Hollywood Classics Watch

David Ansen has an interesting piece in Newsweek asking if today's famous stars are making movies which will last. Ansen looks at the "batting averages" of today's leading men and ladies and stacks them up against the likes of Cary Grant. Pretty good stuff.

The only problem is that Ansen ignores Tom Hanks, who is about as close a thing as we have to a throw-back star, and who's batting average of wheat-to-chaff is probably the best of any working A-list actor.

(Also, God bless him, Ansen exposes Brad Pitt for the fraud that he is. His drawing power is about on par with Jessica Alba's, but yet everyone insists he's "Hollywood royalty." Why is that? Adam Sandler movies open twice as big as Pitt vehicles, but no one gives him the recognition he deserves.)