreading into Hollywood. The music industry began manufacturing bands by first picking artists based on looks. Whatever musical flaws exist can be worked over with a professional song writer and a digital mixer. It's no so easy for Hollywood. You can only throw so much special FX around an actor to makeup for or bury poor acting.

A recent conversation topic I raised, before Christopher Lee uttered his words, was about how ugly men have a better chance making it in Hollywood than less-than-pretty women. My theory is because women movie watchers are more forgiving of shall we say "flawed looks" whereas men movie watchers are not so forgiving of women actresses. Women with less than stellar looks have to work harder at acting than men to overcome visual prejudice. It's a shame it is this way because there are some really good actors and actresses who are not hotties, but are overlooked by Hollywood.