There are few roles for actresses more thankless than the “best friend” part in a romantic comedy. She's the brunette when the lead actress is blonde, a little chubby when the main character is svelte, and gets to cheer on the lead without ever having a life of her own.
So take a moment to have a heart for Mary Lynn Rajskub, the 24 actress who will play Amy Adams' best friend in Julie & Julia, an upcoming romantic comedy based on a book based on a blog based, in part, on Julia Child's book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Got all that? The Hollywood Reporter says Rajskub will play a character called Helen, whom I don't particularly remember from the book but will probably stand in for the plethora of family and friends who were in the book (and in the author, Julie Powell's, real life).
Rajskub has had roles in all sorts of romantic comedies before, like Legally Blonde 2 and Sweet Home Alabama, and she's also acted alongside Amy Adams before, in the Sundance movie Sunshine Cleaning. She's on familiar territory, for sure, and will know how to be supportive and funny next to the main character without, you know, stealing the show.
I'm not terribly excited about the movie, despite the fact that Meryl Streep is playing Julia Child, since I wasn't crazy about the book and director Nora Ephron seems all too likely to make it even worse. So, best of luck to Rajskub and everyone else, but this casting news just seems to be more evidence that the movie will be plain, boring rom-com at its worst.
