"Acting
is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a
living," said actress Katherine Hepburn.
"After all," she added, "Shirley Temple could do
it at the age of four."
I find myself in the unenviable position of having to choose from a
vast array of candidates. I've
decided to play it safe by mentioning active sites that have links to
many film stars so that fans can choose their favorites.
I've added a number of sites dedicated to the currently most
popular film celebrities.
Charts
comparing several dozen of the most successful and popular actors and
actresses based on the Box office take of their films is on the World
Wide Web at the MovieTimes.
Photos,
bios, movies and videos, of all the female film stars and several
males are featured at Celebrity
Pro.
So
much for the general sites. Now
for some of today's most popular film celebrities, all of who have
more than just good looks and trained diction:
Michelle
Pfeiffer, whose incredible eyes, classic beauty and talent have always
been her hallmark, has had a remarkable variety of roles. From a hawk ("Ladyhawke") to a cat ("Batman
Returns") to a harried single mom in "One Fine Day,"
she never ceases to amaze. This
site has a number of
links to Michelle
Pfeiffer pages.
Gwyneth
Paltrow,
who starred in "Shakespeare in Love," gets quite good
coverage of her career, biography and filmography on the Internet
Movie Database.
Nicole
Kidman, the redhead who burns up the screen every time curtains go up,
was featured as the actress of the week in the men's magazine
AskMen.com. The ravishing redhead was thrown into the Hollywood
limelight as Tom Cruise's wife, but Nicole has become an A-list
actress and a household name on the strength of her acting abilities,
not because of the wedding ring on her finger.
Julia
Roberts, winner of two Golden Globe awards, three People's Choice
Awards and nominated for four Oscars, had an online chat session with
her fans on August 10th. Her latest film, "Erin Brockovitch"
is her best, following "Pretty Woman." Two interesting sites
devoted to Ms Roberts include About
Julia and Julia Roberts News
at Topix.net.
Julia remains one of Hollywood's favorite actresses. Whether
it's her approachable persona, her innocent beauty, or that mega-watt
smile, the public can't seem to get enough of her.
An
interesting bit was reported by Julia, on being recognized, "This
happens rather frequently: Someone comes up and asks, 'Are you Julia
Roberts?' and I say yes, and they say, 'No you're not,' and I say yes,
and they say no. After that, I just kind of let it go."
The
most popular Bollywood actress, according to a recent poll, is
Aishwarya Rai; and a good starting place on the Web to explore her
photos, profile, articles, interviews and movie clips is the Aishrawya
World Web site.
Film
stars and their agents haven't seemed particularly interested in
creating their own Web sites. They've
pretty much left that to their fans.
Many fan sites don't get updated.
A fan falls in love with a celebrity and dedicates a Web site
to him or her. Later, the fan's interest wanes and the Web site expires.
Now,
for the women who simply adore their favorite male celebrities:
According
to Movie Thing, "Tom
Hanks has risen from a Hollywood joke to heights of being one of
the most influential individuals in Tinseltown. You'll find lots
of information about Hanks at Tom
Hanks Online."
Mel
Gibson, who won the Best Actor Oscar for Braveheart in 1997, acts,
directs and produces. He
recently directed the controversial film "The Passion of Christ. There
are literally dozens of Mel Gibson fan sites and links.
Bruce
Willis is muscle-bound, monosyllabic and minimally emotive. Explosions
and man-on-the-run heroics have been his stock in trade. One wonders how he ever could have fouled up his relationship
with Demi Moore! For more information on Willis, see the page devoted
to him at E-Online.
Tom
Cruise,
Nicole Kidman's ex-husband, (smile...it usually reads the other way
around, unfortunately for Nicole) has a page on the A-List.
"Mission Impossible," his latest film has the largest
gross revenue of the year.
Harrison
Ford
who stars with Michelle Pfeiffer in "What Lies Beneath," one
of the leading box office hits of the year. has an up-to-date Web site
with news, biography, awards and filmography.
One
could go on with information about a dozen other actors, like Kevin Costner who has a host of
female admirers, but space limit prevails.
One
noticeable feature of the currently most popular film celebrities is
that they are bright as well as beautiful.
When architect Frank Lloyd Write said of Marilyn Monroe, "
I think Ms. Monroe's architecture is extremely good
architecture," he was observing the preoccupation of an age.
That age has yielded a bit of brawn and body parts to brains.
