Recently I was, entirely against my will, watching the train wreck that is the latest season of ER. In the episode in question, Abby wakes up in bed naked with Luka after a night of drunken sex. A mite perturbed because of her many, many neuroses, Abby moves gingerly out of bed and starts dressing. Watching the scene, I noticed, as I sometimes do, that Maura Tierney’s attractiveness–to me, at least–varies insanely from moment to moment.
She wakes up–not hot.
She’s moving around the apartment in a sheet, showing exactly as much skin–very hot.
Smiling one moment–not hot.
Smiling a moment later–ridiculously hot.
I’ve thought the same thing of Mary Lynn Rajskub and Alyson Hannigan --though, the latter case, it’s more that she flips from “cute-but- not-terribly-sexy-maybe-if-she-did-something-about-that-chin” to “oh-my-god-please-bear-let-me-worship-you-hunt-dragons-for-you-and-slay-your-enemies-hotness.”
Paris Hilton, I think, is a classic example of this. Sometimes you see her, and she’s pretty damn attractive. Other times you see her, and you gag, wondering how you could ever think she’s hot.
Summer Glau (River in Firefly) is staggeringly pretty–so long as she is moving. Standing still, she’s got the basic waif look going for her, but if she is in motion, her ballerina training takes over and she is beautiful.
Apropos of nothing: I’m sure there’s a reason all the Google ads are for CSI, but i haven’t a clue what it is.
Apropos of the thread; another vote for Paris. I’m not sure about Summer, as I’ve only seen her when she’s playing River Tam, who is supposed to be weird and off-putting so I’m not sure how intentional her nottie-to-hottie morphability is.
Janeane Garofalo. I had a crush on her for many years before she lost her sense of humor and began confusing liberal-radical propaganda with stand-up comedy, since I think she is an attractive woman no matter what she’s saying. *The Truth About Cats and Dogs * always pissed me off because Janeane was cast as the “plain girl” while Uma Thurman, who I consider cool but quite plain, was supposed to be her hot knockout friend. But in the movie Clay Pigeons, an underrated little dark comedy with Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix, Janeane looks absolutely beautiful.
I find Clive Owen to be that way. One minute he’s really cute and the next minute I can’t really figure his face out at all and I’m looking all over it to try to find the hot but it’s no longer there. I think maybe it really is the light because it’s from one scene to another. It’s not just him making unflattering faces.
Perhaps because Marg Helgenberger belongs in this thread? I mean, I’m not into girls in the first place, but there are times that Marg’s face looks positively mannish and some times that she looks quite pretty. And it definitely is the lighting.
I always thought Christina Applegate, the actress who played Kelly on “Married With Children” was pretty until I saw that horrible movie in which she’s a newscaster. (The title has been apparently blocked from my memory.)
It HAD to be the lighting in that movie. Her skin looks terrible, and the bags under her eyes are accentuated–nay-- exaggerated by it. (Maybe they intentionally over-lit for a “retro” feel. I dunno, but it made her look like hell.)
I think I’ll nominate her for this thread. Sometimes she just looks weird, while sometimes she’s hot. There’s a movie she’s in that’s coming out soon, and she looked great in the trailer for it.
She’s a good example. The lack of competition on 24 may work to her advantage, but most fans seem to wind up admitting there’s something hot about her in spite of everything about her.
On the other hand, everything about Paris Hilton is repulsive. I’m sure her body is fine, but I have no idea what people see in her. Her face is ugly and she always has the most contemptible expression on it.
