OK, this bugs me a lot when I watch movies or television shows. Why do the people get bad actors? It completely ruins the whole movie, and I don't get it at all. Does it have something to do with money? Is the appearance of the actor all that matters these days?

That's how I feel about Horatio in csi miami, he is one of the worst actor I have ever seen, yet for some reason he makes so much money, he tries way to hard and it bugs me

Have you ever seen a steven segal movie? Now that is a horrible actor!

Hiring bad actors to movies is a manifestation of a wider and at times very annoying modern (actually, postmodern) trend. Most movies are about people like us, so we are forced to believe that the actors can be therefore selected among us - random people that have never taken at least a two week acting class. According to this trend, anyone can also be a painter, a singer, a rock star, a writer, a thinker good enough to compete with acknowledged artists. This is all annoying and I think may come more from ignorance than from a taste difference.

I think taste is still a huge factor (whether you love or hate Jack Black would be a prime example). In the movie "Space Cowboys", the actor who plays the flight director looks like an annoying character they just threw in to hold up the plot, and the moment of climax when the astronauts land safely shows his face filling the screen with his bad teeth.
A more recent casting blunder I can think of would be the addition of unknown comedian Bobby Moynehan to the otherwise flawless cast of SNL, in the same week his own low-budget film went to theatres (usually they have the propriety of waiting until they retire from the show to start making B-movies).

Len

Speaking of SNL, what about Will Forte. When he's in a sketch, I have to fast-forward my Tivo to the next sketch. He is not funny (I do like his McGuyver parody, because I get to see him blow up.) and his sketches drag on forever. Also, Kristen Wiig seems to play the same quirky character.