rm | jolie laide

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/style/tmagazine/t_b_2122_talk_jolie_laide_.html

I'm not transgressive, not strident. I'm just not blonde and have a nose. It's not that interesting.

I am not transgressive. Not like that. I mean, how ca you be transgressive for just looking the way you look?

"In France," people in this business tell me, "you are beautiful. Here...." Yes, well saying it, I suppose, might lead to contamination. All biases, in the end, are about dirt, disease and the threat of the dissolution of our more pure selves.

I suspect these industry people who trail off dumbly like deer half in the road just can't pronounce jolie laide.

I should be thrilled, with the blessings of marketing. However Franch (read, of course, un-American these days) they may be.