AS YOU might or might not be aware, the lovely Megan Fox does not make an appearance in the upcoming Transformers: Dark Of The Moon.

Apparently, like La Luna, she too has a dark side.

As one of Shia LaBeouf's little robot friends says of his MIA girlfriend character Mikaela in the movie itself: "She was mean."

Quite an epitaph.

With those three small words, the role that made Fox a megastar and helped make the first two Transformers movies megahits has been consigned to the summer blockbuster recycle bin.

Not satisfied to diss Fox by means of a fictional proxy, director Michael Bay, leading man LaBeouf and others have continued to bad-mouth Fox in pre-release interviews for the flick, which opens here tomorrow.

They also made it clear that the 25-year-old US starlet was fired - for comparing Bay to Adolf Hitler during a 2009 interview.

Though Bay has claimed he took her comments in his stride, Transformers producer Steven Spielberg was not nearly so forgiving.

Bay told GQ magazine that Spielberg's point-blank advice was to "fire her right now".

Hypersensitive

As the guy who directed Schindler's List and who's perhaps the most high-profile supporter of Jewish causes in Hollywood, it's understandable that Spielberg might be hypersensitive to facile Fuhrer references.

The real story, one suspects, goes much deeper, perhaps having something to do with the fact that, through no fault of her own, Fox was born with the sort of looks that drive people insane.

While there are a lot of pretty girls in the world, there are few who look as intriguingly and invitingly evil as Fox.

The shapely vixen gives the impression of having been custom-designed for sin, and it's not hard to imagine that this would cause a lot of problems on set.

While Fox and Bay were having their Hitler brouhaha in 2009, Bay's crew felt compelled to weigh in on Fox's epic divaness in an open, anonymous letter.

The weird thing about it is that it reads like something a spurned stalker might scribble.

"We've had the unbearable time of watching her try to act on set, and yes, it's very cringe-able," the "Loyal Transformers Crew" wrote.

"So maybe, being a porn star in the future might be a good career option."

They make pervy allusions to Fox's panties, tattoos, her tight stomach, the fact that she is one of the most "googled and ogled" women in the world, then they complain that she never says thank you, never says hi, never smiles.

You almost expect them to end with a desperate cry of, "Why won't you love me?!?!?!"

The point is, if it were Kathy Bates behaving in such an indifferent fashion, no one would care.

They'd assume she was doing her own thing and give the woman her privacy.

But with a pretty girl, you don't smile and you've broken a heart, made an enemy.

The interesting thing about Fox is that though she looks the way she looks, she doesn't appear to want to act like she looks.

In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, LaBeouf explained the tensions that developed between Fox and Bay over the way he was shooting her.

Awkward

"Megan developed this Spice Girl strength, this woman empowerment, that made her feel awkward about her involvement with Michael, who some people think is a very lascivious film-maker, the way he films women," he said.

"I think she never got comfortable with it."

Thinking back to that iconic shot of Fox leaning over a car engine, or the way she jiggled when running from Megatron, it's not hard to imagine how she might have felt exploited.

"When Mike would ask her to do specific things," LaBeouf said, "there was no time for fluffy talk - we're on the run. And the one thing Mike lacks is tact."

"There's no time for, 'I would like you to just arch your back 70 degrees.'"

The fact that Bay chose a Victoria's Secret underwear model, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, as Fox's replacement speaks volumes.

Arching her back 70 degrees shouldn't be a problem, regardless of how Bay might choose to bark the command.

Indeed, during her very first scene in the film, Huntington-Whiteley shows off her butt cheeks before we ever get a look at her face.

"She completely owns her sexuality," LaBeouf said of the new girl, "which I think helps, especially on a summer movie where there are certain requirements of a woman.

"She was able to be strong in her femininity as opposed to trying to shy away from it."

With the beating Fox's reputation has taken from her Transformers employers and co-workers, she'll no doubt have a tough time forging ahead with her Hollywood career.

It doesn't help that her post-Transformers projects such as Jennifer's Body, Jonah Hex and Passion Play have all bombed - in the case of the latter two, nuclear bombed.

Few It girls end up having lasting careers but it's tough to recall one having as dramatic a rise and fall as Fox.

Unless, of course, she manages to prove her many haters wrong.

Say what you will about her acting chops (or lack thereof), the fact is that Fox - whom some have labelled this generation's answer to Angelina Jolie - isn't just a sex symbol but an exemplar of absolute hotness.

Beyond that, lest anyone think she has committed career suicide since her Transformers ousting, she's got projects coming out next year with the great Judd Apatow (This Is Forty), Kristen Wiig (Friends With Kids) and Sacha Baron Cohen (The Dictator).

There have even been rumours she could be playing Batgirl or perhaps the lesser-known comic book heroine Aspen (a marine biologist who belongs to an underwater race) from Fathom.

And she evidently still possesses enough clout to be appointed the new face of Armani cosmetics after promoting the brand's undergarment range last year.

While her old Transformers colleagues have been out shilling their familiar wares for the past couple of weeks, Fox was photographed prancing around in a pink bikini with actor-husband Brian Austin Green in Hawaii.

There, she also picked up an Iris Award from the recent Maui Film Festival for her eco work.

She supports charities such as Aqua For Life, which aid in the distribution of clean drinking water.

During the festival's opening night, there was also a screening of a new nature documentary called Na Nai'a: Legend Of The Dolphins, which Fox narrates along with other luminaries such as Kate Winslet.

"It's every girl's dream to work with dolphins and I've always loved animals so this was an easy project for me to say yes to," she said.

"I hope that people will see it and start treating our friends in the animal kingdom with some respect."

Perhaps we could start with respecting our friends in the super-hot babe kingdom, and work on from there.