If things had gone a bit differently, she might well have been as huge a superstar as such contemporaries as Audrey Hepburn or Natalie Wood — she certainly had the talent and screen presence to do so. However, as I’m reminded by her New York Times obituary, an ugly situation involving a sexual proposition the married actress got from Howard Hughes may have prevented Jean Simmons from reaching the super-stardom she deserved as much as anyone. The vindictive aviation and filmmaking magnate may have deliberately put her in films he thought were inferior and refused to allow his film studio to lend her out for the lead in “Roman Holiday,” the role that deservedly made Audrey Hepburn a more or less instant star.

Nevertheless, Ms. Simmons, who sadly passed on yesterday at age 80 from lung cancer, outlasted her Hughes contract and gave witty and altogether enchanting performances in numerous and diverse films, ranging from break-out teenage performances as the young Estella in David Lean’s still-definitive 1946 version of “Great Expectations” (she’d eventually play Mrs. Havisham in a TV production) and as Ophelia in Laurence Olivier’s 1948 “Hamlet.” As a puckishly beautiful adult actress who pretty much owned the word “luminous,” she had no problem quietly stealing scenes on an epic scale from the likes of Kirk Douglas in “Spartacus,” Burt Lancaster in “Elmer Gantry,” Gregory Peck in William Wyler’s underrated “The Big Country,” and, most famously these days, Marlon Brando in her only musical appearance, “Guys and Dolls.” Brando was easy to outshine musically though she was also easily his acting equal or superior, but here she shows she would have had to chops to almost hold her own musically with with costar Frank Sinatra, if only the script had called for it. What she lacks in polish, she more than makes up for in sheer commitment.

An admitted survivor of alcoholism, Simmons was a class act on every level who famously complimented Hepburn on her great “Roman Holiday” performance, as painful as it must have been to watch and even though it’s not clear that she wouldn’t have been just as good in the role. She kept working through most of her life — her last significant role was her voice work in the English-language version of “Howl’s Moving Castle” — and her loss to the world of entertainment is not a small one. She was often low-key, but she was never dull.

There’s more from David Hudson, Edward Copeland, Jose at the Film Experience, and Glenn Kenny. The L.A. Times also has an excellent and very detailed obituary.

Estella lost 45 pounds, or 18.6%; David, though he looked about the same as when the season started, lost 46 pounds or 11.7%; and Nicole lost a whopping 87 pounds, or 32.34%, and was the clear winner. Not only that, Nicole has the second highest percentage of weight loss in the house now, second only to the mighty Tara. Not surprisingly, this made everyone nervous.

Then Tara was shown talking to Jillian, her trainer, telling her about the demons she faces and is afraid of when she goes home, the demons that allowed her to balloon to almost 300 pounds. But Jillian calmed her down and pointed out that Tara should be proud she recognizes the demonds and that she has confidence in Tara. Then, Ron was shown walking around the campus and experienced chest pains. He was sent to the hospital, where Dr. H took care of Ron and recommended a scope procedure to see why he was bleeding internally. Turns out it was a side effect from his gastric bypass surgery, and that Ron is fine. Whew.

Then for the main challenge, the host was Michelle, last season’s winner. The challenge was to balance on 40 ropes suspended above a pool. The ropes would be cut one by one, leaving them to balance as best they could. The winner would have a one-pound advantage at the weigh in. Amazingly, Tara did not win…in fact, she dropped in the pool with three or four of the others still competing. Mrs. Mike doesn’t agree, but I think Tara took a dive, because she didn’t want anymore bad blood between her and the field. Then it came down to Sione and Kristin, and Sione was staring Kristin down because he wanted to win so badly, and he did.

Then, after the last chance workout, Allison was back for the weigh in, just days after giving birth! Nicole weighed in first, and GAINED 5 pounds. Bob had mentioned that Nicole shouldn’t let the stress of being back at the ranch get to her, but it clearly did and contributed to the weight gain. So no more immunity and the likelihood that Nicole would be going back home already. Kristin lost 4 pounds, Laura gained a pound, Tara lost 6 to put her over 100 pounds of weight loss (and I actually am starting to like Tara again, just a little), Helen lost 6, Sione lost 6 but 7 with the pound advantage, Filipe lost 4, and Mike 11. Then it was Ron’s turn, and he expected to gain weight because the hospital pumped him with salt water to bring his energy back up. Ron gained 3 pounds, which wasn’t all that bad, but that put him below Laura and below the yellow line along with Nicole.

Mrs. Mike pointed out that Filipe and Sione and Kristin were shown discussing the fact that Ron was keeping his son Mikey there and that Mikey had extra “protection” that way. Interesting, but true. So clearly those three would vote to send Ron home, right? Well, it was a tough vote. Because everyone had told Nicole they were happy she was back because she challenged them all, but it wasn’t exactly fair to vote Ron off after he just spent the week in a hospital. I think they should have given him a free pass this week, but this is show biz.

Anyway, Mikey, Laura and Tara all voted for Nicole, while Filipe, Sione and Helen voted for Ron. That left Kristin with the deciding vote, and she surprised everyone by voting for Nicole…citing that Nicole was just more of a threat to win than Ron. She also correctly pointed out that Nicole has proven that she can do this at home. So as quickly as Nicoled had returned, she was going home again.

They showed her at home trying on wedding dresses, and she has gone from a size 24 to a size 12. Wow. But while Nicole has lost 105 pounds now, down from 269 to 164, she is not done yet and has her eye on the $100K prize. As for who might win the whole thing…I have absolutely no idea. But I’d rule out Filipe, Ron or Laura right away and say that it will be Kristin, Sione, Tara, Helen or Mikey. I guess I’m putting my money on Mikey, and I hope he wins to set an example for his younger brother and for millions of overweight teenagers.

That’s it….the season is flying by and I’m exhausted from watching four hours of TV. See you next week, and get ready for more curveballs!