Entertainment Weekly

HIT AND MISCASTING

Aaargh!  British papers are screaming bloody murder now that skinny
Texan Renee Zellweger has snagged a the lead in Bridget Jones Diary ("Of all the clunking, Hollywood idiocy" griped an Evening Standard columnist). We tend to agree; when we read Helen Fielding's best-selling London based novel, we pictured Bridget with a smoke-seasoned voice, more lbs. on her frame and more years to her age.  Here's our take on several other high-profile castings currently in the works. 
Clarissa Cruz

Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, about a disfigured, masked man.

           Antonio Banderas 
(click here for scan of the article)

Phantom takes place in Paris.  Banderas is as Spanish as they get.  We
heard him sing in Evita.  And isn't seeing his gorgeous mug the whole
point?  C+