Ed Helms Inches Ever Closer to Leading Man-dom

· Ed Helms will follow his breakout role in The Hangover with the lead in Cedar Rapids, an Alexander Payne-produced, Miguel Arteta-directed comedy about a mopey insurance agent who travels to an industry convention in an attempt to save his colleagues' jobs. Think of it like a metaphor for The Office, with the increasingly threatened Steve Carell and John Krasinski nudging their powerful co-star behind the scenes to maybe "maybe talk to Ben" about a salary boost for season seven. Strength in numbers, etc. [Variety]

Avatar trickles out in Hollywood, John Goodman joins the CIA and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.

· James Cameron brought 24 minutes of Avatar to the Chinese Theater on Thursday, screening the reel for domestic exhibitors who Fox reps said were "enthusiastic" about the forthcoming 3-D opus. Thank God! For a while there I was worried it might go straight to DVD. [THR]

· John Goodman will return to television in The Station, a Ben Stiller-produced Fox pilot about a ragtag group of CIA operatives in South America charged with installing a new dictator. [Variety]

· Inferno Entertainment has picked up the rights to Bad Girls, Alex McAulay's 2005 novel that has been favorably (I think) compared to Lord of the Flies meets Heathers. Either way, Inferno nabbed it from turnaround at MTV Films, and I think we all know how the last rummage through MTV's book-rights dustbin turned out. Well played, Inferno. [THR]

· Here come the Canadians! Scott Speedman, Bruce Greenwood and Macha Grenon have all enlisted for Barney's Version, director Richard Lewis's (no, not that Richard Lewis) tale of an Alzheimer's-afflicted man recounting what he can of his life. American nobodies Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman co-star. [THR]