Fug Kong

Naomi Watts, though talented and lovely, is not doing much to change my initial thought that she is basically Nicole Kidman II: Pale, Shy Aussie Boogaloo.

Observe — Nicole Kidman at the Bewitched premiere, and Naomi Watts at the premiere of King Kong:

Watts looks better. The uber-blond hair and fair skin do not look as freaky and alien on her as they do on Kidman, and do at least I get more what she was going for with this choice — the movie is the third iteration of this story, so a vintage-looking gown seems appropriate for the kind of wispy starlet who would get spirited away by a handsy ape.

But their basic similarities — the floaty white dress that looks more like a nightgown than an actual outfit, the updo, the curls, the general shapelessness, current/former boyfriend with rhyming names (Keith/Heath) — are a little eerie. And I’ll be honest, as much as she wins the photographic showdown with the increasingly icky Kidman, I don’t think that old costume-shop thing flatters Watts at all. It reminds me less of a romantic old dress than Princess Leia about to get dumped head-first into the Death Star trash compactor.