Paltrow as Pepper Potts?

You've got to be kidding me:

ACADEMY-AWARD® WINNER GWYNETH PALTROW SIGNS ON TO MARVEL STUDIOS' IRON MAN

Jon Favreau obviously never saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. One peek at that disastrous Paltrow performance, and she'd never get another comic book role again. She seriously mailed in that performance, somehow managing to bore the audience even in the midst of some amazing visual effects and action sequences, and proved that she needs to stick to arthouse films and indy fare.

Favreau's prior casting choices have been so clever that this one just boggles my mind.

I should add, by the way, that Paltrow's Academy Award for Shakespeare in Love was one of the least-deserved in Oscar history. She beat out Cate Blanchett's performance in Elizabeth, for Pete's sake. Did the voters even watch both films? I won't bash Gwyneth as an actress, because I actually like quite a few of her films (Se7en, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Royal Tenenbaums). Heck, I even liked Shakespeare in Love. I just don't think her role was Oscar-worthy, and it definitely was no Elizabeth.