She's young and beautiful and has been in a lot of movies, but not many of them are very good. Certainly, they're not box office winners. All of which has BW's Ron Grover wondering whether she's become the new Ben Affleck. That is, a star who has no trouble finding work, but just not on the right film. Her latest role is in the box office bomb "The Black Dahlia." Before that was Woody Allen's "Scoop" and last year's "The Island."

Hollywood badly wants to believe that Johansson has what it takes to bring both young women and warm-blooded guys to the theater. And Tinseltown needs her—or what it thinks she can offer. Box-office attendance, which was up briefly this summer compared to last summer, now seems back in its three-year-old funk. To directors, Scarlett Johansson represents a younger, cheaper alternative to aging stars such as Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock, says a top Hollywood publicist. "They figure she gets her name on magazine covers and maybe some of that magic will rub off on their films," he says. "Then they get the credit for putting her in the film that put her over the top and made her a bankable star."

At least she's keeping visible in other ways, such as a spokeswoman for L'Oreal. She's also just signed a deal to help design workout clothes for Reebok.