9 Milestones in the Evolution of Anne Hathaway

Becoming Jane (2007)

The next year, Anne Hathaway was faced with a crucial decision: play a one-dimensional hot chick who lets herself get impregnated by an unemployed stoner...or play Jane Austen. The actress chose the latter, bequeathing her Knocked Up role to Katherine Heigl allegedly because she did not agree with Judd Apatow's decision to use footage from a real birth. While Becoming Jane was not nearly as popular as Judd Apatow's Seth Rogen comedy, Julian Jarrold's historical film received generally positive reviews -- with one criticism being about Hathaway's British accent, which she would have a chance to reattempt four years later for One Day.

Rachel Getting Married (2008)

For Jonathan Demme's 2008 drama, Hathaway earned her first Academy Award nomination for playing a problematic young woman released from rehab so that she can attend (and wreak havoc on) her sister's wedding. This was Hathaway's first time playing a deeply tormented, narcissistic pain in the ass, and her raw performance helped this film, written by Jenny Lumet, land on many critics' Best Films list in 2008.

Bride Wars (2009)

Most A-list Hollywood actresses have at least one bomb of a mainstream rom-com on their resume and Bride Wars was Hathaway's. It's just too bad that she had to rebound from her Oscar nomination with a role that demanded she booty shake at a bachelorette party and wrestle her best friend at her wedding for laughs. I guess the silver lining in this universally detested comedy was two MTV Movie Award nominations (for Best Female Performance and Best Fight).

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards (2011)

The mark of a true America's Sweetheart, in Hollywood at least, is that she can escape a large-scale entertainment disaster miraculously unscathed, even if she was partly to blame. And that is exactly what happened with this year's Oscar telecast -- Anne Hathaway established herself as one of our most beloved entertainers based entirely on the fact that the American public did not turn on her the way they turned on Hathaway's texting co-host James Franco. It could have been partly because in spite of its horribleness, Hathaway looked like she was genuinely trying to put on a great show or maybe just because she wasn't scowling at the home audience in drag. Either way, the Oscar aftermath proved that in America's heart, Anne Hathaway is still just a Disney princess and James Franco is the gnarled villain who ruined the 2011 telecast.

One Day (2011)

And now Hathaway returns to the big screen in her first leading live action role since the ill-fated Oscars. Will the Brooklyn-born actress continue to earn audience's love as she, again, plays a mousy heroine with shaky confidence in this chick-lit adaptation? Probably, even if One Day is trampled by Conan the Barbarian, Spy Kids and Fright Night at the box office. Regardless, we are excited to see how Hathaway continues to evolve onscreen.

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