The New Ingenue: Tired of guest stints on the small screen, actress Kat Dennings risks one of her nine lives while on the prowl for Hollywood notoriety.

According to her acting coach, Kat Dennings should just “forget about the whole acting thing.” According to her mother, going into the profession was “a terrible idea.” According to casting agents, “her teeth are too weird, she’s funny looking, not pretty enough and too fat.” Luckily, Michael Cera’s love interest in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, who also stole scenes in The House Bunny and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, is made of stern stuff. “Yeah, I’m not easily swayed,” says the 22-year-old with a lazy drawl. “I’m a pretty strong-willed person and the criticism doesn’t really bother me.” Instead, Dennings stayed focused, abandoned acting classes altogether and served her apprenticeship on small-screen staples like ER, CSI (both Crime Scene Investigation and NY) and Sex and the City before graduating to Hollywood.

The New Leading Man: Would the cast of 'Ocean’s 47' please clear the room for Patrick Wilson? By George, Hollywood’s most underappreciated character actor has finally grown into a bona fide box office draw!

For a man whose long-term plan was to tread the New York theater circuit, Patrick Wilson has taken a seriously wrong turn. “It’s been awesome,” says the 35-year-old Tony Award nominee and star of Angels in America, Hard Candy and Little Children. “I really love making movies.” And with another four in the can, including the recently released thriller Lakeview Terrace and the upcoming superhero behemoth Watchmen, Wilson is meandering dangerously close to leading man territory. “I don’t even know what that means!” he says. “I’m glad my movies make money, but if it’s leading man or character man, it’s all good.”