The most productive thing about my day off today
No. 1 Bum.
America's new favorite musical comedy whenever I write the script.
Needing to boost sales, a crazy London tabloid holds a "No. 1 Bum" contest to pick the laziest guy and finest-bottomed girl in all of Britain. When this sad-sack American transplant (Jack Black) and a proper aerobics instructor (Scarlett Johansson) get secret nominations from friends and top the list, the news turns their quiet lives upside-down. On the run from a laughing, cat-calling public, hilarity ensues. Can they prove to the world that they're more than just a couple of bums?
(Note to self: Find British words for "contest" and "aerobics.")
With Paul Rudd and Don Cheadle as the scheming co-editors, Brian Dennehy as their publisher, Amy Poehler as the Page 3 photographer of dubious sexuality, Will Arnett as the foot-fetishizing rival newspaper publisher, Amy Sedaris as his alcoholic paparazzo, Michael Cera and Justin Long as Dickens orphans/the Greek chorus, Zooey Deschanel as the jealous No. 2 butt, Andy Richter as the jealous No. 2 slob, Jason Segel as the aerobics instructor's straight-laced boyfriend, John Cusack as the lecherous prime minister, Jonah Hill as the incomprehensible-but-profanely-subtitled cab driver, Tracy Morgan as the British lord who keeps losing his cab to the fleeing pair, McLovin' as a tiny newsie who falls into a love triangle with the Greek chorus, Will Ferrell, the Wilson Brothers, Seth Rogen, Antonio Banderas, Bill Hader, Kevin Bacon, Matt Damon, Kenan Thompson, Rob Lowe, and Kevin Smith as the 0-68 professional soccer team that helps the couple on the run, Kurt Russell as their one-armed coach who's not having any of this funny business, Vince Vaughn as a fast-food chicken mascot, struggling to explain an American corporation's idea of a great new British food to confused London passers-by, Neil Patrick Harris as the behatted palace guard who's desperate to sing, Ralph Fiennes as the neighborhood Peeping Tom/narrator, Kal Penn as a tree, and Queen Elizabeth II as herself.
