In the latest issue of Vanity Fair, there's a photograph of Jennifer Lawrence naked except for a boa constrictor (see the photo here). Going on body language alone, it's hard to tell who's having a worse time of it, the woman or the snake, but it's the woman I feel more sorry for.
The boa, draped along J-Law's bare flank and shoulder has its tongue stuck out. This is how snakes find their way around; clearly it is looking for the door. As for poor Jennifer, a stuck-out tongue would be a vast improvement on the dead-eyed pout she's giving the camera.
It's always embarrassing when you see a good actor do a bad job, and this gig - playing a sexy-naked-woman-meets-serpent, a la Richard Avedon's famous portrait of Nastassja Kinski - is the most unconvincing I've ever seen Lawrence in a role.
Partly, at least, it's about timing. Jennifer Lawrence had her private emails hacked last year and had to deal with millions of people being able to look at naked photos of her on their phones. She rightly castigated all of us who looked at her naked body without her permission. (Yes I was one of those people. My reaction was the same as everyone else; "I'm a bad person for doing this" and "Oh, great boobs".)
By posing for a Patrick Demarchelier shoot in Vanity Fair with a giant reptile, Lawrence is clearly exercising her right to display her naked body on her own terms. Good on her. The thing is though, this shoot was done in July, before the private stuff was leaked, so you have to ask: cui bono?
