Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Annette Bening: The Ultimate Seductress or the Ultimate Sucker?

Annette Bening could very well be the world's greatest Man Tamer. She got Warren Beatty—one of the World's Most Untame Men—to settle down. Sure, he was already a ripe 55 years old when they married, but up to that point I'm sure he (and everyone else in Hollywood) never thought he'd end up with a ring around his finger.

I would like to think that Annette was so incredibly independent and intelligent and alluring that Warren absolutely couldn't resist her. But there's a distinct possibility that maybe she just got duped.

Can a man really change his stripes? If he was known from here to Timbuktu as a Casanova, can he really one day turn around and become a Cleaver?

My initial response to this question is: No. But that may be based on my own unwaivering existence. I haven't changed much throughout my life, so I just assume that most other people don't change either. But perhaps—as in the case of Warren—people do reroute themselves. And if this is a possibility, then I suppose it is our job to get to know them in the current moment, not through investigative work about their pasts.

History can repeat itself, and a lot of people are never able to adjust the patters they develop in their youths. This means Annette could be an unsuspecting sucker. But if we give people the benefit of the doubt, we may just end up enjoying the moments with them even more—and perhaps even encouraging them to continue their good behavior far into the future...

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