The $27-million opening weekend of He's Just Not That Into You pretty much guarantees Venus will be arm-twisting Mars into seeing chick flicks for years to come.
But who will the chicks in those flicks be? In girl-next-door terms, Meg Ryan is older -- albeit better-preserved -- than dirt, with Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts not far behind. Even Reese Witherspoon, now in her 30s, has only so many single gal roles left in her.
From our estimates, that leaves Katherine Heigl and Anne Hathaway -- based on the grosses of 27 Dresses and Bride Wars -- to shoulder the genre. But that's not suggesting they're interested (something which, for example, Rachel McAdams was not).
Who else do we see as potential rivals/peers to Heigl and Hathaway? Mamma Mia!'s Amanda Seyfried, who's currently enjoying a substantial arc on HBO's Big Love as the pregnant unwed daughter of renegade Mormon polygamists? Emily Blunt, sought by both the producers of Jack Black's next comedy and the makers of Iron Man 2? Carey Mulligan, the Sundance It Girl who just signed opposite Ewan McGregor in his next film? Juno's Ellen Page who, after being catapulted to fame, has been curiously absent from multiplexes for the past while? Or could it be Mary Elizabeth Winstead who, after playing Bruce Willis' daughter in Live Free or Die Hard, just landed the role of Michael Cera's love interest in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, director Edgar Wright's follow-up to Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz?
VAN DAMME-IT: He's conspicuously absent from The Expendables -- Sylvester Stallone's forthcoming riff on 1980s-style boneheaded action for which even Dolph Lundgren has been resuscitated -- so Jean-Claude Van Damme tells totalfilm.com his next movie is going to be -- wait for it -- Bloodsport 2. Apparently, he's going to ignore the previous Bloodsports 2-4 as well as any career momentum he received from JCVD.
NO MORE MARTINIZED OSCARS? Two-time Oscar host Steve Martin has high hopes for Hugh Jackman's turn next week.
"I think he'll be good," Martin told us in New York last week. "He hosted the Tonys, so he's got experience. It's a different way to go, why not?
Though the Academy Awards have gone for comics in recent years, it's also been shocked -- shocked! -- when some of them were perceived to have insulted certain people or otherwise "crossed the line" (David Letterman, Chris Rock, etc.).
It seems like a comedian's hell-gig.
"But y'know what? I disagree," Martin says. "Those moments may be questions of taste, but in fact, they (movie stars and studio power brokers) love it when you talk about them as long as you keep it lighthearted.
"They're so nervous. I think it's one of the best audiences in showbusiness. I loved doing it. Although I don't want to do it anymore, because the pressure is enormous. If I were hosting it, I would be thinking about nothing else between December and almost March."
PETA PAUSE: Sometimes you see things in the "trivia" section of the Internet Movie Database and you feel compelled to ask for more details.
Like the note in Chris Evans' bio that he's a "former vegetarian."
Evans -- Fantastic Four's Human Torch, currently in Push -- says it was because he was literally turning green. Having embraced the veggies at the behest of an ex-girlfriend, he says "I was just getting even thinner than I am now. I had a hard time putting on weight, and some of my friends said I was getting green. I'm incredibly pale anyway. I don't know what was missing, but they all said I had a greenish hue.
"Finally, I was, like, 'Hamburger, please.' "
