People said her world would change. Now, she would be taken seriously. Now she was ready for a great run of homely, overweight women of about 30 who have movies made of their lives. I’m kidding – we don’t do films like that. Charlize hurried back into shape. She was Britt Ekland (and very good, too) in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. She did Head in the Clouds (which I challenge you to remember), and she found an intriguing role – playing a striking worker in North Country, a film about the working class, labour disputes and women with ideals. She was nominated this year for another Oscar but no one went to see the film.

She then did the awful Aeon Flux. She appeared on television as “Rita” in a few episodes of Arrested Development. And there’s going to be a film called The Brazilian Job in which she plays the girl from The Italian Job. In other words, Theron has done nothing done since Monster to help her in mapping out a future. The world has not learned how to want Charlize Theron looking like hell. It likes her gorgeous, and yet it can see that Scarlett Johansson is younger (and always will be).

Somehow or other, Theron has to do something similar to Nicole Kidman’s achievement after the latter’s marriage to Tom Cruise ended. She has to seize parts that say, I chose these, I found them, I told them I could do it, and look, it works. What that means is that she has to go find the parts, know how to secure them and make her will felt strongly enough that they turn out unusual and good films. That so many actresses do ordinary work is testament to how tough that challenge is. Most of them do what they can get and spin it out until 40, if they’re lucky.

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