Matthew Goode vs. Hugh Grant
Battle of the Raffish British Charmers

When did Americans fall in love with the British? Or, more specifically, when did Americans fall in love with a particular British guy: charming, raffish, a little bit of a dandy, prone to stumbling over his own words, and cracking dry jokes with a cute, cock-eyed grin, while fondling his forelock of foppish hair. Was it really way back during the first time Hugh Grant stumble-bummed his way across the screen in Four Weddings and a Funeral? Did he invent this archetype? Weren't British guys in movies before that always wearing monocles and admiral's outfits, and snuffling about tea?

And is it possible that Hugh Grant's now outlived his usefulness?

Grant, as we noted in a Fame Audit back in 2001, was last seen shuffling along with a perfectly satisfactory post-blowjob career. He plays winking parodies of his famous persona (Bridget Jones) or...well, just versions of his famous persona (Two Weeks Notice). He's less Hugh Grant, actor, than the Hugh Grant brand. There's nothing wrong with that: greater stars have had longer careers than Grant's by playing variations on themselves endlessly, with varying degrees of effort.

As with any brand, though, your main concern isn't that the public will tire of it, but rather that they'll be able to get a cheaper, superior version of it somewhere else. Just as Nike gives way to Adidas, gives way to Puma, gives way to Saucony, so Grant must now give way to the younger, sleeker, more up-to-date British rake: America, meet Matthew Goode.

Never mind that he has the same name as a sort-of famous Canadian pop star. That shouldn't cause too much confusion. Never mind that he was introduced stateside in the tepid Mandy Moore vehicle Chasing Liberty, since so few of you saw that as well. Pay attention, instead, to the fact that Goode just starred in Match Point -- as the delightfully raffish, only slightly wrong-way-rubbing uppercrustman Tom -- and will now play the lovesick lead in Imagine You & Me, in which he gets tossed overboard by Piper Perabo when she falls for another lass. That's a potent one-two punch: devilish rogue and heartbroken groom, all rolled into one dreamy puppy. If he learns to stutter, he'll have covered every inch of Hugh Grant's hallowed turf.

Grant might have seen this coming. He staved off, after all, a slight left-flank attack from the very funny, Grant-esque British actor Jack Davenport, last seen (or not) playing "Edward Fletcher-Wooten" in Debra Messing's The Wedding Date. Grant briefly seemed to have lost his charms after the whole run-in with the hooker, but lo and behold, he scrabbled back. He is, in short, the British, raffish, mumbling, hair-tossing, dry-joke-making version of the grizzled gunfighter in the Old West, propped with one boot against the bar.

We're betting, though, that Matthew Goode draws faster. We're betting there's a new sheriff in town. A cute, sputtering, tailored-shirt-wearing, cock-eyed smile-smiling sheriff, who's ever so glad to have met you, and would you mind terribly if he sat down?

Advantage: Goode