People don't like Bryce Dallas Howard? Why? She's pretty. She's a decent actress. Not her fault she was in two shitty movies. She was the only good thing in Spidey 3.

France's most bankable actor (I won't mention his name because A/ he sucks and B/ the following piece of trivia is shameful enough) declined a part in The Beard's Munich because it was a supporting bit, and prefered signing for a shitty adaptation of a 60's TV show where he played the lead. And in interview, he made it perfectly clear that he was proud of that choice. TJ Hooker ersatz versus masterpiece, says a lot about French actors.

I think characters in "Terminator 4" will be as good as the writers push them to be. Of course, the pussified PG-13 rating will hamper this process immensely, which is probably why Gainsbourg "had scheduling conflicts." I wonder how long it'll be until Bale "gets leprosy" or "checks into rehab for a year".

Obviously Bale isn't a quitter, so I think he'll stick it out. But hopefully Howard gets lean and futuristically mean, enhances her flowing red hair, and surprises us with how well she plays the part.

Am I being too optimistic?

As for Howard, I guess a lot of this will simply depend on "what" the hell these screenplays are about and "what" they call upon her to do. All in all, I'm still MORE worried about that -- the damn scripts and how good or how vomit hurling they actually are.