I thought that was crazy. There have been several female actresses in films that I've attended just because they were the lead. My favorite is Julia Roberts. Even if Willie Waffle gave one of her movies a bad review I would still go see it, just to prove to myself that Willie's not always right. My favorite male lead right now would have to be Viggo Mortensen. Eastern Promises was not something I would normally watch, but I was compelled to see his character.

For a women, I would have to say Meryl Streep.  I believe she's been dubbed the 'worlds greatest living actress' and to me, she lives up to that hype.  The depth of her performances equals the diversity of characters she's played.  I have great respect for her talent and feel she increases the credibility factor on any movie set.

For men, that's more difficult.  I guess I would have to say Will Smith or Kevin Kline.  They both seem to choose scripts with substance and that are well written; it appears they wants to make movies that matter (while yes, also doing a great job entertaining too).  Both men are brilliant talents and I respect their craft. 

This question is getting far more difficult as Hollywood continues to choose casting 'big names' to draw dollars, rather than make memorable films with great writing.  I think audiences are tired of seeing the same 8-10 actors recycled over & over again.  Let's freshen it up!  Adjust the formula to include thought provoking, well written, and entertaining stories - and not just sell out.  We're smarter than!

Holly Hunter, Colin Firth, Meryl Streep, Ciarin Hinds (yummerific Irish actor--see Persuasion), Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, George Clooney, Javier Bardem...and a host of unknown-to-most-Americans British actors.

You know who will get me to a movie every time?  John Kusak!  I have loved every one of his movies--Say Anything ROCKED, High Fidelity was great, Serendipity was awful but great because he was in it...Even Martian Child, which went to dvd sickeningly fast, got me to cry.  I think I might be crushin' on this guy and I've just been denying it since '89.  Hmm.

Anne Hathaway.  That's it.  I don't have a list or anything, I generally don't see a movie for the actors.  I usually only watch a movie if the story sounds interesting.  BUT, I'll see anything with Anne Hathaway in it.  She's just ... gorgeous.  My most recent Ex looks EXACTLY like her, but I didn't realize it until we were already over.  Have you ever seen the movie Havoc?  I was very disappointed to see Anne in THAT movie.  It actually made me kinda sick when I found out she was in a movie like that.