I'm excited enough that Rod Lurie is returning to politics with Nothing but the Truth, a film loosely associated with the story of Valerie Plame. But I'm becoming more excited that it will feature a wide range of talented actors, from Kate Beckinsdale to Alan Alda to Matt Dillon to Vera Farmiga to David Schwimmer to Edie Falco to Harry Lennix to the just-announced Angela Bassett and Noah Wyle. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Basset and Wyle join the ensemble as supportive figures. Bassett is to play editor-in-chief to Beckinsdale's reporter and Wyle is to play the lawyer defending Beckinsdale's character, who ends up in jail for not revealing a source.

More than 13 years after being nominated for an Oscar (for What's Love Got to Do with It), I'm happy to see Bassett getting more meaty roles. In addition to this part, which will probably be too small to garner too much recognition, she is set to star opposite Don Cheadle as the titular wife in the biopic Toussaint, and she's sure to be seen by millions and millions in Tyler Perry's next movie, Meet the Browns. Wyle, too, is deserving of making his mark on the big screen now that he's done playing Dr. Carter on E.R. Coming up for him is a father role in the 1963-set coming-of-age film Boy of Pigs and his directorial debut, a romantic comedy titled Prince Test.

The interesting thing about Nothing but the Truth is it somewhat seems to combine Lurie's The Contender (possibly my favorite political film ever), which also focused on a woman under heavy scrutiny, and his recent box office disappointment Resurrecting the Champ, which similarly dealt with the world of journalism. For the sake of this great cast, I hope Nothing but the Truth is closer to the success level of the former.

Not long ago I had the chance to sit down with Gretchen Mol for an exclusive interview about her upcoming projects, including the new comedy The Ten, opening August 3rd, in which she plays a virgin librarian who is deflowered by Jesus Christ himself. If you were a fan of the MTV series The State, this is the movie you've been waiting for. It's a State movie, all the way down to a wink-wink cameo from Michael Ian Black. We also talked about the highly-anticipated Russell Crowe remake of the classic western 3:10 to Yuma, which is arriving in September, and in which she has the leading lady slot. Mol, who's about seven months pregnant at the moment, was in a pretty relaxed and reflective mood when we spoke, and among other things, talked about arriving at a comfortable place in her 30s and being able to relax a bit after the success of The Notorious Bettie Page -- she no longer feels like she's scrambling to get a major accomplishment under her belt, so to speak. Here's the interview, in full.

RS: For your character in The Ten, the glasses she wears and the whole outfit -- did they tell you to come up with your own idea of what a 35 year-old virgin should look like?

GM: No, well ... I always wanted to wear glasses, but the question was, it almost might be over the top or too obvious. But the movie kind of lends itself to these kinds of cliches -- especially my little section, I think, because it's got this torrid kind of romance novel vibe to it. So I thought the glasses would be great. And when I met with the costume designer, we were all in sync on everything.

RS: Did you watch The State's MTV Series back in the day?

GM: I'd heard of it, and since, I've seen it, but I'd seen Wet Hot American Summer. And actually, I've seen David do stand-up at the Fez Under Time Cafe years ago, so I was familiar with their stuff, and I was a huge fan of Wet Hot American Summer.

RS: So you had enough to work with, that you didn't feel the need to go back and study those old shows to get a handle.

GM: I didn't. David was very adamant about wanting people to basically play it straight, and the situation in the script, as he and Ken had written it, was just hysterical, so really it was just about taking what you know and applying it here -- just totally committing to this woman's story and her situation.