Cameron Diaz Is A ‘Bad Teacher’

Cameron Diaz will play the title character in “Bad Teacher,” a comedy set up at Columbia from “The Office” writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky. Diaz will play Elizabeth, a gold-digging school teacher trying to land the new substitute teacher at her school.

The script’s enjoyably mean-spirited (if more than a little indebted to “Bad Santa”) and a huge improvement on the writing pair’s previous film, “Year One,” and we’re glad that Jake Kasdan is at the helm, even if he’s never topped his storming debut, “Zero Effect.” We’d have loved to see Elizabeth Banks in the lead, but Diaz is a solid choice.