Reese Witherspoon signs on for The Beard

I wish I could tell you that this movie was about Reese Witherspoon playing a bearded lady. Alas, I cannot. It doesn’t sound as great as all that actually.

Witherspoon will produce and star in THE BEARD, a romantic comedy, which title eludes to: “the “beard” in the title refers to a member of the opposite sex — usually a woman — who acts as a date for a gay person, giving the illusion the person isn’t gay. Story details were not revealed.” Ugh, pass.

At least the actress has THE DEVIL’S KNOT, Atom Egoyan’s take on the West Memphis Three case. There’s also the drama, MUD with Matthew McConaughey. Now, I have enjoyed Witherspoon as a comedic actress, just not in anything recently. She did some excellent work in the nineties with OVERNIGHT DELIVERY (don’t know if you saw that one) and dark comedy, ELECTION. Witherspoon also had some rather hilarious lines in 1996s FREEWAY co-starring Kiefer Sutherland.

If she wants to do comedy, maybe it’s time to return to the darker side of things rather than these mainstream picks.