Sometimes when I can't sleep I run through lists of my "desert island movies," or the ten movies I would most prefer to have with me on a desert island (provided there was also a DVD player, flatscreen TV and electricity). It's an interesting game, because you get deeply into questions of what is good versus what is enjoyable. For example, Joel and Ethan Coen's new No Country for Old Men may be their best film, but it's not as much fun as Fargo or The Big Lebowski. The other night, I started playing another game: desert island movie star. If you could take the entire filmography of a single movie star to a desert island, whose would it be? (For the purposes of this column, I'm sticking to my usual realm: actors appearing in movies currently playing on 400 screens or less. Otherwise we could continue to play on into the length of a book.)

British actors are always a good choice, because they generally have a kind of old-fashioned work ethic; they're more interested in being a good worker than in crafting a certain type of career, so you've got more to choose from. Take Michael Caine, currently in Sleuth (7 screens). He's a double Oscar winner, but he's made a ton of movies worth looking at a second time, notably The Prestige, Batman Begins, Children of Men, The Man Who Would Be King, Hannah and Her Sisters, Get Carter and Dressed to Kill. On the downside, you'd also be stuck with stagnant award-winners like The Cider House Rules, as well as turkeys like Jaws: The Revenge and On Deadly Ground and Bewitched. But at least you'd have more than 100 to choose from.

A conversation arose in the screening room the other day about the sorry state of young, romantic performers in movies today and the overwhelming blandness slathered across our movie screens. Pretty, plastic, chiseled faces smile at one another and sometimes kiss, and their efforts leave everyone cold. Critics and audiences often use the word "chemistry" to describe these encounters; either the characters have it or they don't. Strangely, there's really no way to tell if it's even there until the movie is finished. You can put two actors in a room together, or screen test them, but none of it comes together until the audience becomes a factor.

One reason most movie couples have been so bland lately is the ever-increasing control that studios are demanding of their product. Every aspect of filmmaking must be regulated and stabilized, and so, to make the most of their romantic stories, these same studio people very simply cast the most beautiful actors they can find. Beautiful people sometimes explode on the movie screen with lots of personality and star power, but just as often, they don't, looking more like polished statues without so much as a heartbeat. James Dean was very handsome, but he had a surprising element, a kind of unpredictability, as well as world-heavy sadness. But James Franco, who played Dean in a TV biopic, has only the looks. As shown in his most recent film, Spider-Man 3 (151 screens), where there should be passion and danger and excitement, there's only grooming. At times I honestly can't tell the difference between him and Paul Walker.

Despite the fact that neither of her two (count 'em -- two) film roles has yet actually appeared on screen, Disney apparently had no concerns about signing a multi-year first-look deal with Alicia Keys, a woman that most of us think of as a singer first an an actor about sixth. Already in the can for Keys is Smokin' Aces (she's an assassin, obviously), and she also has a supporting role in The Nanny Diaries. It seems, however, she wants to be able to act in movies without the risk of having producers want someone else, so she and her partner Jeff Robinson developed Big Pita, Little Pita (And yes, "Pita" in this case stands for "Pain in the Ass" -- at least they've got a sense of humor about something) to "create vehicles [for Keys] that will prevent her from falling into predictable roles."

The first project from the new collaboration with Disney will be, yes, a remake. Keys will star in a new version Bell Book and Candle, taking over for Kim Novak as the witch who accidentally complicates her own plans by falling in love. No word on who will play her love interest, a role originally played by a guy named Jimmy Stewart, or her wacky, bongo-playing brother (if you ask me, Matthew McConaughey is a natural to replace Jack Lemmon for that one).

Delicious odds and ends:

• Hot Fuzz, a movie you might have noticed I'm looking forward to with something approaching rabid eagerness, has been picked up for US distribution by Rogue Pictures. Though there's still no freaking release date set, this deal is a good sign: Edgar Wright's first effort, Shaun of the Dead, was also handled by Rogue, and was by far their biggest success.

• Columbia Pictures, which rather abruptly yanked their heavily-hyped All the King's Men from an Oscar-friendly December release date last year, have quietly slipped the film back onto its schedule in a low-profile, September slot. What's it facing off against now, you ask? Oh, you know. Jackass 2. That sort of high quality stuff. JoBlo goes further, and points out that very few of the films released during September last year were of the award-worthy quality that Columbia is insisting their film is. Yeah, Columbia -- you guys moved it because it wasn't done. Sure you did.

• As it moves towards its shoot date (this May), The Nanny Diaries just keeps adding names. The latest one to join the crew is Alicia Keys, who will play the best friend of Scarlett Johanson's hot, working class nanny. Hey, people who read the book -- is Keys another nanny, or is she one of Scarlett's friends from back home, before she started hanging out on Park Avenue, with the rich toddlers?