An unusually nasty piece over at The Guardian is causing revulsion, even among seen-it-all types like Jeff Wells at Hollywood-Elsewhere, who calls it "one of the meanest and most heartless" celebrity journalism pieces he's ever read, as well as being "insensitive" and "pointless." I have to agree. Let me start by saying that, as a long-time fan of Nicole Kidman's -- check out the three-part retrospective of her early career I did a while back -- I share the originating sentiment of the Guardian piece, which is that Kidman is of late taking a wrecking-ball to her film career with one inexcusably awful choice after the other. From dreck like The Stepford Wives and The Human Stain to almost-unreleasable garbage like Bewitched and The Invasion, she's practically daring fans to turn away from her. Even her latest prestige project, Margot at the Wedding, is completely awful. After seeing Margot in Toronto, I declared this to be Kidman's "annus horribilis."

All that said, however, this piece reads like it was written by some fourth-grader, undercutting whatever serious intent it may contain with a ton of personal smears. Kidman is referred to as a "former Scientology hostage bride" who only won an Oscar for wearing "a false hooter" and who is now "box office poison." Soon enough, the piece warns, "Hollywood's powers that be -- or their accountants -- will rise from their crypts one morning and realize it's time to cut their losses." The article also urges Kidman to retire before she becomes "Joan Crawford 1944" and is way too harsh on Birth, the one semi-decent movie Kidman has produced in the last three years.

Kidman is also on the cover of this month's Vanity Fair, but that piece is hardly any more worthwhile. It's entirely oriented around her personal life and content to elicit from the actress fortune-cookie aphorisms about how to handle a long-distance relationship and the like. Is there no place left for a serious critique of an actor's career, or lack of one?

Don't get me wrong, I think Felicity Huffman is a great actress, but I never really understood why people liked Desperate Housewives so much. I dropped in and out of the series during the first two seasons and I could never get into it, which is saying something considering how addictive my TV viewing habits can be.

It looks like Huffman is making a smooth transition into more full time movie gigs. Variety announced that Huffman has been signed to star in the film version of the British miniseries The Politician's Wife. The original story was about the wronged wife of a charismatic MP, who quietly plots her revenge against her husband and his cronies. I'm assuming there will have to be some changes to the script since I can't see Huffman doing an accent.

The series was produced for Channel 4 in the UK and included Minnie Driver, as a high-end escort. I remember seeing the series years ago on PBS and I was pretty entertained by the whole thing, and nobody does reserve and repression like the British. Nicholas Meyer, who has some experience with adaptations, having adapted Philip Roth's The Human Stain, wrote the script and Bob Berney is on board to direct. So even if the movie is just another Hollywood re-hash, for me, it beats the shenanigans of Wisteria Lane any day.

[via JoBlo.com]