I didn't set this blogsite up to be about comedy movies or comedians (two previous blogs on this site are about Joe E. Brown and Milton Berle) but here's something interesting:
Nobody loves The Three Stooges more than I do. If you're a guy, and you don't like the Three Stooges, you've got to turn in your guy-card, because for men, the Stooges are as necessary as breathing, eating, and sleeping. (And when I say sleeping, of course, I mean sleeping in a bed with two other people and snoring like this: "Heep heep heep heep heep!")
Over the last few years, I've been reading that the Farrelly Brothers, Peter and Bobby, will be producing and directing a Three Stooges feature film for Sony and MGM. While I'm not exactly in favor of other actors 'playing' the roles of Moe, Larry, and Curly, I'm sufficiently a fan of the Farrellys to give this endeavor a chance. I've never been the biggest fan of There's Something About Mary, which I thought was over-rated, but I love some of their other pictures, especially Kingpin, Shallow Hal, Say It Isn't So, Outside Providence, and Stuck On You, which are genuinely hilarious. The Farrelly brothers are the only people in Hollywood who consistently make funny/sharp movies, and I would absolutely, without any hestitation, place them up there in that same pantheon as the great comedy directors of the past -- Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubistsch, Preston Sturges, and John Landis. (Yes, you've read every single word of that sentence correctly.)
As you know, if you've been checking out the IMDB and the various entertainment rags, the Farrellys, several months ago, announced that their Stooges feature had been cast:
Benicio Del Toro was hired to play Moe;
Sean Penn inked to play Larry;
Jim Carrey would fill the role of Curly.
I thought that was pretty inspired casting, because you can really "see" it. Del Toro can probably do that bossy thing and he's got Moe-esque bags under his eyes; Penn has a pronounced proboscis and other Larrycentric features that could be accentuated if you poofed his hair out on the sides of his head; and Carrey, if he bulks up and shaves his head might be a great Curly. (I saw him on "In Living Color" once, doing a spot-on Curly impression, so I know he can handle it.)
About a month ago, however, Sean Penn dropped out of the project, possibly due to family complications. Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti have been suggested as replacements for Penn.
The reason for my writing this blog today, is that I'd like to suggest a completely different actor to play Larry. Nobody has ever suggested the person I'm about to suggest, and since I have absolutely no idea how to contact the Farrelly Brothers -- and if I did, they wouldn't listen to me, anyway -- here it is.
There is, walking this earth, one man who looks, and can sound, one hundred-percent like Larry Fine. This guy, if this is even possible, may have been cloned out of Larry Fine's DNA. He's not a big star like Ed Norton or Sean Penn, but if the Farrellys want to go for accuracy in their movie, the guy I'm about to recommend IS Larry Fine.
I'm talking about the wonderful character actor David Paymer, the guy whose made a pretty nice career in comedy features, usually playing either Billy Crystal's buddy (City Slickers, Mr. Saturday Night) or sniveling/low-level government functionaries (The American President).
David Paymer IS Larry Fine, and since a picture is worth 1,000 words, check out the video that proves it:
Above, you have just seen David Paymer (he's on the left) in director Tony Bill's underrated 1990 Dudley Moore/Daryl Hannah comedy, Crazy People. I can't remember too much about the movie, since I haven't seen it since its initial theatrical release nineteen years ago (this movie is about an ad executive who has a nervous breakdown and winds up in a mental hospital), but I remember that I thought it was funny, and I also remember watching it and thinking, as I also happen to be thinking right now, "Wow! David Paymer looks exactly like Larry from the Three Stooges."
Let me qualify my suggestion appropriately: I don't know David Paymer. I'm not affiliated with Paymer in any way, Paymer's not a relative, I've never met Paymer I'm not Paymer's manager, and Paymer doesn't owe me any money. I'm writing this blog entry just because the guy looks and talks like Larry Fine and, to me, he is really the only choice to play Larry in the Three Stooges movie, if the Farrellys are interested in going for accuracy.
If anybody who's reading this wants to forward this blog to Peter and Bobby F., please do, and you don't even need to give me any credit (because that's generally the way it's worked out, anyway; people like my ideas, but they don't really care for me, which is fine, because it's mutual)! Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti are fine actors, but ultimately, when it comes to a Three Stooges movie, what's going to bring people into the theater isn't huge stars, but reverence for the subject matter. A Three Stooges feature won't create "new" Three Stooges fans, it's really only for people who already like them, and the way to get the fans excited about this movie, is to be accurate. David Paymer is, as the cartoon bird used to say on that Continental Airlines commercial in the '70s, "the only way to fly."
That's all!
"Love, Chuck"
Nobody loves The Three Stooges more than I do. If you're a guy, and you don't like the Three Stooges, you've got to turn in your guy-card, because for men, the Stooges are as necessary as breathing, eating, and sleeping. (And when I say sleeping, of course, I mean sleeping in a bed with two other people and snoring like this: "Heep heep heep heep heep!")
Over the last few years, I've been reading that the Farrelly Brothers, Peter and Bobby, will be producing and directing a Three Stooges feature film for Sony and MGM. While I'm not exactly in favor of other actors 'playing' the roles of Moe, Larry, and Curly, I'm sufficiently a fan of the Farrellys to give this endeavor a chance. I've never been the biggest fan of There's Something About Mary, which I thought was over-rated, but I love some of their other pictures, especially Kingpin, Shallow Hal, Say It Isn't So, Outside Providence, and Stuck On You, which are genuinely hilarious. The Farrelly brothers are the only people in Hollywood who consistently make funny/sharp movies, and I would absolutely, without any hestitation, place them up there in that same pantheon as the great comedy directors of the past -- Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubistsch, Preston Sturges, and John Landis. (Yes, you've read every single word of that sentence correctly.)
As you know, if you've been checking out the IMDB and the various entertainment rags, the Farrellys, several months ago, announced that their Stooges feature had been cast:
Benicio Del Toro was hired to play Moe;
Sean Penn inked to play Larry;
Jim Carrey would fill the role of Curly.
I thought that was pretty inspired casting, because you can really "see" it. Del Toro can probably do that bossy thing and he's got Moe-esque bags under his eyes; Penn has a pronounced proboscis and other Larrycentric features that could be accentuated if you poofed his hair out on the sides of his head; and Carrey, if he bulks up and shaves his head might be a great Curly. (I saw him on "In Living Color" once, doing a spot-on Curly impression, so I know he can handle it.)
About a month ago, however, Sean Penn dropped out of the project, possibly due to family complications. Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti have been suggested as replacements for Penn.
The reason for my writing this blog today, is that I'd like to suggest a completely different actor to play Larry. Nobody has ever suggested the person I'm about to suggest, and since I have absolutely no idea how to contact the Farrelly Brothers -- and if I did, they wouldn't listen to me, anyway -- here it is.
There is, walking this earth, one man who looks, and can sound, one hundred-percent like Larry Fine. This guy, if this is even possible, may have been cloned out of Larry Fine's DNA. He's not a big star like Ed Norton or Sean Penn, but if the Farrellys want to go for accuracy in their movie, the guy I'm about to recommend IS Larry Fine.
I'm talking about the wonderful character actor David Paymer, the guy whose made a pretty nice career in comedy features, usually playing either Billy Crystal's buddy (City Slickers, Mr. Saturday Night) or sniveling/low-level government functionaries (The American President).
David Paymer IS Larry Fine, and since a picture is worth 1,000 words, check out the video that proves it:
Above, you have just seen David Paymer (he's on the left) in director Tony Bill's underrated 1990 Dudley Moore/Daryl Hannah comedy, Crazy People. I can't remember too much about the movie, since I haven't seen it since its initial theatrical release nineteen years ago (this movie is about an ad executive who has a nervous breakdown and winds up in a mental hospital), but I remember that I thought it was funny, and I also remember watching it and thinking, as I also happen to be thinking right now, "Wow! David Paymer looks exactly like Larry from the Three Stooges."
Let me qualify my suggestion appropriately: I don't know David Paymer. I'm not affiliated with Paymer in any way, Paymer's not a relative, I've never met Paymer I'm not Paymer's manager, and Paymer doesn't owe me any money. I'm writing this blog entry just because the guy looks and talks like Larry Fine and, to me, he is really the only choice to play Larry in the Three Stooges movie, if the Farrellys are interested in going for accuracy.
If anybody who's reading this wants to forward this blog to Peter and Bobby F., please do, and you don't even need to give me any credit (because that's generally the way it's worked out, anyway; people like my ideas, but they don't really care for me, which is fine, because it's mutual)! Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti are fine actors, but ultimately, when it comes to a Three Stooges movie, what's going to bring people into the theater isn't huge stars, but reverence for the subject matter. A Three Stooges feature won't create "new" Three Stooges fans, it's really only for people who already like them, and the way to get the fans excited about this movie, is to be accurate. David Paymer is, as the cartoon bird used to say on that Continental Airlines commercial in the '70s, "the only way to fly."
That's all!
"Love, Chuck"
PS, Read my book about a great French actor:
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