WinonaRyder

Just this past week, HBO announced the addition of Gretchen Mol to the cast of its upcoming series 'Boardwalk Empire,' starring Steve Buscemi as Atlantic City gangster Nucky Thompson. With a string of respectable supporting roles, Mol's made a career out of not-quite making it, starting with her famous 1998 'Vanity Fair' cover that asked the entirely premature question: "Is Gretchen Mol Hollywood's New It Girl?"

But though Mol didn't exactly fade into obscurity (she earned kudos for her eye-opening turn in the indie 'The Notorious Bettie Page' and co-starred in ABC's short-lived 'Life on Mars'), neither did she become the huge success the industry predicted she would be. What happened? Was it luck, timing, bad choices or simply a case of too much hype? Whatever that case, Mol's casting got us thinking about other "Almost It" girls that Hollywood left behind about as quickly as it tried to make them mega-stars.

Want to avoid going straight to cable? Go straight to network. Winona Ryder's movie career has been up and down (high: 'Star Trek'; low: 'The Informers'), so the actress has signed with CBS's Hallmark Hall of Fame franchise.

Variety reports she'll star in an Emmy-friendly tale of riches to rags to redemption called "When Love is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story." Ryder will play the wife of "Bill W." -- the legendary co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (played by Barry Pepper). Mrs. Wilson was also a formidable figure in the annals of recovery, having founded Al-Anon in the 1950s.

Maybe it's because I was a teenager when it came out, but Heathers still stands as one of those few movies that I really remember and connected with. I'm kind of on the fence with this news that Fox and Sony are developing Heathers for television, though.

In the film Winona Ryder's character Veronica goes from being a "Heather," the popular clique in the school, to systematically murdering them and making their deaths look like suicides. Suddenly, suicide becomes the "in" thing. And all of this because she was tricked into doing so by the new "bad boy" in town.

Ultimately standing up to him, Veronica does the right thing in the theatrical ending, but there's lots of death, suicide attempts and darkness along the way. I'm not sure how well that translates to TV, though Buffy the Vampire Slayer had lots of death and darkness in a high school and it did okay. There's a way to do a very serious story about the emotional turmoil and cruelty of high school, but it's a tightrope that has to be walked very carefully.