>Bellucci's career illustrates your point.
>She was a model, not an Oxford student. She wasn't trained
>on the Shakespearean stage. She's from Italy. She made more
>high-minded European movies because, well, that's what they
>make over there. Even still, she managed to show up in
>Brotherhood of the Wolf, which is part of this recent
>movement of European and Asian filmmakers to try to mimic
>Hollywood-style films (Shiri from Korea, France's With a
>Friend Like Harry, Crimson Rivers, and others.) So she's
>made Europe's version of the crap you're blasting Beckinsale
>for, and she's now catching up on her share of Hollywood
>crap too. Perhaps she would have done Irreversible if it
>wasn't her husband's film, but I doubt it. Not that it isn't
>in her to do, but she would have had no impetus to do
>something so dangerous.

Point taken RE - but she was a law student prior and did modelling gigs on the side... And I'm not painting her in strictly an untainted light - the second "Asterix" movie for instance - but I do believe that she will take on projects that are infused w/ more gravitas to balance out what she's currently doin' - and she was doin' this prior to hitchin' up w/ Cassel... Instead of just paying lip service to bein' engaged in the art of film (like Beckinsale in print and television interviews), Bellucci's decisions actually have demonstrated conviction...

>I'm not completely familiar with her earliest work, but it
>looks to me like I can say the same thing about her that you
>said about Beckinsale. Basically, she started out dong small
>stuff until she had a chance to do larger, more commercial
>stuff. She worked on tiny projects, little seen foreign
>productions, and now she's trying to get paid just like the
>rest of them. I don't think she set out to be an actress
>just to get paid, but the point Beckinsale's defenders seem
>to be making is that once presented with a chance to get
>paid, why turn it down? Not saying that's right or wrong,
>but I think Bellucci is part of that same trend.

I think the litmus test will be to see the career arc of both into the future - my $'s on Bellucci continuing to do roles that are gloss as well as substantial whereas I think thet Beckinsale will agree to a string of mediocre projects ad infinitum w/ the odd, but especially infrequent surprise here and there...

"other than some of cann ox, el-p's beats sound like somebody molesting a household pet"
- soundsop