In his view, it was because of that nasty struggle that the Grimm tales so often featured a wicked stepmother.

NEWYORKER: Once Upon a Time

"I suppose it was more a wicked stepmother story, " she says.

BBC: Sophie Thompson on Clybourne Park's squirm factor

Happily, the leads carry the day: James Marsden as a prince of grinning vanity, Susan Sarandon as the wicked stepmother (although the climax turns her into something else, again unnecessarily), and, above all, Amy Adams, who, in the role of a would-be princess, finds true momentum, not just sappiness, in the farce of innocence.

NEWYORKER: Enchanted

To get ahead in the workplace, for a wicked-stepmother type she doesn't remotely admire, she abandons her friends, blows off a date with her father, treats her boyfriend terribly, double-crosses a co-worker and we're supposed to think she's an adorable sweetheart because she has a nice smile.

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