First-time screenwriter Elizabeth Meriwether had already earned fans among the New York art-kid scene with plays like Heddatron (Hedda Gabler meets - what else? - robots), but it was a television pilot entitled Sluts that got her on the fast track to a Hollywood screenwriting career. Sluts didn't get picked up, but it did bring her to the attention of filmmaker Ivan Reitman, who threw out an idea for her to expand into a script. The resulting F*ckbuddies hit the Black List and turned into last weekend's box office topper No Strings Attached -- not a bad way to make your Hollywood screenwriting debut.
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Last year's Greenberg may have marked Greta Gerwig's entrance into mainstream cinema -- when you come from the world of making nano-budgeted improvised films with your friends, a Noah Baumbach project is a big film - but 2011 will be the year the indie darling truly goes Hollywood. In this week's friends-with-benefits comedy No Strings Attached, Gerwig stands out as Natalie Portman's level-headed BFF; in April, she'll play the object of Russell Brand's affections in Arthur. And next month, she'll vie for her first major acting award at the Spirit Awards, nominated (opposite No Strings Attached co-star Portman) for her work as a winsome Los Angeleno in Greenberg.
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After spending the last five years out of the director's chair (during which time he produced no fewer than eight films including Disturbia, Hotel for Dogs, Chloe, son Jason's Up in the Air, and Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day), comedy veteran Ivan Reitman has gone back to the basics. For Reitman (Stripes, Animal House) that means taking the time to personally shepherd his scripts, making movies about people who talk like real people, and as in his latest film No Strings Attached, it means sex jokes. Lots of sex jokes.
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