Today's Film News: Kristen Bell Forced To Settle

By Katey Rich

We're not sure what Kristen Bell did to deserve this, but apparently the only men worthy of her affections are Napoleon Dynamite, the main character from "Las Vegas" and the poor man's Dane Cook. That's at least what the casting for When in Rome is telling us, now that Jon Heder (Napoleon), Dax Shepard (Employee of the Month) and Josh Duhamel ("Vegas") have joined the cast of the Bell vehicle. She plays a woman who steals enchanted coins in Rome, and suddenly finds herself pursued by a variety of men. Lucky for Bell she at least has Anjelica Huston on her side, playing her boss, the curator of the Guggenheim.

Everyone figured Tony Soprano was unofficially in charge of the tri-state area, but now James Gandolfini will make it a little more official, playing the New York City mayor in the upcoming remake of The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3. John Travolta stars as a criminal who takes a subway car hostage, with Denzel Washington as an enterprising cop on his trail.

I must confess, I have for years confused Thomas Sangster with Freddie Highmore. Both are young British actors with sandy hair and toothy smiles; both were being cast as adorable moppets around the same time, in Love, Actually and Nanny McPhee (Sangster) and Finding Neverland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Highmore). But now Sangster has a chance to break out of the pack. The Hollywood Reporter writes that Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are considering the now-17-year-old actor for the lead role in their adaptation of Tintin, the Belgian comic strip series. Andy Serkis has already been cast in the motion-capture film, as Tintin's companion Captain Haddock.

And finally, Tracy Morgan, Catherine Keener and James Marsden are looking to help Al Gore's daughter Kristin make her Hollywood debut. No, really. The three actors have joined the cast of Nailed, a political comedy set to be directed by David O. Russell with a screenplay he co-wrote with the younger Gore. Jessica Biel is already set to star as a woman who has a nail gun shot into her head, which motivates her to travel to Washington, D.C. and lobby for better health care. She enlists a clueless congressman (Jake Gyllenhaal) to help her with her cause.