From The Magazine : Radar Online : How Hollywood's A-list idols are losing their movie-selling mojo

THE BUGGLES HAVE BEEN CALLED IN FOR QUESTIONING: Radar magazine is trying to determine who killed the Hollywood star:

Since 2007, with the notable exception of Will Smith, whose upcoming tent-pole flick Hancock is enjoying some of the best prerelease buzz of any summer film, virtually every star of note has tanked at the box office, sending a collective shiver down the industry's spine. Tom Cruise, Adam Sandler, Jim Carrey, Reese Witherspoon, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Ben Stiller, and Will Ferrell have all starred in movies that made less than $40 million domestically, far from the magic number — $100 million — that's become the standard measure of a successful release. Outside of their tried-and-true franchises, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Cameron Diaz, and Johnny Depp have fared little better, topping out, in some cases, at less than $70 million. Same thing for the presumably unbeatable duo of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, whose widely praised political romp, Charlie Wilson's War, took in a scant $66 million.

I happen to be particularly intrigued by #5, their doppelgänger theory: "The tabloid press can do more than just dent a star's image—it can also co-opt it, creating a long-running narrative arc about an actor more compelling than any movie. Take Brad Pitt, for instance, who despite his fame has failed to connect with audiences not only in a small, dark movie like The Assassination of Jesse James, but also in a pure Hollywood spectacle like Troy. If the audience doesn't want to see Brad playing a beefy, long-haired blond Greek Adonis, what the hell do they want? As it turns out, they want to see Brad Pitt playing himself, or the version of himself that turns up in the tabloids every week."

I recognize that part of the problem is that the movies in question weren't very good, but that's the problem: it used to be that if you were a star, they didn't have to be, because the fans still came. Now ...