IT should come as no surprise that Sharon Stone has signed to star in the sequel to Basic Instinct, reprising the leg-crossing role that made her famous a decade ago. Nor should we be shocked that Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose draw at the box office used to be as big as his name, has notified his willingness to star in Terminator 3.

Both are Hollywood stars in crisis, members of an ever-growing band of established actors and actresses whose ability to pull audiences into cinemas is in doubt. Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, Demi Moore and Michelle Pfeiffer are others looking for Tinseltown magic dust to put the glitter back on their silver screen appeal.

They can only sit back and polish awards won in earlier times as they watch Hollywood's new breed of stars such as Tom Cruise, Jim Carrey, Russell Crowe, teen TV actors and even plasticine chickens from Aardman's animated feature Chicken Run do better business at the box office than the old hands.

Pity poor Kevin Costner. Bad enough was being ridiculed after a locker room scene in which he flashed his privates was snipped from his new picture For Love Of The Game. The delayed release over here offered no comfort. Faced with scorching temperatures and Euro 2000 coverage on the box, the baseball movie took a feeble £25,000 on 113 screens - making the All Saints flop Honest look like a blockbuster.

Coming after the less-than-glorious release of Wyatt Earp, Tin Cup and Message In A Bottle, you can understand if Costner is feeling a little vulnerable. What a comedown for the man who scooped Oscars, critical plaudits and big audiences for Dances With Wolves a decade ago.

Costner was mentioned for the Hollywood remake of the Channel 4 drama Traffic. So was Harrison Ford, who's starred in two of the cinema's most profitable series the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies but whose most recent work - Sabrina and Random Hearts - has met with indifference. No wonder there was talk that he was going to have another crack of the whip as archaelogist Indiana Jones, although at nearly 60 he'd be an unlikely action hero in a fourth instalment.

Eventually Michael Douglas signed up for Traffic although he won't be joining Sharon Stone again in Basic Instinct 2, due to start filming in the autumn. She will be paid a reported 15m dollars to reprise her role as icepick-wielding murder suspect Catherine Tramell.

Although belated sequels are a risky business, Stone needs the exposure. An Oscar nod for Martin Scorsese's Casino was a good thing but her other film choices have not met with popular approval. Demi Moore became one of the highest paid actresses around for Striptease and GI Jane as her price rocketed to 12m dollars a role.

Then both movies flopped, her marriage broke up and she'll be seen next in a low budget drama Passion Of Mind. No doubt she'll be telling us she wanted to devote more time to her family.

Hubby Bruce Willis, faced with getting too old to rush around in a vest shooting villains, has been clever enough to diversify. Appearing in the supernatural thriller The Sixth Sense did his credibility no harm although arguably the success was more to do with young co-star Joel Hayley Osment and the story than Brucie himself. Put him in a dreary drama like The Story Of Us with Michelle Pfeiffer, another leading lady on a losing streak, and the result is a miss.

Arnold Schwarzenegger returned to the screen in December after a three-year absence to take on the Devil in the supernatural thriller End Of Days - only to find the likes of Tom Cruise and Jim Carrey more bankable than him. The film was nowhere near as big as Arnie's previous blockbusters. It was billed as marking a departure for him, playing a more rounded character rather than a killing machine. Signalling his willingness to return in Terminator 3, provided original director James Cameron is in charge, would appear to show he knows that the old formula is what audiences want.

Sylvester Stallone is another action star planning to lay down his arms for more thoughtful roles in the hope of a revival of his fortunes at the box office, although talk of another Rambo movie indicates he hasn't changed track entirely.

Clint Eastwood is finding life as a pensioner - he's 70 - hard going. His last few films as actor or director haven't done well. He's blamed the marketing people for the films failing, choosing to ignore that films like True Crime and Absolute Power were stinkers. Now he's pinning his hopes on Space Cowboys, a story of ageing astronauts.

The runaway success of M:I-2, Mission Impossible Two, ensured Tom Cruise's reputation has overcome the poor response to Stanley Kubrick's last film Eyes Wide Shut and kept him at the top of the Hollywood A-list. Costner must wonder what's the secret of Cruise's success