I wonder how Mila Kunis will fly with the fanbase of 50 Shades Of Grey if she indeed lands the lead role of Anastasia Steele (Steele? Get it?) in the adaptation of E.L. James’ 9th-grade prose-filled erotica novel.

The rumors come via Examiner, who also have Matt Bomer (White Collar, Magic Mike) as the front-runner for the male lead.

Honestly, this is a fanbase that is going to be at least a little hostile to any actress being cast, as every individual tasteless fan would just prefer she (or he) be cast against whatever particular aloof actor happens to fit best into their fantasies. There’s not a lot of rational taste or realistic perspective running through the minds of this audience, which have embraced a shit novel because it’s popular, or because they’ve never bothered to pick up one of the tens of thousands of novels that have, for decades, tackled the exact same subject matter- most without the casually misogynist subtext. Most of them don’t even have the excuse of being the naive tweens that have driven the Twilight franchise.

Regardless, if Kunis cares to sell her soul to this particular devil, it will surely be a lucrative deal. She need only look to Kristen Stewart if she wants to get an idea what her life will be like for the next six years or so though. That can’t be too attractive, I would think.

There have apparently been other rumors of Emma Watson or even Kristen Stewart herself taking on the role, which are clearly nonsense. Kunis is just the right profile for this project I would think, and has enough of a male fanbase that the producers would like the idea of drawing in all those boyfriends. The photo to the right is from her Sexiest Woman Alive 2012 photoshoot with Esquire that just hit and either sparked these rumors in the first place, or sealed the deal for her if they’re legit.