Well, I can't always be prattling on self-assuredly about serious stuff.
In the biological bazaar of Hollywood, where an actress can earn millions of dollars for the pout of her lips or the perk of her breasts, sometimes the right hotties come along at the wrong time and in the wrong movie and for some reason the public just isn't buying what they're selling. The General would like to nominate three actresses whose relative success has occurred only after they have passed their prime (now I'm talking in purely superficial terms here), or their success has not happened to the degree warranted by their hotness.
I'm saying these lovely ladies should have made it bigger. Ahem.
- Gretchen Mol -- Although she has appeared in relatively high profile movies such as Donnie Brasco (1997), Celebrity (1998), and Rounders (1998), I always thought her breakthrough role should have been The Thirteenth Floor (1999), an underrated sci-fi noir movie about virtual reality. Mol isn't a great actress by any means, but I felt like she came across as a sexier Meg Ryan. She's been doing TV lately.
- Kate Beckinsale -- She's been in films both critically lauded (Cold Comfort Farm, The Last Days of Disco) and popular (Pearl Harbor), but she never achieved superstar status. I mean, what does Julia Roberts have that Kate Beckinsale doesn't? Beckinsale is much hotter, and can play more delicate, nuanced characters (versus the broadly drawn and always bodacious characters played by the likes of Roberts and Sandra Bullock, for example). Beckinsale's breakthrough role may be her portrayal of Ava Gardner in Martin Scorscese's upcoming biopic of Howard Hughes, The Aviator. To this point, Beckinsale's big budget film leading roles have mostly been duds like Underworld and Serendipity. She's getting on in years (by Hollywood standards), but her new glam look (compare with her Cold Comfort days) has at least prepared her image to take the next step.
- Winona Ryder -- I know she's had some success in her career, but it feels like she went on a decade-long slump just as it looked like she would solidify her status as a big Hollywood star. Consider the films she did at the beginning of her career: Beetlejuice, Heathers, Edward Scissorhands, Dracula, The Age of Innocence. Then, around 1993/1994, it's as though the wheels came off whatever gravy train she was riding: Reality Bites, Alien: Resurrection, Autumn in New York, Lost Souls. If you consider Mr. Deeds is her only box office hit in the last 10 years, then you realize her career hasn't been going so swimmingly. What happened to this talented and totally hot actress? Even when she tried to do something relevant, in the way of a would-be satire like S1mOne, she wound up picking a real dud. She was everyone's favourite grunge girl for a few years, and then it was as if there was no more place for her at the table.
They're probably not analogous examples, upon reflection. But they were the ones who came to mind. Sometimes it just seems so wrong that a Tara Reid or a Sarah Michelle Gellar has a career at all, let alone a successful one.
Please come back, Gretchen Mol. I miss you.
2:33:37 PM 
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