LT Features

This is Awkward…

Ever catch a preview for a movie that makes you cringe but you can’t put your finger on why?  Then finally you realize, it’s not the plot or the script, it’s not the camera angles or the lighting – it’s the cast.  Like Bad Teacher, for example; the upcoming film that stars Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake who seriously dated for years and are now, apparently, such functional exes that they can co-star in a movie.  Awkward turtle.  But at least they’ve had a few years to get over everything – think of all the couples that dated during a film’s production and then broke things off.  Being a real-life duo is all footloose and fancy free while you’re filming, but try going through an entire press junket with an ex.  Yuckies. 

Then there is the uncomfortable “bitch stole my script” moment when two movies that are freakishly similar come out at the same time.  Like what’s up with Black Swan’s Natalie Portman starring in No Strings Attachedand Black Swan’s Mila Kunis starring in Friends with Benefits (which also stars Justin Timberlake – I’m starting to sense a theme).  I mean, did they not discuss their next projects while working together?  Do you think they got mad and forced their respective leading men, Ashton Kutcher and JT, to give each other hunky-man dirty looks or did they chuckle and say things like “oh, silly Hollywood executives!”  Or, best case scenario, maybe they just ignored the whole situation until after the films were released and said something like “oh, you did a movie about f*** buddies?  Weird, me too!”

But these are all silly inconveniences compared to the Mac Daddy of awkward situations – co-starring with your ex’s new significant other.  If I could just be a fly on the craft services table during the filming breaks of The Lincoln Lawyer… Lord only knows how Ryan Phillippe, my boyfriend, dealt with being around Matthew McConaughey, my ex!  Honestly, sometimes I think my life is morphing into a Nora Ephron screenplay.

L.T.