soul mates

When the NYLON office made a pilgrimage to see the young actress Nina Arianda play a spitfire goddess in Venus in Fur on Broadway, we were dumbstruck. The New York actress was a blazing presence onstage, at once magical and earthy, terrifying and endearingly goofy. She wasn't afraid to be sexy, she wasn't afraid to be ugly, she wasn't even afraid to be calm and pretty - which she was, at least when she caught her breath. Arianda won a Tony Award for her performance this year, and also a lot of attention: She scored a small part in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, a profile in Vogue, and now apparently, she's gotten the role of Janis Joplin in an upcoming biopic of the '70s soul singer.

We've never heard Arianda sing, but her fearless performance onstage makes us think the birdlike NYU graduate can do pretty much anything she wants. And with Sean Durkin directing - he of Martha Marcy May Marlene fame - it could be a riveting show. Our only other pick: Broadway babe Dana Fuchs, who played a Joplin-like figure in Julie Taymor's Beatles-inspired movie Across the Universe. Anyone else we missed?