That would be because she was about 20 or 21 in that film. Practically every woman looks pretty good at that age. LA Story was in '91, so she was about 25 there, and made up to look like a fun air-headed hippy chick. Her main appeal was supposed to be that she was half of Steve Martin’s age and utterly unlike the women he normally dated.
Like others, I also think most of what attraction she does have is carried by her personality and a good body. I’ve seen most of the first season of Sex and the City with my wife. In fact, my wife asked me if SJP is supposed to be hot, because in her words, “She’s kind of ugly, really.” Her role in Sex and the City is partly as a focus for female fantasy. She’s not incredibly attractive physically, so many women can vicariously identify with her, and she’s got all the trappings of success that the target audience would like to achieve: the clothes, the lifstyle, the (inexplicably hooked) guys. I don’t think she’s particularly attractive to most men, and probably isn’t really meant to be. The show, after all, is by women and for women.
On the other hand, sometimes certain women have a sex appeal that’s beyond their looks. One of my girlfriends wasn’t particularly attractive, physically, but within 5—10 minutes of meeting her, I wanted to rip her clothes off and bang her senseless. Maybe SJP is the same in person. I’ve never met her, so I wouldn’t know.
Cameron Diaz was kind of hot in exactly one movie: The Mask, when she was 21 or 22 (seeing a pattern here?) She was a fresh face and had a great bod. She was cute/attractive a few years later in There’s Something about Mary. Judging from a couple of televised interviews I’ve seen on Japanese TV, which are very candid and rarely show stars in good light or with professional makeup, what she normally looks like is Lotte in Being John Malkovich. And the most recent one I saw was apparently after she got her nose fixed. Hell, even pro makeup and lighting couldn’t make her “titillating” song and dance thing at the beginning of the last Charlie’s Angels movie less of a gruesome parody of sexiness. A few more years in the sun and she’s going to look like Magda instead of Mary.
While I do find her attractive in many films, in The Truth about Cats and Dogs Uma Thurman was not believable as the Hot One. Jeanine Garofalo’s personality made her so much cuter that Uma might as well not have been there. Uma’s looks are kind of odd, so I can totally understand that she might not appeal to a lot of people.
Quite a lot of actresses are above average in looks, but not “teh hawttest thing evar!!1!” The problem is that celebrity chasers, publicists, Hollywood reporters, or all of them seem to think that that’s supposed to be the only thing that matters. Claire Danes, for example, should not ever be hyped as being hot. She’s more of the “cute girl next door” type. I don’t think she was being sold as a mega-hottie in Romeo+Juliet. She was perfectly cast, IMO, as a cute girl who a teen guy fixated on, nothing more. Looking at the list of movies she has done, she’s never gone for, or never been cast in particularly sexy roles.
