Always asking questions

Last night's Boston Legal, along with its usual witty banter and eloquent closing arguments, certainly raised some interesting questions. One of the featured cases in the episode was about an 18-year-old girl who is raped and becomes pregnant as a result. She now wants to sue the Catholic hospital where she was treated because they denied her access to "the morning after pill" until it was too late.

I thought the show did it's usual, expected good job of dramatizing such an issue without quite reducing conservatives to straw men. I also liked the story about Alan Shore (James Spader) bonding with a little girl who is unable to smile due to nerve damage following an accident. Neat little dig at Tom DeLay in that segment, too.

But I have to admit the most long-lasting question it left me with was...

...who is that amazingly cute girl they have playing the rape victim? The answer? Her name is Kelly Smith, she's a 26-year-old actress from Florida who has done a couple of movies and several episodes of various TV series. Including, perhaps unfortunately, one of the "Buffy" episodes with the worst reputation among fans, "Smashed."

Let me explain what I mean by amazingly cute before you all start thinking I'm just being a pig again. Or, you can see what I mean by her IMDb Publicity Photos here and here. K-thump, k-thump.

From a man's point of view (or at least this man), they couldn't have cast anyone better if they wanted to get an audience immidiately on a character's side. Not that I'm saying it would be that hard to work up sympathy for a character in such a position no matter who played her...

Shit, I have a feeling that by trying to explain myself I'm just digging in deeper. It's just that she activated all my paternalistic, somebody hurt you, baby? Let me know who it is, and I'll kill them! instincts (yes, I've got 'em, I can't help it).

It was also a really, quietly touching performance, I want to be sure to add. I was genuinely impressed. And as almost always when I see a young woman with talent, immidiately started thinking which of my characters I'd like to see her portray.

But I'm sorry (though only kinda), my most overwhelming response was...who is that amazingly cute girl?