Tikkabik

I admire and respect Nicole Kidman's body of work but I agree with Lauren Bacall that calling Kidman "a legend" is a misappropriation of the term.

Even Bacall's career has been pretty undistinguished. She made a splash with To Have and Have Not -- "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You put your lips together and blow." One of the great lines of 20th century cinema, thanks to her delivery. Bacall made a few memorable films with Bogie before he died, but she's certainly no Kate Hepburn.

Hepburn, now THERE'S a legend.

It's no slight against Kidman, either -- she's enormously talented, beautiful and clearly picks and chooses roles fairly carefully (though slip-ups like that remake of "The Stepford Wives" are bound to happen too). It's just that popular culture has evolved into something that's incredibly attention deficit, where anyone who's able to hold on to fame longer than Warhol's requisite 15 minutes instantly gains the undeserved status of cultural icon.

The same thing has been going on in R&B and pop music for a while, where any singer who can hold a note for longer than a second or two, or one who can somehow unnecessarily inject five or six scales in the middle of a song is instantly declared a "diva." I'm sure it makes Maria Callas spin in her grave.