The Most Likely To Succeed

THE REINVENTED DIRECTOR

After mixing the high and low with impressive dexterity in last summer's Y Tu Mamá También, Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón was obviously going to have enhanced credibility in Hollywood. It was still a surprise to many to see him tapped so quickly to take the directorial wand on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third in the Potter series. Mama's adolescent sexual shenanigans do not share much with Potter's boyish wizardry. However, Cuarón is not some foreign director whose arty hit gave Hollywood the idea of taking chances on a gifted newcomer. A few years back, Cuarón directed the greatly admired Hollywood film A Little Princess. He then made the lush, visually compelling--if dramatically iffy--modernization of Great Expectations with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow. So Cuarón comes to Potter with a great deal of Hollywood experience, an Ang Lee-like penchant for genre-jumping and the kind of original vision studio execs can put stock in.

THE AUTHENTIC

As the substance-abusing bad influence on Kirsten Dunst in crazy/beautiful and as the knocked-up, downtrodden friend of Britney Spears in Crossroads, Taryn Manning gave memorable supporting performances that were quite enough to guarantee placement in similar niche roles for a few years. But Hollywood seems more interested in her than that--it's already clear that the level of her projects has gone way up. This month she appears in two of the year's highest-profile Oscar-bait contenders: director Curtis Hanson's Eminem-starrer 8 Mile and the tony women's pic White Oleander, which stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Renee Zellweger and Robin Wright Penn. The Oscar-bait casting will go on next year when the 24-year-old actress appears in Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain. Manning has the added advantage of being the front-woman/songstress of Boomkat, whose debut album will soon be released by DreamWorks Records.

THE MODERNS

Funky marrieds Fitz and Su Suzama are the proprietors of the store Fitzsu Society on Melrose Avenue. The idea for their emporium of contemporary knickknacks, utensils and other groovy housewares came when they got engaged and saw first-hand that the world could use a new spot where the ambiguous category of "wedding presents" could be dealt with more stylishly than usual. Open since 2000, Fitzsu Society indeed caters quite handily to wedding registries and has quickly gained a sterling reputation among frazzled execs (or, in many cases, their frazzled assistants). However, its genuinely unique collection of sleek, modern stuff (everything from a colorful Karim Rashid acrylic chessboard with rubber pieces to Salviati crystal coasters) is prized by hipster Hollywood for showcasing some of the more interesting designers working today.

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