Who's Who in The Black Dahlia

Casting Calls

Among the film's cast are Scarlett Johansson as "Kay Lake," narrator Lee Blanchard's wife, who also attracts Bucky. Johansson is the pretty blonde starlet who resembled Vermeer's "girl with a pearl earring" and landed parts in two recent Woody Allen films, Scoop and Match Point, not to mention her portrayal of a bored philosophy student wandering around in Tokyo, in Lost in Translation. For a movie newsletter online, Johansson said of Dahlia, "I think the film is an absolutely true film noir in every sense of the word, as retro as the word might be. Hopefully, it'll be interesting to see how audiences respond to not just a version of a film noir piece, but an actual film noir piece."

Scarlett Johansson

Although in the film she's primarily involved with Lee Blanchard, played by Aaron Eckhart, in real life she may prefer the other half of the team. It seems that she has taken up with Josh Hartnett, who plays Bucky Bleichert. An article on showbiz.sky.com noted that they may have purchased a $3.1 million residence in New York's TriBeCa. Despite the denials of Hartnett's agent, the article quotes real estate insiders who insist that it's not only true but they're also sound-proofing the master suite. It should be interesting to see how "Bucky" responds to "Kay" in the film, since despite her status that his partner's wife, he develops an attraction to her as well.

Josh Hartnett

Maggie Gyllenhaal, known for some edgy film portrayals, turned down the role of Elizabeth Short, so Mia Kirshner scooped it up. She's coming into her own, thanks to her performances in Fox Network's "24," and films such as The Iris Effect and Crow: City of Angels. By some reports, over the last two years, Kirshner has played more bisexual characters on film and television than any other Hollywood actress. The Canadian-born 31-year-old said in the August 2006 issue of Vogue that she felt compelled to "humanize" Short. "Despite what people think, I think she was actually very sweet and maybe too trusting." She also found Short to be "exotic" and "dark," but did not want to assume too much.

Aaron Eckhart and Mia Kirshner

In the role of Leland Blanchard, who teams up with Bleichert, is Aaron Eckhart, lately of Thank You for Smoking, a satire on the tobacco industry, who told a reporter at the IFC Independent Spirit Awards that it was "a lot of fun" working on a noir film with De Palma, who has a long history with such material.

Hilary Swank

Also a key player in the cast is two-time Oscar-winner Hilary Swank comes in as Madeleine Linscott, a seductress who becomes another of Bucky's love interests. She turns out to have a questionable association with the victim but her politically well-connected family provides her some protection from the investigation. Among her credits are Boys Don't Cry, The Gift and Million Dollar Baby.

The film, from Universal Pictures, is set to premiere on September 15.