Cameron Diaz and Stephen Merchant’s rom-com delight

Good news, rom-com heads! Not only is You, Me & Tuscany in theaters this weekend, but Cameron Diaz is currently filming an upcoming rom-com in New York. The film, which is currently untitled, stars Diaz and Stephen Merchant, who is also directing, and is co-produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s shingle, Point Grey. This is a lot of comedy bona fides in this rom-com.

The film is about a busy man, played by Merchant, who needs a fake wife, played by Diaz. If You, Me & Tuscany is pulling the “lying about a man you don’t know” trope out of the drawer, this untitled rom-com is dusting off the ole “pretend partners” trope. We’re going back to The Proposal, Can’t Buy Me Love, Sabrina (either version), Failure to Launch, and the ultimate pretend partners rom-com: Pretty Woman. No one is ever topping Pretty Woman in the “pretend partners fall in love” stakes, but Cameron’s curly hair and cool wardrobe on set is giving a little Vivian Ward realness.

I am also excited to see Stephen Merchant in a rom-com. How will this work?! Brits are either GREAT at rom-coms (see also: Hugh Grant), or TERRIBLE (see also: Ralph Fiennes). There is no middle ground. And Merchant is an intriguing romantic lead. He’s six-foot-seven, so he has real “climb him like a tree” energy, and he is legitimately funny—he co-created The Office—so there’s a lot of potential here. He’s also very cute—that boyish smile!—but he IS crazy tall, so it’s sort of off-putting, too. Merchant has made his career being a loomer on screen, his characters are consistently good-natured weirdos who cannot help but loom. How is that going to translate in a rom-com setting? Just IMAGINE the degree of LEANING this man can perform.

Cameron Diaz is beautiful and funny and charismatic, I know she can sell big rom-com energy. Stephen Merchant is more offbeat, but I am very into him starring opposite Cameron in a pretend partners rom-com. And yes, all of this has been an elaborate ruse to remind everyone that Stephen Merchant starred as Monsieur Toilette in the live-action Beauty of the Beast. In case you were wondering, though the scene was cut from the final film, it is now canon that the Beast was, in fact, sh-tting in someone’s mouth all along.