Hooray!! The Notorious Bettie Page Looks...Good!

Well, I just saw a ten minute spot about The Notorious Bettie Page, Mary Harron's new film about the pin up queen of the 1950s. I have loved Bettie Page since I was about thirteen, so you can imagine how excited I was when I heard that a movie was being made about her--by Mary Harron, no less, the director of American Psycho and I Shot Andy Warhol. In those films, she proved to have a keen visual eye and a great sense of humor. Then, unfortunately, I saw who was playing Bettie: Gretchen Mol. My heart sank. Gretchen Mol has a couple of problems for this part. First of all, she is not the best actress. She was a little dull to watch in The Thirteenth Floor, painful in Celebrity and unbearable in Rounders. Second problem, she is a little too thin (although this is obviously something that doesn't matter that much if the acting is good). Well, this morning, as I watch the preview, I was very excited to see that Gretchen looks like she has gained a little more acting savvy--and about ten pounds! On the screen, she looks almost exactly like Bettie. It is uncanny. And the film is shot in black and white, which is perfect.

In my perfect world, however, I would have cast....drumroll...the beautiful Jennifer Connelly. Observe:



The film opens April 14th!