Reneging Sean Penn Knocks Three Stooges Down to Two

A potentially fascinating bit of casting madness now may never come to pass: Sean Penn has dropped out of the Farrelly brothers' The Three Stooges, where he was to play Larry opposite Jim Carrey as Curly and Benicio del Toro as Moe. His reason? He's taking a leave of absence from Hollywood to focus on his family (in the wake of a dismissed decision to divorce wife Robin Wright Penn). So what does this portend for the project?

Potentially, the Farrellys could wait a year or so for Penn, but that seems unlikely as an August start date was scheduled and last we heard, Carrey was gaining weight for the project.

More probably is that the Farrellys, who've already waited a long time to mount their dream project, will simply recast the role. Ben Stiller, start growing your hair out!

· Sean Penn backs out of two films [THR]