Dear Halle Berry:

I recently saw your new movie, Perfect Stranger, and, frankly I'm a little concerned.

I realize that you probably didn't set out to make a stinker, but, oh man, that thing you did with Bruce Willis turned out to be one dumb thriller.

But my reason for writing to you is not to dis your work, far from it. You're a smart, talented, beautiful woman with an impeccable fashion sense that has made you a fixture on best-dressed lists everywhere.

It's just that, when it comes to your film choices in the aftermath of your big Academy Awards night triumph, there's a legitimate fear that you could very well be the next victim of the dreaded Oscar curse.

Let's face it, after deservedly taking home a Best Actress Oscar in 2002 for your raw, emotionally brittle performance in Monster's Ball, your subsequent movie roles wouldn't exactly earn a big seal of approval in the career maintenance department.I mean, who wouldn't jump at the chance to play a Bond Girl (in Die Another Day) or a climate-altering mutant (in those X-Men movies)?

But then there was also the truly horrific Gothika and that cat-astrophe known as Catwoman, both, incidentally, directed by French guys -- in the latter case, the one-named Pitof.

Granted you handled those Catwoman slings and arrows like the consummate pro that you are. When the performance earned you a Worst Actress Razzie Award, you actually showed up in person to receive that dubious honour, stating in your acceptance speech, "Thank you and I hope to God I never see you guys again."

I'm sure you meant it in all sincerity, and maybe I'm just being overly cautious here, but, at the risk of sounding off false alarm bells, I have just three words:

Cuba. Gooding. Jr.

Since winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his irrepressible turn as a charismatic football player in Jerry Maguire, the "show me the money" actor has made a series of career fumbles with names like Snow Dogs, Boat Trip and Rat Race.

And one suspects his upcoming Daddy Day Camp isn't going to put any fresh awards invitations in his mailbox, either.

Of course, he's just one example. The DVD-deep discount bins are littered with post-Oscar lapses in judgment.

There's Mira Sorvino, who took her 1996 Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite and parlayed it into piffle like WiseGirls and At First Sight.

And Joe Pesci (1991 Academy Award winner for GoodFellas), who demonstrated his Oscar clout by landing roles in Jimmy Hollywood and Gone Fishin'.

Let's not forget Marcia Gay Harden (2001 Academy Award winner for Pollock), who has since turned up in such works of art as Welcome to Mooseport and Bad News Bears.

Ms. Berry, this career can be saved.

Look at Marisa Tomei, who won an Oscar way back in 1993 for My Cousin Vinny, only to follow up with the thoroughly forgettable Only You and The Watcher.

Well, she came back big time in 2001 with In the Bedroom, earning an Oscar nomination in the process. Mind you, she popped up this year in Wild Hogs, but the point is, it's not too late.

You've demonstrated shrewd movie sense in the past by turning down the J.Lo part in that crazy little thing called Gigli, and based on what you have lined up, you may be well on the road to recovery.

Definitely looking more like it is with Things We Lost in the Fire, the movie you just completed with Benicio Del Toro and David Duchovny, directed by Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier, whose After the Wedding was a Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee this year.

And then you're planning to play an attorney in a crime drama that will reunite you with your Monster's Ball co-star Billy Bob Thornton.

But just to be on the safe side, better steer clear of those single-named French directors.

Yours Sincerely,

Hopeful in Hollywood