Happy Birthday Winona Ryder

There was a time, it seems, when she was in every movie I liked; although it was only a span of two years, she appeared in Beetlejuice (1988), Great Balls of Fire! and Heathers (1989), Mermaids, Edward Scissorhands, and Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990)...

Since then, of course, in addition to memorable television appearances (The Simpsons in 1994, Strangers With Candy in 2000, and Friends in 2001) Ryder continued with a string of great movie roles, including The Age of Innocence (1993), Reality Bites (1994), and Girl, Interrupted (1999).

Then came her little mishegas at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills in December 2001; the ensuing show-trial and tabloid maelstrom cost her the better part of her reputation (although, as the photo at right clearly shows, Your Honour, she was desperately in need of coverage). Shoplifting (as I well know) is an affliction which is easily overcome, unlike, say, being a Republican, so despite the scandal she's continued to work, although she's been keeping a much lower profile.

Will Winona Ryder be able to return to the Hollywood pantheon to resume her rightful place there, or will she join the ranks of fallen stars who litter our reality television and infomercial landscape? Only time will tell. So far, though, celebrity astronomers such as myself see the scandal more as a wobble in her orbit and, although it was accompanied by a supernova of publicity, the gravity of her popular appeal should be enough to keep her (and her career) from becoming a black hole.
*