10 Terrible Characters In Otherwise Awesome Movies

8. Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz) - Gangs of New York

Wouldn't you know it, here comes another gratuitous love interest role assigned to a high profile, good looking actress for no other readily apparent reason than to sell more tickets. Martin Scorcese's period epic Gangs of New York has much to recommend it, not least a powerhouse turn from Daniel Day-Lewis at his most villainous, and Leonardo DiCaprio at his scrappiest. But Cameron Diaz's turn as the pickpocket Jenny is a real sore thumb.

It's not just that the actress herself is miscast (Diaz really doesn't fit in a period drama), but the character itself serves little to no narrative function. Okay, so she heightens the rivalry between Day-Lewis's Bill the Butcher and DiCaprio's Amsterdam Vallon, but it's not as if Amsterdam needs any more reason to hate Bill; he did see the man murder his father when he was a child, after all.

The knife-throwing scene with Bill might prove memorable, but the half-baked love story proves nothing more than a fleeting diversion from the main story, and a waste of time for all concerned.