It’s time for the LaineyGossip Hotness Litmus Test! Picture Paul Rudd on top of you. Anything? I got nothing. I know that Paul Rudd does it for many of you and that he has for a long time. I get it. He’s not new. Paul Rudd has been that dependable, generically handsome comedic relief for decades. Like his face, his reliability doesn’t change. But I still don’t care. Ant-Man was fine but no one is rushing out to see the sequel.
Duana and I were texting about the appeal of Paul Rudd and she put it like this:
“He makes me laugh, but I always wish Mark Ruffalo was there instead.”
Exactly. I like Paul Rudd when he’s around but I’m not going seek him out. Like an apple. If there’s an apple available, I’ll eat it and enjoy it but I’m not going to the grocery store to stock up on apples, you know? For Duana, her Paul Rudd food comparison is carrots. If we’re going vegetables, I’d say celery. I’m not going to actively put celery in a salad but if it’s in there I’m like, “Oh, a nice light crunch! OK!”
Are we fighting? Apparently, the Internet thirst (hunger? my food metaphor is getting lost) for Paul Rudd is strong. After the trailer for his new movie Ideal Home was released, Twitter blew up. My timeline was littered with tweets like this:
It’s been hours since I’ve seen this look on Paul Rudd and I can’t seem to think about anything else pic.twitter.com/I8NqVnS0pJ
— Tom Zohar (@TomZohar) April 11, 2018
I mean, sure. He looks better than the average Paul Rudd but still average. Every second white dude on the street in 2018 looks like this. Full disclosure: my partner basically has this haircut and the one thing I ask of him is to grow his beard to this length but he never listens. I also love a man in a good pair of glasses. This should be doing it for me and still, I got nothing for Paul Rudd.
As for the movie, it’s not exactly doing it for me either but it’s got promise. Ideal Home is about a gay couple (Rudd and Steve Coogan) who unexpectedly end up taking in a kid. So it’s like the gay Life As We Know It, the not-as-bad-as-it-looked rom-com about Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel becoming instant parents. Ideal Home looks better than Life As We Know It and it’s got Paul Rudd and Steve Coogan so it should be good, right? Well, the film was shot two years ago and the trailer isn’t great. It relies on easy jokes that feel a little dated. The second half of the trailer stops playing for laughs and goes for the schmaltz. Now, they’re speaking my language. I’m all for a feel-good romantic dramedy about a kid and his two dads figuring out life together.
Ideal Home is directed by Andrew Fleming (The Craft, Dick) and also stars Alison Pill. Watch the trailer below and feel free to yell at me about your Paul Rudd crushes.
Also attached for Duana… Mark Ruffalo.