We’ve read quite enough about Jason Segel’s “chunky, blemished ass and little white man-boobs,” not to mention his mother’s horror at seeing his wee-wee onscreen. He may have written Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but by gum, Kristen Bell plays the title character and she needs a little love, too. Bell would have already appeared on movie screens this spring if Fanboys had been released as scheduled, but as Jack Clark of the New York Daily News learned, she has seen neither the original version nor the “Darth Weinstein” cut of the movie that remains in limbo.
Nothing will stop Sarah Marshall from arriving in theaters Friday, though it remains to be seen whether it will be Bell’s stepping-stone to movie stardom. Clark seems to think it’s a strong possibility given her broad appeal; not only has she sewn up the geek fanbase thanks to her three seasons as Veronica Mars and her stint on Heroes, she’s “doing well with frat boys, too - she's been on Maxim's Hot 100 list - and she's even scoring with vegetarians (PETA's World's Sexiest Woman).” So if you’re a geeky vegetarian frat boy, she’s pretty much your ideal woman.
As Sarah Marshall, however, she’s the bad girl who dumps Segel while his junk dangles in the breeze. (“At one point, there was a nylon sock involved," Bell says. "That just drew more attention to the situation, so we ditched it.”) Not that she has a problem playing the villain, as those of us who caught her turn as a con artist on Deadwood recall. “It was never anyone's intention to make her a bitch. The reason I was attracted to this project was because Jason really did give the 'villains' a chance to explain themselves, as opposed to a romantic comedy where you're told who to root for and who to dislike.”
Next on her plate, Bell faces what may be her biggest challenge yet: being romanced by Danny DeVito in Disney’s When in Rome. According to Reuters, Bell “plays a love-starved New York curator who steals magical coins from a famous Roman fountain but soon finds herself in a bizarre situation when she is pursued back to New York by a band of aggressive suitors -- the very people whose coins she took. DeVito will play one of the suitors.” We can only hope that, unlike Segel, the Penguin keeps his pants on.