‘Fifty Shades of Grey’. Depending on your viewpoint either a hot page-turner that has opened the eyes of millions of previously repressed women – or a plotless, smutty novel that has set feminism back 50 years!
Unlike the title of E L James‘ unexpected best-seller, there appear to be no grey areas in opinions of the book. I haven’t read it and, neither to my knowledge has my wife, though she probably wouldn’t let on if she had. Jenny Colgan, in The Guardian, called it ‘ Jolly, eminently readable and as sweet and safe as BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism) erotica can be without contravening the trade descriptions act.’ But it’s been described elsewhere as ‘S&M For Dummies’ and, by Jim Moret of the Huffington Post, as ‘Mommy Porn’ and now, we discover, they are going to turn it into a movie.
The novel may have been the book women wanted to read but I’d fathom a guess that a few of the male species will want to see what all the fuss has been about when the no-holds-barred love affair between Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele makes it to the big screen. There has been particular interest in which actress will be cast in the role of Anastasia with William Hill reporting interest in former Disney darling Miley Cyrus completing her transformation from everyone’s favourite teenager next door to sex goddess. She’s been quoted at 20/1 to finally lay to rest her unblemished image. Paddy Power will lay you 7/2 that Cyrus does a centrefold shoot for US Playboy before the end of 2014 but back to the matter in hand.
Alexis Bledel, of TV’s ‘Mad Men’ and soon to star in the US adaptation of ‘Gavin And Stacey’, is the 2/1 favourite with William Hill who have London-born Emilia Clarke at 5/1. There will be a few ‘Game Of Thrones’ fans already having fantasies about Daenerys Targaryen and they certainly don’t need further encouragement! The same could be said about Emma Watson (8/1 with Ladbrokes), though isn’t a little perverse to think of Harry Potter‘s ‘Hermione’ in a slapbuster! There’s been a lot less interest in the male lead but Ryan Gosling remains a best 3/1 to take the role of the domineering Christian Grey.
