Judd Apatow and Adam Sandler are doing their research for their current project, Funny People. The movie is to be set in "the world of stand-up comedy," Mr. Sandler revealed last month. "I haven’t done stand-up in, like, ten years," Adam Sandler recently complained in an interview with MTV.

Not only is Mr. Sandler doing sets at various LA comedy clubs, writer and director Mr. Apatow is also hitting the LA comedy scene and appearing at the annual Just for Laughs festival in Montreal this month. He knows the scene well: he was a stand-up comic for seven years before realizing that his talents lay elsewhere.

Mr. Apatow said he changed directions once he discovered that he "lacked something very specific: charisma."

If you stumble across either of them on their comedy tour, be kind….

Olivia Thirlby has been busy since her appearance as Ellen Page's best friend in Juno.

There is her role opposite Ben Kigsley and Mary Kate Olsen in The Wackness (out July 3rd), Safety Glass with Steve Coogan and The Dream of the Romans with Lauren Graham, both in post-production, the delayed Kenneth Lonergan drama, Margaret, and the yet-to-be-greenlit Jack and Diane, a lesbian picture to be done with Ms. Page.

But then there is also Judd Apatow's Pineapple Express for which Ms. Thirlby was briefly cast and then dropped.

In an interview with New York Magazine this week, Ms. Thirlby says, “I don’t know if I’m going to see it.  read more »

What Judd Apatow backlash? For every New Yorker who happily proclaimed the end of the producer/director’s run of luck after the flops of Walk Hard and Drillbit Taylor, there was one (if not two, three or four) who ran out to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall (no. 1) this weekend. The comedy racked in $382,590 dollars of its total $17.5 million take here in the city with an incredibly strong $42,510 per screen average. Those are 21 numbers!  read more »

We could go into an oh-so-increasingly-familiar rant about the fact that Prom Night—a movie whose tag line is “It’s midnight. Everyone’s ready to go home … but someone has other plans”—was the most popular amongst audiences last weekend (lesson learned: people cannot resist the horror flicks) … but what’s the point?  read more »

Judging by box office—and the box office never lies—the one thing Good Friday was good for was taking your kid to the movies. Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! (No. 2) hauled in $25 million in its second weekend, easily winning the top spot nationally. And Manhattanites were equally irreligious, though marginally different in the object of their sin. Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns (No. 1) earned 25 percent more than Horton in the city, making it the most popular movie by far on the island. Take that, God!  read more »

Bloody jeans. Boob punches. “These Eyes” by The Guess Who. “Samsies.” “Blow js.” “McLovin.” “What the fuck?” It’s Superbad, this year’s most quotable, and irresistibly charming comedy (by 20-something year olds’ standards) and it comes out on DVD this week.  read more »

Good guy John C. Reilly (Boogie Nights, The Hours) may be getting thirsty for blood. He is in negotiations, along with Bridge of Terabithia kid Josh Hutcherson and Chris Kelly, to sign on to Cirque du Freak, an adaptation of Darren Shan's children's book series. Paul Weitz (About A Boy) is directing, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The story follows two best friends (Hutcherson, Kelly) who visit an illegal freak show, where an encounter with a vampire and a giant deadly spider forces them to make life-changing choices that result in vampire servitude and vampirism itself.

Reilly would play Larten Crepsley, the centuries-old vampire and owner of Madame Octa, the spider.

Reilly has lately been in a comedy phase, appearing in such movies as Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Year of the Dog and Judd Apatow's upcoming Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

Take your ratings and stuff ‘em, Jack!  read more »

Uh-oh, she’s preggo! The follow -up to The Forty-Year-Old Virgin is perfect summer entertainment. Plus: Is Crazy Love necessary?  read more »