Blinded by the... Lite-Beer Girls

Beauty can be a beast, sometimes.

Now... it's a particularly well-kept secret that the entertainment and advertising industries can, at times, be somewhat superficial. I pause here while you gasp, clutch your hands to your bosom in disbelief, and perhaps swoon upon a fainting couch or two.

**........**

You okay now? Need I fetch the smelling salts?

I know. This is not a well-known fact but, gentle reader, it is true. "Looks" occasionally trump "talent" in the casting process. Unbelievable.

Okay, okay, enough funnin' with ya. But, as most regular blog readers here at TNG know, I am an actress. Have been for some time. And, no, I'm not jaded, nor am I jealous of other, prettier actresses - er - most of the time. Heh. At least, I try not to be. I will, however, admit to the odd twinge now and then, especially when I'm sitting in a waiting lounge at a casting house - where I'm about to audition for the part described as "quirky best-friend type; a little on the nerdy side, 'real' person not 'model' pretty, should have excellent sense of comic timing"... while in the studio next door, they're auditioning girls for a beer commercial.

It's kinda funny, actually. The "quirky" girls on one bank of chairs, sitting there, watching (with varying degrees of wry facial expressions) the parade of lovely, leggy, youth-dewy beasties in belt-length "skirts" and six inch heels stalk precariously past on their way to be judged entirely on their looks. And I sometimes feel a little sad. "Of course you do," some will say. "You are not even from the same species as these ethereal creatures." "You are a wee crawly troll-girl by comparison. Of course you feel sad." "They are incandescent - you are quirky. You have every right to feel --

Okay okay! I get your point.

But no. The sad-feeling isn't for me. You see, I usually wander over to the cork-boards and check out the breakdowns for the various spots being auditioned for. And the "character" descriptions for the beer commercials are usually something like "dorky guys try to get it on with three models in club wear."

Personally? I'll take "quirky, nerdy, excellent sense of comic timing" over "model in club wear" as a character description any day. And it's not intellectual snobbery making me say that. I've been in this business long enough to be pretty secure with my own particular strengths. The thing is, I've chatted with these girls at the auditions and, on a one-to-one ratio, they're not any less intellligent than the "quirky nerd girls" in my camp. Some, granted, are dumb as a boot. But some of them have killer wit.

Thing is, they rarely get to show it off. Because, even though I'm not necessarily smarter or funnier than some of these girls, I'm the one who gets to act like it. Partially because I'm not a six-foot tall size 0. Hollywood case-in-point - I'm pretty sure (no pun intended) that Megan Fox wouldn't have gotten an audition for the part of "Ugly Betty".

Now, you know, I'm not exactly expecting the girls of America's Next Top Model to cry me a river anytime soon. I just think that, at times, being blindingly beautiful can just be blinding.

Now. Enough of my profound ruminations. Head on over to the side-bar (if you don't already know the rules) and leave your comments here to enter the Super-Awesome Novel Girls Blogoversary Contest-o-rama-rama!!! Do it, Beautiful!