Our girl Léa

Good news for Léa Seydoux fans (and let's face it, we're all Léa Seydoux fans): our girl has landed a part in the highly anticipated new Wes Anderson movie.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is said to be coming out later this year, though there's no definite release date yet. In fact, the whole project is pretty mysterious, so it shouldn't be a surprise that there's also no information on either the seize or the nature of Seydoux' role. But it's going to be awesome all the same, that much we do know.

The first time I saw Léa Seydoux was in La Belle Personne (Christophe Honoré, 2008), in which she portrays a high scool student caught in a love triangle. Yes, this movie is very, very French but definitely worth your while, for several reasons besides Seydoux.

Seydoux has kept herself busy since then. I've spotted her in small parts, like in Jessica Hausner's Lourdes and in Woody Allens Midnight in Paris (where she plays the boring part of The Right Girl Owen Wilson's character ends up with). I've spotted her in larger parts, like opposite Diane Kruger in  Les adieux à la reine and in Ursula Meier's L'enfant d'en haut (Sister). She also played the lead in Rebecca Zlotowski's impressive but obscure Belle Épine. And then she did some big time Hollywood stuff like Robin Hood, Inglourious Basterds and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (which I haven't seen but apparently features Seydoux in a cat fight with some other impossibly hot girl).

Furthermore, Seydoux  just finished shooting Le bleu est une couleur chaude, a film by Abdellatif Kechiche, whose previous film is the extraordinary Black Venus. Something to look forward to, for sure, with Seydoux playing the female lead.

Not sure in which movie you might have seen Léa Seydoux? Check out her résumé on IMDb.

Watch Léa Seydoux in the trailer for La Belle Personne

Watch Léa Seydoux in a three part commercial Wes Anderson made for Prada

Iconic sleuth

Even the hip enjoy the occasional whodunnit, especially when it's Jessica Fletcher who's solving the crime. At 86, actress Angela Lansbury is still a female role model - and a cover girl to boot.

The Gentlewoman is probably the hippest among women's magazines, known for their bold choices in both content and design. But this season, they're beyond bold. On the cover is Angela Lansbury, the actress we've come to identify with amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher, who solved murders for twelve straight seasons of Murder, She Wrote. But there's more to Lansbury than just one iconic part. She's delivered many great performances, notably as the bitch mother in The Manchurian Candidate and naive Nellie in musical Sweeney Todd, which won her one of her four Tony Awards.

For this issue of The Gentlewoman Lansbury got her portraits shot by cool-as-can-be photographer Terry Richardson (posing with his famous glasses in the cover shot), the interview is by Holly Brubach. Brubach notes that Lansbury's life is very much like Fletcher's was back when she portrayed her in the 80s and 90s. Like Fletcher, Lansbury is now a widow. And though she mourns the loss of her husband, she's content being single, having no interest whatsoever in a new romance. Plus, both Fletcher and Lansbury have a fulfilling career. Lansbury still works as an actress, both on stage and in movies. Next year she's to play a tiny part in Wes Anderson's new movie, something I'm really excited about.

'Jessica didn't want to begin a whole new cycle of life, because she had a very complete life as an authoress.'

The interview with Lansbury, which is a joy to read, made me realize that Jessica Fletcher truly was a unique role model, mostly because Lansbury made sure she'd be as independent as any male hero - or even more so. Lansbury tells Brubach that the Murder, She Wrote writing team tried to write Jessica a romance, but Lansbury resisted. Lansbury: 'Jessica Fletcher didn't want to begin a whole new cycle of life with somebody new, because she had a very complete life as an authoress. She had success and the comfort and cosiness of her home, her persuits, her friends.'

It's nice that Lansbury - and the writers of Murder, She Wrote - gets credit for giving the world a female role model we hadn't seen before. But I wonder: where are those tv role models now?

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