In 1994, Rufus Sewell burst into the consciousness of the PBS mini-series - and art-house costume drama-watching public, with his sizzling performance as the dark, intense Will Ladislaw in Middlemarch. While he wasn't especially attractive when compared to other Hollywood actors - what with his round face and bug-eyes - he was pretty hot compared to other Britons and soon found himself getting cast as the young male object of desire in such period pieces as Cold Comfort Farm, Carrington, Hamlet, and Dangerous Beauty. When casting directors wanted a young British guy to have sex with the leading lady and then cruelly leave her for some reason or another, Rufus Sewell got the call.

Try to imagine being Rufus Sewell in December 1998, which saw the ascension of Joseph Fiennes on the strength of not one but two movies in which he had sex with the leading lady and then left her: Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth. Not only was Fiennes co-opting Sewell's action, but he was much, much better-looking. And he spent the entirety of both movies brooding -- brooding behind columns, brooding in his lady's bedchamber, brooding backstage, brooding in the picturesque Elizabethan street. In fact, the only times he isn't brooding are when he's having sex. So where does this leave Rufus Sewell? Should he be talking to Kiefer Sutherland about the possibility of assembling Dark City 2? Not at all! He manages to get himself in a Joseph Fiennes movie - entitled The Very Thought of You - in the hopes that seeing them side by side, the American public will determine that they are two different actors, and that they each have unique appeal.

Will this gambit work for Sewell? Not without extensive plastic surgery.

Advantage: Joseph Fiennes. He's still better-looking.