The article in the magazine says one director said that many in Hollywood "didn't know what to do with her." Talking about Penelope Cruz. This reminded me of what agent Hal Gefsky confessed about Sharon: "she was so young and beautiful that I didn't know what to do with her."
Speaking of her Cruz's beauty, Woody Allen says: "I don't like to look at Penelope directly. It is too overwhelming." That could equally be said of Sharon.
Cruz, who had some great roles in Europe, found that her first films in Hollywood were not doing anything for her career. Italian director Pedro Almodovar says: "It was bad luck for Penelope, because some of the movies were very ambitious, but this happens. They only saw her as a beautiful girl. It is a problem with the market, the agents, the studios, the film industry as a whole that labels actors in a way that is not subtle at all." The problem, he continued, is that Hollywood put her in about 10-12 movies like this but luckily, it did not ruin her career. She continued to make more European films and with Almodovar until the great roles began to come her way.
That part of the article made me think of Sharon since Hollywood treated her much the same way. And, even though many of her films had ambitions behind them as well, Hollywood failed to realize she could be much more than just another pretty face. Perhaps Sharon would have had a period like Cruz's, when she didn't get the roles she should have. We can only wonder what would have happened in her career in the years to come.
The article also discusses how Allen found her comedic talent. "She has a natural sense of humor," he says. Vanity Fair's author Ingrid Sischy writes: "Because of Cruz's looks and the fact that the camera loves her as much as it does, her comedic flair has often been left untapped. But she could just be the great 21st century screwball talent, the Jean Harlow or Carole Lombard of our time."
Sharon had a great comedic talent. Some critics recognized this in Sharon's performances especially in the likes of "The Wrecking Crew." Sharon also loved the comedy style of Carole Lombard stating that she wanted to be a light comedian in that same vein.
Apparently, Almodovar pushes Cruz for great performances much like Polanski pushed Sharon. No telling what would have happened if Polanski and Sharon had continued to make films together. Surely, he would have saved her career like Almodovar did Cruzs.
It is a shame we can only now speculate what may have happened. In my opinion, I think Sharon would have continued her career and would have made it big like Farrah Fawcett or Goldie Hawn or possibly a combination of the two.
Just for fun, I put together a mock up issue of Vanity Fair with Sharon on it's cover. I only changed the faces with Sharon as I do remember Sharon used to wear many different wigs for photo shoots. So I just wrote here that Sharon was wearing a wig for our photo op. I also put the photos of Cruz on so you can compare those. These women are certainly two of cinema's most beautiful women!
I am not the best graphic artist as you can see but I did what I could and I sincerely hope you all enjoy the pretend photographs.
If you can't get enough of all the media hype over Polanski here are a few more noteworthy articles:
If you have not seen 'Wanted & Desired' that is a documentary on the case, you would want to read this:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/oct2009/pola-o05.shtml
The Los Angeles Times has a few articles on Polanski, one of the most interesting ones discusses his film "The Piano." :
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-et-polanskifilm5-2009oct05,0,3211525.story
This site talks about how Samantha Geimer now views the case:
http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/39787386.html
And this site takes a look back at Polanski's "Chinatown." :
http://fandangogroovers.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/forget-it-jake-its-chinatown/
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