Jinghan's core post #3 Is it the stereotype? Or is it genre?

          Among this week's readings, I found Britton's research on "the star 'vehicle' " is a little bit hard to understand for me. But some of his points actually make sense even in today's Hollywood.
          First of all, I want to talk about his statement on what this vehicle has provided to us. He says, this vehicle might provide
1. a character of the type associated with the star (e.g. Monroe’s ‘dumb blonde ’ roles, Garbo’s melancholic romantic roles). I think his statement is similar like today's persona stereotype when casting actors for certain types of films. When we see Monroe in How to Marry a Millionaire, we bought this kind of film because her image fits the role perfectly, so does Garbo in Wild Orchids.

2. a situation , setting or generic context associated with the star (e.g. Garbo in relationships with married men, Wayne in Westerns…);

or (c) opportunities for the star to do her/ his thing
I would immediately think of Gene Kelly in Sinin' in the Rain.

        Just like what Britton believes, vehicles are important as much for what conventions they set up as for how they develop them, for their ingredients as for their realisation. In certain respects a set of star vehicles is rather like a film genre such as the Western, the musical, the gangster film. However, I do not think Britton's idea is anything like today's people would talk about "oh you know this type of genre is his/ her thing, he/she always takes this kind of films. Genre is everything way larger than a stereotype "role", vehicles certainly provide distinct sub-set, but genres have contexts, contents, not just one vehicle-- the stereotyped stars' roles.
        In fact, plenty of stars often cross genres in order to avoid the stereotype images in audiences' minds. Honestly, I don't think it is a good thing for anyone become famous because of their first roles in a film. One perfect example is Harry Potter series, no matter how hard Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, or Rupert Grint try, they couldn't get rid off the images audiences have for them in Harry Potter. Because their first roles as actors are Harry, Hermione, and Ron. I don't know if my expression makes sense but I think this is what Britton's criticizing in his texts, star images doesn't equal to genres.
       I would love to hear any different opinions if I get his ideas wrong, since this article is the first one that confuses me so far among our readings.