What's SHE doing in THAT?

Vic just called me on the phone to ask, in an exasperated tone before she even said hello, "What is PARKER POSEY doing in a USA Network cop-movie version of FRANKENSTEIN???"

"I don't know, but it's probably interesting," I said. "Anything with Parker Posey in it becomes interesting because Parker Posey's in it. I mean, she's the best thing about SCREAM 3."

"Yeah, but she's SO brilliant," Vic said. "Please tell me that this isn't the only work she can find."

"Well, she's also in the new BLADE movie, if you can believe that," I said. "She's in BLADE: TRINITY as a Vampire Queen or something."

"Oh God," Vic said.

Vic mentioned that someone like Parker Posey, who's capable of doing movies like THE HOUSE OF YES, WAITING FOR GUFFMAN and the great PERSONAL VELOCITY, deserves better than schlock horror parts. And I agree.

Posey, who can turn an otherwise fluffy film like PARTY GIRL - about a clubbing, druggy, perpetually hip socialite who is forced to work in the public library - into something great and hilarious that you MUST see if you haven't already, deserves to be a major, major star.

Seriously. Rent PERSONAL VELOCITY, HOUSE OF YES and PARTY GIRL, and then come back and tell me she doesn't deserve stardom. (Heck, she's actually better than the movie in HOUSE OF YES.)

And if brains held the same clout as looks in Hollywood, then she would be. (The thing that gets me about this is that actresses like Parker Posey, Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths are actually quite good-looking in distinctive ways, but, unfortunately, that only works on occasion in Hollywood.)

But here's the thing you've got to accept about Hollywood. Parker Posey keeps turning in great lead performances in small movies and better-than-they'd-otherwise-be supporting performances in big movies that give her a bigger paycheck. So she does the big ones so that she can continue doing the small ones.

Which also explains why someone as good as Queen Latifah is capable of doing something as bad as TAXI, though she has yet to take a lead part in a really small, independent film - which I agree with Ebert that she should do.