In Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans, which made $20 million at the box office over the weekend, Rhona Mitra plays a sword-wielding vampire. But in Cosmo's February issue, she's a damsel in distress.

While the movie had its flaws (it sucked), at least Mitra's character, Sonja, delivered fatal blows to her enemies — often from horseback — with a swift, sure thrust of her shimmering blade. But the magazine's "From Dusk Til Dawn" photo spread casts Mitra as a helpless babe in the woods.

Here, Mitra looks lovely, modeling a dress, which, of course, is the point of this fashion shoot.

This shot is not offensive, but the text — "maybe the hunter would become the hunted" — promises a femme fatale storyline which never manifests.

Here's the problem: Maybe the Cosmo editors didn't want to have Mitra as a vampire (even though she plays one in the movie she's promoting), so they hired some dude to play a bloodsucker. Why does she have to be so passive?

Is this what Cosmo readers want to see? The heroine of a fantasy film being dragged around by a dude who uses a flatiron?

She found it "impossible to resist" this guy? Or she was forced to sit still as he caressed her for this shot?


"Mall Cop" stays on top at box office [Reuters]
Cosmopolitan.com [Official Site]

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