Bitch from the Past

I love it: Kristen Bell is coming to a movie theater near me – and she’s bringing Betty White with her when she goes.

In Sept. 24’s You Again, Bell plays a woman whose brother intends to marry the bitch from high school (Odette Yustman) who made her teenage years a living hell.

The comedy co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis as Bell’s mom, Sigourney Weaver as Bell’s mom’s own rival, and Kristin Chenoweth, and White as – what else? – Bell’s force-of-nature grandma:

Life on Neptune

Attention, Veronica Mars fans: A movie based on the dearly departed cult show is being talked about by its two most important players, show creator Rob Thomas, and star Kristen Bell.

The two met last week in the offices of Thomas’ Hollywood-based production company, located on the same lot where Bell is shooting NBC’s Heroes.

“Kristen and I ran into each other, and we did discuss a Veronica Mars movie," said Thomas. “It’s very tough to focus on it right now with two pilots [a reworking of his 1990’s dramedy Cupid and an adaptation of the New Zealand series Outrageous Fortune] on my plate. But as soon as I have any free time, that’s my top priority.”

For her part, a more cautious Bell said, “We’ll see.”

Please, you two, make it happen. Pretty please, with lots of wit on top of it.

Photo: EW.com.

All Hail the Next Queen of Geek and Summer

Veronica Mars may have been cancelled (don’t even get me started again), but that doesn’t mean we now have to out-of-sight-out-of-mind Kristen Bell.

Thankfully, Bell has a couple of movies a-comin’, so that should give her cult following some sweet release.

Up first is January’s geekalicious Fanboys, in which a group of Star Wars fans travel to Skywalker Ranch to see The Phantom Menace before it is released.

And in May’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Bell co-stars as a television star – the titular Sarah Marshall – whom devastated ex Peter (Jason Segel, of TV’s How I Met Your Mother) is trying to forget by taking a Hawaiian vacation…only to come face to face with her and her new boyfriend.

I adore Bell so I believe cartoon birds braided her hair this morning. You see it, too, right?

Photo: BartCop.com.

Wonder What She Knew...

Kristen Bell is going to follow in Melissa McCarthy’s footsteps.

Meaning she is going to play a part in the funny lady’s next movie.

Bell is joining the Tammy star – and Kathy Bates and Peter Dinklage – in Michelle Darnell, the story of a fallen titan of industry (the titular character, created and to be portrayer by McCarthy, natch) who is sent to prison after she gets caught with her hand in the insider-trading jar and who, post-hard time, wants to rebrand herself as America’s latest sweetheart (only to learn that that’s easier said than done).

Bell will take on the role of McCarthy’s mousy former assistant.

Photo: RedCarpet-FashionAwards.com.

Movie Star

The busiest girl of 2009, Kristen Bell (she has like, five movies coming out this year), has signed on to star in the comedy titled You Again.

Bell will play a woman whose brother intends to marry the mean girl from high school who made her teenage years a daily nightmare.

Having seen her kick butt on TV’s Veronica Mars and Heroes, I can all but guarantee Bell can take on anyone – and that I’ll watch her in anything.

Photo: GettyImages.com.

For Burlesque the Bell Bitches

Yes, finally, Kristen Bell’s going to channel the bitch within her!

The actress has been cast in the getting-more-must-y-with-each-casting-scoop, Christina Aguilera-Cher-starring Burlesque, which also will feature Cam Gigandet and Stanley Tucci.

Bell will play Nikki, “the loose-cannon lead dancer and main attraction at the club who spirals out of control when Aguilera’s character suddenly gets the spotlight.”

Loves it!

Photo: EW.com.

The Bell of the Ball

The phenomenal Kristen Bell joins the cast of Heroes tonight – and she’s going to dominate the show, I betcha; a good thing since its sophomore season has been rather lackluster so far.

“[My character, Elle]’s a little messed up in the head, which makes her manipulative and out to get what she wants,” the erstwhile Veronica Mars told TVGuide.com last week.

“She very much enjoys her power and the emotional power it gives her over other people.”

Series creator Tim Kring has said that Bell’s character was raised within the Company, the shadowy organization that tracks the heroes for its own gain, and that her arc is in some ways a cautionary tale about what would happen to any of the other characters, “had they lived with powers their whole life.”

Look for Elle to reveal ties with several of the show’s more established characters in the coming weeks – and steal scenes like it’s going out of style.

Photo: TVGuide.com.

Have I Ever Told You That She's My Hero

This is super.

Like, S to the U to the P to the E to the R super.

Veronica Mars star Kristen Bell has been cast in a “key multi-episode arc” for the second season of Heroes.

Bell will debut on the show in October as Elle, “a sexy, mysterious young lady who has ties to at least three characters, including Hayden Panettiere’s Claire and Milo Ventimiglia’s Peter.

Landing the in-demand actress “was not easy to pull off,” Heroes creator Tim Kring told Variety.

See, sometimes in Hollywood, talent does prevail over antics.

Until quite recently, Bell had been offered the opportunity to get Lost – which obvs, she opted against.

I’m just so glad that come this fall, she will be on my TV screen....

Photo: BuddyTV.com.

The Bell of the Con

One of my faves, Kristen Bell, was at Comic-Con this week, talking up Astro Boy, the computer-animated 3-D flick based on the Japanese phenomenon in which she voices the role of Cora. (Charlie and Chocolate Factory star Freddie Highmore lends his pipes to title role.)

Of course, Bell was asked about the Con (she’s a veteran, you see), Veronica Mars, the possibility of a movie, and her voiceover work on TV’s Gossip Girl.

And boy, did she answer. She even said she would be up for appearing on the CW show.

I like that she gives fans what they want.

Photo: SideReel.com.

Roman Holiday

I love me some Kristen Bell, so I’m not going to dwell on the fact that her movie When in Rome was supposed to come out this month but has been pushed back to January.

I said I’m not…so don’t you, either, OK. Moving on….

In the movie, Bell plays Beth a disillusioned-with-romance ambitious New Yorker who travels to Rome, where she plucks magic coins from a special fountain.

Since she’s disillusioned with romance, the coins, of course, attract an assortment of odd suitors, including a sausage merchant (Danny DeVito), a street magician (Napoleon Dynamite’s Jon Heder), and an artist (Will Arnett). Dax Shepard and his insane abs are in the movie, too, btw.

But, when Nick, a persistent reporter (Josh Duhamel), throws his hat in the ring, the woman begins to wonder if his love is the real thing.

Aw, cute….

I can’t wait to see Bell as a big-screen leading lady in the rom-com.

Photo: Walt Disney Pictures.

She’s Electrifying!

Well, it’s official: Kristen Bell’s not done being a Hero.

Putting the kibosh on the speculation, Bell will reprise her NBC’s Heroes role as Elle, an agent of the Company who harnesses electricity to zap her opponents.

The actress will appear in a new, multiple episode arc during the show’s third season this fall.

“I’m just happy to be electrocuting people again!” Bell told People.

And I’m happy you’re happy, K.B.

Photo: People.com.

Munster Duty

So NBC and the man behind the gone-too-soon Pushing Daisies, Bryan Fuller, are developing a reboot of The Munsters, right.

Guess who they would adore to play Marilyn.

Done guessing?

None other than Kristen Bell.

I. Die.

“Are you kidding me?” Fuller said. “Kristen would be perfect.” He also explains that the Munster clan’s “plain” cousin will be much more pivotal than she was in the original 1960s TV show in this Modern Family-meets-True Blood take. “She is our eyes into the world in the sense that we all can relate to our families exhibiting some level of monstrous behavior.

“This version [of the show] has teeth and isn’t afraid to use them,” he said. “For example, the story begins when young Eddie unexpectedly manifests as a werewolf on a scout camping trip and inadvertently eats two of his fellow scouts.”

Bell would be a fantastic choice for this, IMHO, and would make this must-watch TV for sure.

Photo: JustJared.BuzzNet.com.

A Cute Case of LBS

“Lincoln Bell Shepard is here.”

And just like that, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard announced the happy arrival of their first daughter yesterday.

“She has mom’s beauty and dad’s obsession with breasts. Hooray!!!”

Could the House of Lies and Parenthood be any more adorable?

Photo: People.com.

Keep the Faith, Mars-ians!

Kristen Bell wants us to remain hopeful a movie based on her dearly departed show Veronica Mars will happen some day.

Or at least such a project isn’t off the table for her.

“We are still working on it,” she recently said. “We are – we, like the few people involved that have it in our hearts [including show creator Rob Thomas] are still assessing all of our options and game-planning it.”

Bell says that the creative team still known on the powers that be’s door every so often, championing the movie, but that money may be getting in the way, as it would.

“The reality is we need a few million dollars to do it and that’s a lot of money. It’s difficult to convince a studio to take a risk when you’re proposing to them to make a movie of a television show that’s been off the air for four years.”

We may need to start a fund....

Photo: Jesda.com.

A Lively Girl

No one could ever make me forget Kristen Bell or The CW’s Veronica Mars, but someone just might help me forgive the network for canceling the show.

That someone could very well be Blake Lively, who has upgraded her Traveling Pants for the more sophisticated look of a Gossip Girl.

As the star of one of the new shows exec produced by Josh “The O.C.” Schwartz (the other is NBC’s Chuck), Lively is on the brink of super stardom. You’ll understand why when the buzzed-about Gossip Girl debuts on Sept. 19.

Another major thing this show has going for it? Bell has taken on voice-over duties. It’s a show after my own heart.

Photo: USAToday.com.

Consulting

I loathe to say it, but Kristen Bell has had a hard time breaking through and becoming the star the sorely missed Veronica Mars promised she’d be.

After that little-seen TV show ended its too-short run, the actress went on to take on a thankless role on Heroes…and to mediocre big-screen projects that did little to elevate her to American Sweetheart status.

Oh, and she was squandered in Burlesque. And girlfriend can shake it and sing. Don’t remind me of that terrible example of underutilization….

But I digress.

Now, much like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Bell is eyeing a return to the tube.

She has signed on to play a sharp Ivy League grad that works alongside a cutthroat consultant (Don Cheadle), to whom she’s reluctantly attracted, on the Showtime pilot House of Lies.

I hope the powers that be will make her character super-clever, and sassy, and that, given she’ll be on premium cable, she’ll have quite a hilarious bite to her. She deserves it.

Photo: DaemonsMovies.com.

Wait a Minute Baby

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is an It-Funny-Guy-Judd Apatow-produced comedy written by and starring Jason Segel (TV’s How I Met Your Mother), about a dude who gets dumped by an up-and-coming Young Hollywood starlet, and the awkwardness that ensues when he runs into her and her new musician boyfriend while trying to get away from it all in Hawaii.

That’s the plot in a nutshell.

And here’s why I liked it:

Kristen Bell: I never thought I’d see the erstwhile Veronica Mars in any of the many wild positions her titular role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall required of her, but last night I did.

And although my mouth dropped, I admire her all the more for it.

There’s an irresistible twinkle in Bell’s eye that makes the most outrageous scene maintain an irreproachable classiness. That’s rare and quite special.

Jason Segel: He based the script partly on his own break-ups, and brought enough humility, humor, and gravitas to a role that called for full frontal male nudity –something that’s rather elusive in studio movies.

Courageously, he went there and beyond, showing us that yes, big boys cry.

Here’s what I didn’t like:

In spite of an inherently funny premise, Forgetting Sarah Marshall could’ve used a better running time-joke formula for success.

Some of the funniest, most quotable lines were said too quickly in a movie that unfortunately, ran too long.

Alright, so my worry that this wasn’t going to be a fun time at the movie theater was ultimately unwarranted, but this wasn’t a taut movie. It had enough charisma to make up for its unfunny bits, though.

My Rating **1/2

Photo: Universal Pictures.

The Couple That Hits Together

That Kristen Bell and that Dax Shepard are just adorable.

When he’s not surprising her with a sloth for her birthday, the guy’s like, writing a movie for him to co-direct and co-star with her.

Now, that’s the sign of true Hollywood love right there.

The Parenthood breakout did just that when he thought up Hit and Run, a caper road comedy that has him playing a former getaway driver (Ryan Gosling, you sure started a trend, dude) who comes out of witness protection to drive his longtime gf (Bell) to L.A. so she can make it to her dream job.

Hilarity and complications arise once his past stars to want to catch up with him, though.

See how it all shakes when Hit and Run arrives in theaters on Aug. 24.

Photo: EW.com.

A Changing Bitch

Kristen Bell to NBC’s rescue!

Well, kinda sorta.

The Showtime star (House of Lies) has been cast opposite Ted Danson on Good Place, a new straight-to-series 13-ep comedy that the Peacock has commissioned from Mike Schur, the co-creator of Parks and Recreation. Fret not, though, House of Lies fans: The actress will remain a part of that show.

Phew.

On Good Place, though, Bell will play a woman from New Jersey – look who’s having a moment, America! – who realizes that she pretty much has been sucking as a person all her life. The funny comes from her trying to change by finally learning the difference between good and bad.

Danson will play her reluctant mentor during this journey toward self-betterment.

Sounds earnest enough to work.

Photo: Slate.com.

Not Just Any Girl

Kristen Bell can’t help it if men won’t get over her.

The actress and sloth fan is going to play an ex of Adam Brody’s in the film adaptation of the play Some Girls.

Bell’s character is described as a young woman that Brody’s unceremoniously dumped some time ago, leaving her with no lost love for they guy.

Bet she won’t be making things too easy for him, huh.

Not that she should.

Photo: HollywoodReporter.com.