It hasn't been a good couple of years for actress Halle Berry. In the early 90's, she looked like a breakout actress with starring roles in serious dramas like Losing Isaiah and the TV miniseries Alex Haley's Queen.
But the last few years haven't been so great. Her celebrity marriage to baseball slugger David Justice broke up. She had to pay thousands of dollars in fines when she left the scene of a traffic accident. She made B.A.P.S.
In the last three years, she's appeared in just one movie: the blockbuster X-Men, where she played second fiddle to Famke Janssen and a ton of special effects. What kind of career move could resuscitate her career and launch her back into the top echelon of young actresses?
Of course, the answer is "bare her breasts."
Yes, Halle Berry will be appearing in the action thriller Swordfish along with John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, and her mammary glands. The film opens today, and you can check Lycos Movies for showtimes near you.
Why appear topless? According to the film's producer, Joel Silver, ''I've known Halle for years, and I felt this was time for her to do this. I think it's cool for the character and good for the box office.''
The rumors are that Berry received an extra $500,000 to bare her chest in the movie. She claims that's just a joke that director Dominic Sena told a reporter, that she didn't get any extra cash. Instead, Berry feels that the success of her Dorothy Dandridge cable-TV movie means she "didn't have to prove myself anymore.'' Having now proved herself to be a serious actress, she now can prove herself to be men's magazine fodder.
Berry is on the cover of FHM magazine discussing the movie (and her toplessness), so the word is out. Searches for Berry went up by about 160 percent in the last three weeks. Searches for Swordfish have also jumped. (You may remember that back in February we noted that Swordfish saw a big push thanks to Super Bowl advertising.)
Three months ago Berry was far down the list of the most popular women online, with similar search traffic to b-level stars like Jamie Lee Curtis and Alyson Hannigan. Good, but not great. Last week, thanks to the interest in her bosom, Berry was up in a higher search stratosphere with popular Internet hotties like Sarah Michelle Gellar and Janet Jackson.
This isn't the first time a topless appearance has juiced the Internet interest for an actress. Katie Holmes saw an even bigger jump a few months ago when she appeared topless in The Gift.
Halle Lujah! Thanks for the mammaries!
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