Julie & Julia opened with a $20 million box office weekend, Oscar buzz and the added bonus of a sales boost for Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Just like past film cancer clusters Armageddon/Deep Impact and Dante's Peak/Volcano, it won't be long before a studio rolls out another project with a celebrity chef/normal person pairing. Fortunately, the Julie & Julia recipe allows for easy substitutions. Here are a few ideas for the next course.
Robby & Bobby
Recently released sex offender Robby Varrato (Harry Connick Jr.) embarks upon an ambitious twelve step program to recovery, with step four requiring him to cook every recipe in "Bobby Flay's Boy Meets Grill" for the neighbors who just found out about his sex offender status. Meanwhile celebrity chef Bobby Flay purchases a controlling interest in the New York Mets.
Giana & Giada
Northern New Jersey nanny Giana (Marissa Jaret Winokur) hopes to break out of her local celebrity sister's shadow. While watching the Food Network, she realizes that she could eclipse her sister's fame with her own cable cooking show. By emulating Giada De Laurentiis's "Everyday Italian," Giana builds up a YouTube following and eventually lands a tryout at the Food Network. Meanwhile in a parallel storyline, Giada de Laurentiis tries to convince a skeptical publishing industry that her new cookbook "The Joy of Transfats" would be a positive career step.
Stan & Yan
Stan Kim (John Cho) is a socially awkward particle physicist who pines for Grace (Ming-Na), his equally antisocial lab mate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. While attending a Sunday dinner at his parent's house, he discovers a copy of "Martin Yan's Quick and Easy." Will Stan's kitchen experiments yield the optimal results with Grace? And will Martin Yan be able to get his precocious granddaughter to Long Beach in time for her beauty pageant?
Rachael & Rochelle
Rochelle (Vanessa Lengies), a 25 year-old junior college student, finds out that she is pregnant and purchases Rachael Ray's "30-Minute Get Real Meals" as a way to satisfy her maternity cravings and cope with the tragic loss of her boyfriend after a local mill accident. Across the country, Rachael Ray copes with her own loss when the Food and Drug Administration recalls her prepackaged Humungo Hamburger Meat, forcing her to foreclose on her Nantucket home.