There are several reasons why I have long admired Kate Beckinsale. She’s a talented actress, who is capable of both excellent comic timing and subtle emotional response. She is, to state the obvious, extremely beautiful. She’s intelligent — she had started a degree at Oxford, studying French and Russian, before she dropped out after her third year to pursue her flourishing acting career. But, courtesy of the fan site KBeckinsale.net, I think I may just have found another reason to admire her:

The site doesn’t state what year this photo was taken, but I think it’s safe to assume she can’t have been more than 18. I honestly cannot imagine what you would have had to do to me when I was a teenager to persuade me to pose with my mother (that’s Kate’s mom, actress Judy Loe, on the right), in matching outfits as if we were both dancing. I truly think that there’s something admirable, not only about being able to do something so adorably dorky, but also to look really cheerful doing it. Mothers across the world must wish their teenage daughters would be as sulk-deficient as Kate.

Perhaps the cheerfulness has something to do with the fact that it was about this time that she captured her first big-screen role, featuring as the sweet, innocent Hero in Kenneth Branagh’s excellent film adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing. I was 12 the year the movie was released, in 1993, and when I set eyes on Kate, it was pretty much love at first sight: … continue reading

Whenever I turn on my TV these days, I get the strange urge to pull a Paul Revere in my living room and start screaming, “The British are coming! The British are coming!” Until I realize, oh wait, they’re already here. This season a brigade of British actresses are breaking out their best American accents to star in new prime-time shows. Among them are a bionic woman, an undead girl, a Terminator fighter and a vampire helper. Here's a look at the U.K. actresses making time on American TV screens.

I think you’ve already met Bionic Woman Michelle Ryan and her abs. In the last episode, they put her real accent to good use undercover as a British exchange student. An Englishwoman playing an American girl pretending to be a British student? It was like Victor/Victoria with accents instead of gender. … continue reading

Considering it's the season of goblins, ghouls and other assorted creatures of the night, I thought I might hop online to see if any new vampire movies are set to debut in the near future. (I would go see 30 Days of Night, but Josh Hartnett bugs me for some reason.) And what to my wondering eye should appear but news of a third Underworld film.

Naturally, my heart leapt with joy at the prospect of more time spent ogling Kate Beckinsale in that tight little number she wears so well.

But alas, while a filming schedule has been announced, word has it that the lovely Ms. Beckinsale is not involved in the project. Apparently, the writer/director of the Underworld franchise, Len Wiseman (who just happens to be married to the lovely Beckinsale), has chosen to do a prequel rather than a sequel. Yes, it is the movie kiss of death. … continue reading