[williamssl]

Maybe it's my perception, but I haven't seen as much debate amongst people recently - sure there's lobbying for votes in close matchups, but not as much of the "here's why such and such is teh awesome" or "why such and such sucks".

So thought I'd start a thread where people could talk about what we've seen to date in the showdown - what have been the shockers to you......what don't you get at all.....and looking forward, what are you most anxious about in matchups. Doesn't have to be confined to this...

I'll start:

I guess my biggest surprise so far is Knightley falling. I get that some people find her skinny and that's a turnoff. But she co-won the "mini-showdown" preceding this. I just don't get it.

Looking forward, I'm most concerned about Rosario Dawson. I don't get why people find her attractive. At all. OK I did like her in that one rooftop dancing scene in Clerks 2. But that's one scene where I thought "ok, maybe she's not bad". But it wasn't "OMG I now have perma-boner for her". Looking back at the nominations, her seed in the tournament is pretty much driven by Solly and Lucky having her so high on their ballots, supported by 2 people voting for her lower. She's got the winner of TAT / Beckinsale next which I'm guessing she's going to win (although I will be voting against Dawson but on the merits of liking either of the other two better). I guess at this point though, I'm making Dawson my "lobby to knock her out of the tournament" person a) because I don't find her attractive and b) out of fear that she's got some weird momentum behind her that could take her damn close to the finals.

I was feeling like Eco that "all my picks are getting knocked out" but then went back and looked at who I voted for and there's quite a few still in it. So solace there.

Anyhow...got a case you wanna make for or against? Surprise/delight you wanna express? Have at it.

[Batman]

I believe that, barring a miraculous comeback by Angelina or Marilyn, every one of my remaining picks is going this round.

I'm a little surprised how poorly my girls did, but not shocked. Most of them had a strike against them. Either they represented an unusual taste on my part (Birch) or the ones that were pretty undeniably hot are unpopular for irrelevant reasons (Britney, Jolie.)

Rosario will be the last one I'm rooting for. She wasn't on my ballot, but I strongly considered including her. If she gets past the next round (I don't see why not as I couldn't care less about Theissen or Beckinsale, but who knows?) I think she's going to run into a big brick wall with Jessica Biel.

I don't see the appeal of several of the women left in the contest, but particularly Hewitt. I assume she'll fall to Biel, and I won't need to wonder anymore, but then I would have assumed that Shakira would have kicked her ass too, and it's been the other way around.

I was very happy to see Knightley go, she had the unimpressive looks of Portman without Portman's biggest asset--giving the impression that she's funny and interesting and would be fun to hang out with.

Wow, me and Tex, we are teh opposite.

[DevSop]

Everyone knows my main girl and I'm just glad I made that matchup so close with Scarlet. I actually adore Scarlet so I hope she does well from here on. I was part of the anti-Knightley brigade but thats a recent thing as I still think she has her OMG moment, but she also has EAT SOMETHING bitch moments. Biel's going to do very well, I imagine and I won't be surprised if it's her and Scarlet in the finals.

I'm praying to god we've done enough to knock Jolie out with Carpenter. And that would bring my WB Chich briagde down to 3 I believe with Carpenter, Durance, and Dushku. Better than I imagined at this point.

[Lucky]

williamssl said:

Looking back at the nominations, her seed in the tournament is pretty much driven by Solly and Lucky having her so high on their ballots, supported by 2 people voting for her lower.

Your point is totally fair and I've been using that logic to explain a lot of losses I was surprised by. But I feel it should be pointed out that by making 4 ballots she was only below 10 ladies in that department. That's really how these brackets went. In the top 11 makes her 3 seed perfectly appropriate. So its really not that inflated by the high votes she got. Or if it is, really everyone's is. But I'll give you something strange.

8 Ballots - Knightley
7 - Beckinsale, Lily
6 - Berry, Biel, Cuthbert, Milano, Alba, Johanson, Jolie
4 - Amy Jo Johnson, Tiffani Amber Thiessen, McAdams, Dawson, Gugino

Those are you top 15 ballot makers. Despite taking the top slot Knightley's gone. AND she only got 8 votes in the losing matchup. So did she just have NO fans who didn't nominate her?

How about this? Lily's gone and only got 4 votes despite making 7 ballots. Romijn only made 2 ballots (both of which Lily was lower on or not on). So what happened to Lily's fanbase? Did those people just forget about Romijn and when seeing her decided she must win? Either way 3 people who nominated Lily didn't vote for her. And only 1 of them had Romijn higher on their ballot. So at least 2 people didn't show to vote for Lily after nominating her.

Beckinsale's on the fence right now and only has 6 votes after 7 noms. Of course that might be my fault since I have yet to vote and I nominated her. Jolie and Thiessen are on the fence. Berry, Johnson, McAdams, and Gugino are all gone.

That means only 9 of the top 15 nom getters are still standing and by Sunday it could be down to 6. And a couple of the women who did advance to this pint (Milano, Dawson) only did so barely.

Of course only 9 of the top 15 point scorers are still standing as well. And that too could be down to 6 by Sunday. Which is a kind of odd thing considering its not the same ladies (obviouslly there's some overlap).

[williamssl]

luckylopez said:

4 - Amy Jo Johnson, Tiffani Amber Thiessen, McAdams, Dawson, Gugino

The Amy Jo Johnson getting 4 noms is funny to me. I get, or at least I think I get, that Lucky likes her and would have nominated her no matter what. But I would bet that in at least 1, maybe 2 of those instances (Thai and Scotty) she was riding a recency wave in that she had been mentioned so much in the previous showdown that she was top of mind and thus made ballots. She still would have made the tourney w/o those 2 votes (both 25th place) as a 15 or 16 seed then, but the recency thing again I think clearly earned her 1, maybe 2 extra ballot spaces.

[Lucky]

Oh, I absolutely agree. And honestly, if this showdown had been done before the Kid's Show showdown and my whole "Pink Power Ranger" gimmick I probably would have completely forgotten her. I'd argue that all 4 of those noms are directly tied to that showdown.

But I think timing is playing a big role. I'm surprised that Thiessen has done as well as she has because she hasn't been relavent in so damn long. Maybe she's getting a little help from the prior Showdown as well but to the best of my memory noone championed her like I did Johnson in that one. And its a weird thing since the Thiessen from SBTB and the one I've been posting pictures of are completely different looking ladies (or a girl and a lady).

I think I could probably point to McAdams and Dawson as women getting some help from being relevant at the moment as opposed to a lot of the more constant beauties there. Lily and Knightley could maybe fall into that category too. On the other hand I can't remember the last thing Cuthbert did but she clearly left an impression on us.

[Batman]

luckylopez said:

On the other hand I can't remember the last thing Cuthbert did but she clearly left an impression on us.

Until you mentioned The Girl Next Door I had no idea who Cuthbert was. She just kept getting my vote 'cause she wasn't up against any of my faves, and she was clearly the hotter of the two in each of her matchups based just on the pictures you posted.

[DevSop]

She also may be the dumbest character in the history of television. Kim Bauer was kidnapped on at least 4 or 5 occassions, caught in a bear trap, and indirectly caused her bf at the time to lose his left hand.

But she's hot, so it's ok.

[Lucky]

Whenever I wonder why I've never watched an episode if 24 someone's always nice enough to tell me about a character who's been kidnapped 4 times, caught in a bear trap, and caused her boyfriend to lose a hand. All in the span of a few days. Then I remember.

Yeah, I honestly have no idea why I even know who Cuthbert is. Never watched 24. Its the Girl Next Door and that's it for me. But she's very hot.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

She was also in Old School if that helps. She was the one who banged Luke Wilson.

[williamssl]

devilsoprano said:

She also may be the dumbest character in the history of television. Kim Bauer was kidnapped on at least 4 or 5 occassions, caught in a bear trap, and indirectly caused her bf at the time to lose his left hand.

But she's hot, so it's ok.

I started reading this and got all mad, thinking "well, dammit...she's hot so who cares?" And then the last sentence summed it all up and aligned with my thinking.

So quoted for truth.

[Batman]

I've been looking over the brackets again, and I just want to say that Lucky was right and I was wrong. He said from the start that Scarlet had a weak bracket and a relatively easy path, and I was all "No way! Britney is HAWT and will put up a big fight in the third round!" Ha!

Now the only chicks Scarlet has left before the finals are Portman and either Hurley or Milano. I'd say she's a lock.

The other side looks up in the air to me. I wouldn't be surprised by Cuthbert, Alba, or Biel. I love Dawson, but she clearly lacks the depth of support to get much farther.

[Loki]

Reseed come the next round?