6. Len Wiseman
When Len Wiseman directed Kate Beckinsale in the mediocre 2003 sci-fi actioner
Underworld, sparks apparently flew, because Wiseman ended his marriage, and Beckinsale ditched the father of her child, Michael Sheen. The two married the next year, and since, Wiseman has directed his wife in two equally naff Underworld sequels (the second,
Underworld Evolution and the fourth,
Underworld...um...
Awakening), though to their credit, they both bowed out for the third film,
Rise of the Lycans because, you know, they have standards and everything. Wiseman's next film,
Live Free or Die Hard, was curiously free of Beckinsale, which is surprising, given that one might have expected him to cast her in the role that eventually went to Maggie Q, as a kick-ass femme. We'll assume scheduling conflicts kept her away rather than Wiseman's fear that lead Bruce Willis might have snatched her up; after all, Wiseman has a strange penchant for filming intimate love scenes with his wife and other beefy leading men, with Scott Speedman in the second Underworld, and Colin Farrell in
Total Recall. We're not going to hold it against Len too much; sure, Beckinsale fits the role of Underworld like a glove, and if you're going to make shitty sequels, you may as well at least have a consistent lead throughout. Plus, who wouldn't want to boost their ego by parading their hot wife around in some skin-tight PVC while making a giant paycheck at the same time? The real eyebrow-raiser, then, is Total Recall, because it's the real instance that reeks of Beckinsale wearing the pants, simply because she seems so miscast. Essentially playing the same character that Sharon Stone did in the original film, Beckinsale lacks the screen presence for a twisted femme fatale, and would probably have been more convincing as the heroine, a role that eventually went to the equally miscast Jessica Biel.