Is there an actress whose reputation has been more affected by who she’s dated in recent years than Evan Rachel Wood? She’s an undeniably talented young women, but her relationship with and engagement to Marilyn Manson, recently ended, were an enormous distraction. I suspect this has more to do with Manson than with Wood—Dita Von Teese became instantly more likable in mass culture, I think, when she divorced him, if only because he seems simultaneously tacky and creepy (although the covers of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” and “Tainted Love” are both undeniably awesome). All of which is a way of getting around to saying that I think the fact that I like this Frank Miller-directed perfume-commercial trailer (whew, that’s a narrow field to describe) has to do mostly with a resurgence of goodwill I feel towards Wood:
That said, I could kind of see her and Chris Evans making it work in a romance with a sense of humor. Both are on upswings in their overall likability (Evans should break down exactly went into his performance and role as Lucas Lee in Scott Pilgrim and do more of precisely that), they’re young, they’re charming, and they’re arguably underexposed. It’s a premise worth exploring by someone other than a dude who is dabbling in cinema.
