Yes, Reese Witherspoon is an Academy Award winner, but when it comes to picking comedies, good lord, she needs to fire her agent or get a second opinion. Her last four? "This Means War," "How Do You Know," "Four Christmases" and "Penelope." And now she's signing up to do a movie whose premise was fodder for a "Seinfeld" episode thirteen years ago.
THR reports that the actress will produce and star in "The Beard." Penned by Becca Greene (the shortlived "Good Vibes"), her script was picked up by Chernin Entertainment, and while there are no plot details, the trade does note that any desire you have for Witherspoon to go ZZ Top is out the window, as the title will refer to a girl who dates a guy to help keep his sexual orientation secret. How romantically comical! Of course, on "Seinfeld," Elaine learned the hard way that trying to turn a gay man just doesn't work. And we'd guess in this movie (there are no plot details) her friend will help her find true love and she'll help him find his etc., etc.
Witherspoon is currently shooting the much more respectable "Devil's Knot" with Atom Egoyan, so no word on when this might roll. It needs a director first anyway. But here's hoping one of the other handful of projects she has in the works bumps this aside.
