Do Starlets Need Fashion to Succeed?

We've always thought well of Amanda Bynes, especially after her teen hits What a Girl Wants and She's The Man. Anyone who can dress up in drag and get Colin Firth to sing the BeeGees is obviously awesome.

But lately we haven't been loving the actress, because of her coldly calculated moves on the red carpet. It's as if her publicist and manager said, "Okay darling, if you want more parts, you'll have to get sexy," and boom. Plunging dresses. Too much makeup. White-blonde streaks.

And of course the piece de resistance - an eponymous clothing line, thanks to Steve + Barry's.

The whole thing seems so forced that it bums us out - Amanda's so talented and sweet. Does she really need fashion to keep her career?

Well, maybe.

With so many starlets cramming for parts, studios want girls who are constantly "out there," ensuring bigger box office appeal. When Scarlett poses for Louis Vuitton, she's reminding every Vogue reader to see her movie. When Sienna has a Twenty8Twelve party, she's also smiling for her latest movie. And Kate Bosworth's billboards for Tod's and Coach and Revlon enforce her presence onscreen.

In fact, when we scoured our minds for really good starlets without a solid fashion job, we only found two:

Natalie Portman, who seems weirdly resistant to makeup commercials and designer partnerships... and Anne Hathaway, who's managed to avoid signing herself to one fashion house.

Though we have heard rumblings of a Valentino deal...