(Sorry for the late publication.  We're on holiday time.)

It's Monday, December 22, and we want to say "Happy Hanukkah" to our friends!

And for today's This Makes Me Crazy segment, our topic: trying WAY too hard to be sexy.  Oh dear, always a bad idea.

Why am I thinking about this?  Well, over the weekend I was watching a movie - cute story, good actors - but I kept finding myself annoyed.  Annoyed, specifically, with the leading lady.

Now this woman is one of Hollywood's finest young actresses.  She's good - as in yes, she's won all the major awards good.  And I've enjoyed her tremendously in other movies.  But in this - yikes! - she was woefully miscast.

The character was a screwed-up, wreck of a woman; yet, all three fabulous guys in the movie were supposed to fall for her, big-time, in  the blink of an eye.  Hm...   a tad far fetched.  But for this to work even in the movies, the woman better be: 1) so utterly, impossibly gorgeous (think Grace Kelly) that of course, the men are going to fall, or 2) she radiates such warmth, sexiness and charisma (think Meg Ryan at her When Harry Met Sally best) that it's a given, the guy will be smitten.  In fact, the women are smitten too and are rooting for her and the guy to get together.

But what happens when the leading lady isn't impossibly gorgeous or radiant? 

Well, in this case, they put her in skirts up to her ta-ta; and in dresses and blouses with half her breasts hanging out.  Sexy?  Hardly.  She looked ridiculous - and slutty .  Talk about trying too hard!  Ugh, it was painful to watch.

And let's go back to Meg Ryan.  She was never dressed in anything remotely sexy in all those romantic movies.  If anything, they put her in Annie Hall clothes that did zip to accentuate her figure.  And yet, she was adorable and charming,  with the girl next door sexiness that audiences loved.

But why am I talking about a movie, and a fictional character?  Because we all see this in real life.  Women trying too hard, to be something they're not.  And the result: painful for everyone watching.  Breasts falling out of a dress doesn't make a woman look sexy - it makes her look pathetic.  Skirts so short that you can see...  well, remember poor Britney?  There was absolutely NOTHING sexy about that.

And this is the time of year when a few poor souls show way too much skin.  There's a time and place for everything: lots of skin - perfectly OK on a beach at the Cote d'Azur.  Not OK at the restaurant on Christmas Eve, or the family dinner, or the holiday concert, or the...