Dear Internet: Stop Spoiling Surprise Celebrity Film Cameos

The news that Zach Galifianakis will have a cameo appearance in Nicholas Stoller's upcoming and untitled Muppet movie pinged around the Internet yesterday like a virus. (Thanks for that, Robert Downey, Jr.) What excitement at the thought of the bearded Zach sharing screentime with Grover or Gonzo! Could it be any more perfect? Well, yes: It could have remained a secret until the movie opened in 2011.

This isn't another one of those, "Things were better before the Internet ruined everything!" posts...well, actually maybe it is. I understand that celebrity cameos will likely wind up in the marketing materials before films are released (especially when the celebrities in question possess a lofty stature of fame; see: Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Expendables), but this web fascination with spoiling cameos before they even shoot has gotten completely out-of-hand. I know: RDJ spilled these beans on Galifianakis' appearance and not some intrepid reporter -- but you know it won't be long before we know every last detail of his Muppet cameo, from his character name to his lunch order on the day of filming.

Speaking of Galifianakis: Much has obviously been made about the decision to hire and then fire Mel Gibson from his role in The Hangover 2. However, whether it was hypocritical for the cast to force Gibson out (when they clearly didn't have a problem with convicted rapist Mike Tyson yucking it up on set in the first film) is irrelevant. More important is this: The reason complaints about Tyson's cameo in The Hangover weren't a lightning rod for the film was because hardly anyone knew about its existence until Tyson showed up in the first trailer. If it's true that peer pressure had a hand in Galifianakis' vocal displeasure with Gibson's potential Hangover 2 appearance, then don't you think the peer pressure would have been significantly lessened if the entire planet didn't know the cameo was happening?

We'll never know that answer, of course, and now The Hangover 2 is left with Liam Neeson in the Gibson role, which simply doesn't work. Gibson is a sideshow freak who audiences would have laughed at because of his shocking appearance; Neeson is the dude from Taken. Who cares? You could make the argument that sight unseen, Neeson won't be as good for the movie as Gibson would have been, and you might be right.

This goes deeper than cameos, though; deeper than the fun of Bill Murray's appearance in Zombieland being ruined because it was so widely known. The shift toward "how the sausage is made" news stories has sorta crippled the sense of wonder and anticipation that in-development films used to possess.

We all chuckled at J.J. Abrams's sense of secrecy and misdirection during the initial stages of Super 8's development, but maybe he had it right: Maybe in 2010, the only way to make sure you can legitimately surprise the audience is to lie, deny and misdirect. At this moment, I'm assuming Todd Phillips and Nicholas Stoller are wishing they took a page out of Abrams's handbook.