Laura Dern vs. Bridget Fonda
Battle of the Skinny Blondes

In Hollywood, you can't throw a cat without hitting a skinny blonde. From Kirsten Dunst to Jennifer Aniston to Calista Flockhart, they really are everywhere. Therefore, each skinny blonde must come up with some method of distinguishing herself from aaaaaall the others. Kirsten Dunst, for instance, is the skinny blonde jailbait. Aniston is the skinny blonde married to Brad Pitt. Flockhart, of course, is the skinniest blonde. Anywhere. Ever.

Bridget Fonda and Laura Dern, in our view, have not done enough to distinguish themselves from one another. Parent in show business? Check. PhD. character in a schlocky action movie? Check -- Fonda in Lake Placid, and Dern in Jurassic Park. Signature roles in smaller yet well-regarded character studies? Check -- Dern in Rambling Rose and Citizen Ruth, and Fonda in Bodies, Rest & Motion and Singles. Penchant for dating fellow actors? Check; Dern has been linked to her Jurassic Park co-star Jeff Goldblum, and to her Daddy and Them director Billy Bob Thornton, and Fonda dated frequent co-star Eric Stoltz for nearly a decade.

Dern and Fonda each enjoyed one career highlight as the '90s drew to a close: for Dern, it was the aforementioned Citizen Ruth, in which she fearlessly played an ignorant, irresponsible, not terribly likeable huffer who unwittingly finds herself pulled between pro- and anti-choice factions. For Fonda, it was A Simple Plan, which required of her a deceptively understated performance as Bill Paxton's subtly scheming wife. But the millennium finds both interchangeable skinny blondes back in movies that are safe rather than daring or challenging. Dern is so much more skinny blonde wallpaper in Dr. T. and His Forty Hos (tm snakebreaker), and Fonda stars in Delivering Milo, a movie about a...ugh...guardian angel who has to convince a man in despair that life is worth living. Did she learn nothing from Little Buddha? Stay away from God, lady!

Which skinny blonde should vanquish her indistinguishable foe? Well, only one of them has an Oscar™ nomination under her belt...and let's just say that her increasingly creepy ex-beau's recent marriage to that increasingly creepy Goth chick may have benefited the forlorn skinny blonde more than she knows.

Advantage: Laura Dern