Maria Bello vs. Mary McCormack
Battle of the Wholesome Yet Sensual Yet Sensual Thirtysomethings

How does a female actor get through her thirties? Really, how much is there for her to do? If she's Diane Lane, she leaves Hollywood in her early twenties (after making her name with a series of ingenue roles) and returns in a blaze of...well, competence, playing the mother of an unnaturally aging boy in Jack. If she's Geena Davis, she gets herself cast in a high-profile buddy pic with a woman slightly older than herself, thereby looking all the younger by comparison.

But if you're a TV star who started her career by getting good notices in an ensemble cast, the transition is a little trickier. Just ask Maria Bello (with one season of ER under her belt) and Mary McCormack (one season of Murder One). First you have to distinguish yourself enough within your ensemble cast that when the time comes when you want to be considered for movies -- whether when you quit (Bello), or when your show gets cancelled (McCormack) -- casting agents will remember your face. So you have to have a pretty face. And you make it much easier for casting agents to stick that face in movies if you're a youthful Jenna Elfman or Jennifer Aniston. If not, you're going to end up playing pretty young moms (as McCormack has done in movies like Private Parts and Deep Impact) or slightly world-weary, debased criminals' girlfriends (as Bello has done in movies like Permanent Midnight and Payback).

Are Mary McCormack and Maria Bello really two stars vying for the same, single slot? The first time this commentator saw the trailer for Coyote Ugly, she thought that the role of the slightly world-weary, leather-vested, kohl-eyed bar owner was being played by Mary McCormack, when in fact it was Maria Bello. And when this commentator saw The Big Tease, in which Mary McCormack played the officious president of the American Hairstylists' Association, she was amused by McCormack's committed performance but slightly wistful with the knowledge that the very funny movie would be little seen.

Could Mary McCormack play a slightly world-weary, debased gun moll? Oh, probably. Could Maria Bello make an impression on-screen as a doting young mom? Sure, but what a waste of her jaded eyes!

If each woman is only as strong as her last big-budget movie -- and we think she is -- then Mary McCormack's last outing in Mystery, Alaska isn't doing her any career favours. On the other hand, the wall-to-wall ads for Coyote Ugly -- in which Maria Bello plays something akin to a skanky den mother for a posse of nubile young skanketeers -- puts her (and her bust) way out in front.

Advantage: Maria Bello.