Those little white lies that hurt us all.

"Gossip" is a very cruel and often emotionless drama. Starring a very colorful twenty-something crowd we are taken into the world of university, where three roommates (James Marsden, Lena Headey, Norman Reedus) all take a class talking about the value and destruction that can be wielded by the simple juicy bit of gossip. As an experiment in the cultures, the threesome decides to spin a little yarn and track how intense the aftermath can be. Their guinea pigs are a beauty queen who won't have sex with her man and her man who claims he actually did have sex. Obviously this explodes into a rape investigation and threesome is caught wondering: who is telling the truth, what is that person hiding and what exactly did happen.

"Gossip" is the type of film that isn't juicy or even amounts to anything really interesting. What we do end up with is a lot of potential in a cast. Such stand-outs or gems in this film are three of the female leads who include Lena Headey, Marisa Coughlan, and Kate Hudson. These three actresses need better parts in far better films.

Lots of these twenty-something actors are solid and wonderful but they are in dire need of an uninfluenced "Kevin Williamson" project. The only thing missing from this Williamson-type film was the homosexual male struggling with his sexuality. It all boils down that we need better scripts and subjects written for this audience.

The male quotient of this film was domineered by the overly exhausting villain played viciously by James Marsden. Marsden is another actor who has never been given a chance at a better role. Maybe he will fair better in this summer blockbuster "The X-Men" where he plays the role of Scott Summers aka Cyclops.

Gossip's sex scenes are short and anti-climatic and even bridge on torturous. Where is the passion and exhilaration often associated with the tantalizing of attractive leads? There is more steam in daytime. The analysis above does beg the questions, did anyone really love or care for another and were these people really shocked that a sex crime was actually committed? None of the characters in the whole entire film really lent any emotional connection to their sex lives or to the people they were supposed to be involved with. Basically arriving at an emotionless cesspool. Without this emotional connection I found this film vacuous.

(1.5 of 5) So Says the Soothsayer.