KarenMccullahLutz Tagged Articles at Cinematical

After being a bit unhappy with some of the portrayals in Knocked Up, what does Katherine Heigl do? She signs on to star in a new romcom called The Ugly Truth, which Christopher Campbell told you about in November. The flick will focus on a "romantically challenged" morning show producer who deals with a chauvinistic correspondent trying to teach her how to find love. There's nothing like saying Knocked Up is sexist and then signing up for a movie where she gets taught love by a chauvinist.

Now Variety reports that Gerard Butler will be the guy to "guide" her. He's going to play a man called Mike Alexander, who is the "host of a TV segment titled 'The Ugly Truth.'" Heigl's character is "reluctantly embroiled by her chauvinistic correspondent (Butler) in a series of outrageous tests to prove his theories on relationships and help her find love." Well, I guess he was just done with all that uber thoughtfulness from P.S. I Love You.

To give a little credit to the project -- it's teaming director Robert Luketic with writers Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith -- they're the team behind Legally Blonde, which was a surprisingly fun film that cut through a lot of stereotypes. But still. A film where a man who finds women, or whose behavior indicates that he finds them, to be inferior teaches a smart, successful, and attractive woman how to find love is condescendingly passe.

If, however, the description is painting a falsely poor light on the film, I sure hope they correct it soon.

These days, it's hard to believe that Kate Hudson is a Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated actress. It's been years since she twirled as a band-aid, grabbing the hearts of William and Russell. Since then, she's surrounded herself with mainly romantic comedies -- some good, some bad -- and let her award-starting past slip away. All the way back in November of 2006, there was news of a new feature called Bride Wars. At the time, there was word that she had troubles getting the pic off the ground (she's one of the film's producers). She must've had more troubles to make it take this long, but all these months later, Variety reports that she finally has a director, Gary Winick, and has someone to star and war with -- Anne Hathaway.

Unlike Katherine Heigl's upcoming 27 Dresses, which is more about inner pain, this is about outwardly-warring brides, who are friends no less! Coming together from the pens of June Diane Raphael, Casey Wilson, Karen McCullah Lutz, and Kirsten Smith, "Hathaway and Hudson will play best friends who are pitted against each other when their wedding dates clash. They compete for venues, services and guests, once it's clear that neither will step aside." What is it about weddings that makes some women so crazy? I wonder if they'll end up in the hospital like that insane Grey's Anatomy episode where two women prioritized the perfect wedding over their health and safety?

So, will this help Hudson into better fare? Or be a crash and burn scenario for Hathaway? With Winick's involvement, I'm hoping for the former. He's responsible for the cute 13 Going on 30, and the great indie flick Tadpole. But this is all contingent on the project moving smoothly from here.

Earlier this year, in Knocked Up, Katherine Heigl played a television personality for E! But her character started out in a behind-the-camera role, despite the fact that she's a knock-out beauty. Now, according to Variety, the actress has been cast in a similar part. She'll play an off-screen producer of a morning show, who also happens to be "romantically challenged," in the romantic comedy The Ugly Truth, in which she must deal with a "chauvinistic" correspondent attempting to teach her how to find love. Here's where the plot description makes little sense: "His clever ploys, however, lead to an unexpected result." Unexpected? I think we all can easily predict and expect the result as being that Heigl's character falls for the correspondent. Anyone who has ever seen a screwball romantic comedy can see that one coming a mile away. When is Hollywood going to just own up to the fact that they use genre conventions and that we in the audience enjoy genre conventions (and have enjoyed them for a century now) and leave out the "unexpected" crap? Who do they think they're kidding?

The sad thing is that this not only sounds like another genre picture; it actually sounds more like the plot of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy. But fans of that movie may not be interested in The Ugly Truth, which is being made by the collaborative team behind Legally Blonde. The script was written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kristen Smith, who last gave us She's the Man (which I'm still not ashamed to admit I enjoyed), and it will be directed by Robert Luketic, whose last movie was Monster-in-Law (which I'm still not ashamed to admit I would never ever watch). Filming is set to begin mid-April. All we need now is a hot, irresistible, but believably chauvinistic actor to play the obvious love interest.