The thing is, I'm not a Ryan Gosling fangirl. Really, I'm not. Yes, he's No. 1 on my Men I Would Leave My Life For list (in that scenario, these men just appear and ask me to run away with them and I say yes, OBVIOUSLY), but I, like all defensive fans, would define myself as "long-term." We're talking Young Hercules, The Believer, all those things he did before The Notebook and Half Nelson and Drive and Crazy, Stupid, Love. How happy am I that he and fellow Mickey Mouse Clubber Justin Timberlake don't run in the same circles anymore? SO HAPPY. Because J-Tim is basically a douche.
But anyway, back to my vigorous defending of my Gosling fascination: It's not like I hate Eva Mendes just because she's dating Gosling. It's just that Gosling should be dating, I don't know, anyone else? And so hearing that Mendes is joining Gosling's directorial debut, How to Catch a Monster, is fairly interesting. Mendes has been known to date costars before - I heard from a PR person back in the day that she was carrying on with both Tyrese and Paul Walker during 2 Fast 2 Furious and neither of the men knew and the press tour was a nightmare because of it. I'm not a slut-shamer, do what you do, girl, etc. - but I kind of feel like parlaying your relationship into a role you probably wouldn't get otherwise is kind of bullshit.
Let's look at Mendes's roles lately. Yes, she has The Place Beyond the Pines (on which she met Gosling while filming) coming soon, but but her last really funny role was 2010's The Other Guys. Her last sultry role was 2008's The Spirit. She was fine in 2009's The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans, but no one saw that. So what I'm basically saying is, is Mendes riding Gosling's coattails while she can? At 38, she's not getting any younger. She used to be the girl getting Jennifer Lopez's old roles, but soon there will be a girl getting Eva Mendes's old roles. I guess it helps to have a boyfriend who permanently resides in every person's dream diary, but the relationship can't last forever, can it? And after it ends, what will Mendes do with herself? Who else's career will she attach herself to?
The Place Beyond the Pines is coming out March 29. Shooting for How to Catch a Monster, which also stars Christina Hendricks and Ben Mendelsohn, starts this May. (FYI, in my fantasy world, Christina Hendricks and Ryan Gosling are forever together.)
