Cautionary Women

Catherine Zeta-Jones is on tap to play villain in the movie adaptation of the  Broadway   musical Rock of Ages . Deadline  reports Zeta-Jones will play the wife of an LA mayor who swears to destroy rock 'n' roll. Adam Shankman will direct the flick under New Line. "She's the moral majority person, kind of like if Tipper Gore and Anita Bryant had a love child in that era," Shankman describes the character. It would not be the first time Zeta-Jones takes on a villainess role. She had won an Oscar for her turn as the murderous Velma Kelly in Chicago , yet another movie version of a musical. "To have a great actress who won an actress in this genre with Chicago is wonderful," Shankman added. Once again Zeta-Jones will be visiting the recording studio. For Rock of Ages she is expected to cover  Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It."  She recently made headlines when s...

Half the world is still observing Good Friday now. In line with the occasion, Cautionary Women profiles Jesus Christ's Enemy. In Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ , the Apollyon slithers around as an androgynous figure, as angels, fallen or otherwise, are thought to be. Italian actress Rosalinda Celentano emits cool, calm and collected nefariousness as an asexual Satan, taunting Jesus throughout the film. While such roles have not yet been run into the ground, female Devils have certainly been done before, most notably by Elizabeth Hurley in Bedazzled . But The Passion is a film that takes itself seriously, and the Adversary has no time for jokes here. Celentano's treatment of the Father of Lies, or should we say Mother of Lies, makes for a very perturbing, sometimes startling, performance. The film makes it easy to see the Devil and Mary as polar opposites. In one scene, Celentano holds a spooky, wizened baby, clearly a travesty of the Madonna and Child . In anot...

"Where memories take hold and never let go" Queen Latifah has eight arms to hold you as Ursula from The Little Mermaid . The actress hammed it up as the tentacled sea witch for Annie Leibovitz's third Disney Dream Portraits portfolio.  Alongside Latifah, actors Olivia Wilde, Jeff Bridges and Penelope Cruz posed for the latest Dream Portraits, an ad campaign for the Disney theme parks.  Julianne Moore had submerged herself for Leibovitz's Disney campaign as the little mermaid herself, Ariel, with Michael Phelps as an unnamed merman. No hotter ginge, no better manfish than Julianne Moore and Michael Phelps

"Where magic speaks, even when you're not the fairest of them all" Forget Julia Roberts , Charlize Theron, and Famke Janssen . In the third series of the wondrous Disney Dream Portraits, Annie Leibovitz shot Olivia Wilde as the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves . The Tron: Legacy  actress put her game face while Alec Baldwin splayed all four feet of his mug on the Magic Mirror. "Where you're the fairest of them all"  Now if Disney would only put out its own live-action Snow White movie .

She may not have occult knowledge or magical endowments but there is no argument against Lady Tremaine being one of the wickedest Disney villains ever. Her lack of those is more than counterbalanced by her malicious unkindness.  At the receiving end of such negative vibes is her stepdaughter Cinderella, hero of the eponymous 1950 Walt Disney film.   Cruel and scheming, Lady Tremaine could put to shame anyone dreamed up to the same effect by Edith Wharton . Tremaine basically does not allow anyone else to be happy in Cinderella's own house other than herself, her daughters Drizella and Anastasia, and her diabolic cat Lucifer. Her machinations emanate from her desire to secure wealthy sons-in-law and thereby improve her lot in society. Badly enough, she is always one step ahead of everyone in the film. When she isn't, she trips them in more ways than one.  Lady Tremaine has the most recognizable actor in Eleanor Audley, who voiced another specta...