For all the talk about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as the sleeper hit of the holiday season, we've seen just as much interest online in Wes Craven's Dracula 2000, and like Crouching Tiger, Dracula 2000 has spurred searches for its female stars.
All four actresses with major roles in the film have seen searches rise since the movie's debut, but only one actress really stands out as a breakout star to watch in the future: Jennifer Esposito.
Searches for Esposito have gone up 725 percent since the beginning of December, and she received more searches from Lycos users last week than actress Julia Roberts or supermodel Gisele Bundschen.
Esposito first became known playing Michael J. Fox's secretary on the sitcom Spin City. After a number of minor roles she scored a big part in Spike Lee's Summer of Sam, but this is the first time we've seen her in a movie that emphasizes her beauty and thus sends fans to Lycos in search of pictures, websites, and other Esposito information.
Esposito seems to have a reputation of being a bit of a Hollywood troublemaker. Apparently, she got tossed out of the remake of Shaft because of trouble on the set, and she was set to be one of the new Charlie's Angels, but fell out of the project because of disagreements with the producers.
Nonetheless, Esposito's career should continue to blossom in 2001. She has two movies scheduled to come out: in Backflash she stars with Melissa Joan Hart, while in Don't Say a Word she'll share the screen with Famke Janssen and Michael Douglas.
As for the other actresses in Dracula 2000, we've seen searches up a bit for Jeri Ryan, but not too much. After all, Ryan was already a web favorite thanks to her role as Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager.
We've also seen steep rises in searches for Justine Waddell and Colleen Fitzpatrick, but both are far, far, lower on our search charts than Esposito and Ryan. How much lower? 15 times as many people searched for Esposito last week than searched for either Waddell or Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick was actually much more popular earlier in the year, because while she acts under her real name, she sings under the name Vitamin C. You may remember her song "Graduation (Friends Forever)," the highlight of proms everywhere this past spring.
