Judd Apatow

In this era of guy-centric bromantic dude-fests, who would have thought the future of Hollywood comedy just might be a married, fortysomething mother from Seattle? With her film "Humpday," which has been turning the festival circuit on its ear since its premiere at Sundance on its way toward hitting theaters in July, Lynn Shelton has managed to both outdo the dudes and create a style all her own.

Comedies are often the most talked-about movies of the year, but even the good ones are often overlooked when it comes to awards season. Hoping to buck the trend is "Bridesmaids," the raunchy, female-driven ensemble that racked up close to $170 million at the box office this summer, spawned a slew of copycat scripts and served as a touchpoint for a women-in-comedy discussion. The film received an unexpected boost Wednesday when it received two nominations from the Screen Actors Guild — one for performance by a cast and a supporting female actor nod for Melissa McCarthy.

The Improv was packed with prominent wisecrackers, Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill among them. But as writer-director Judd Apatow was filming one "Funny People" scene at the Hollywood comedy club, the laughs were few and far between. Apatow was more than halfway through principal photography last December, and like many scenes in his movie about a comedian's brush with mortality, Sandler's character George Simmons wasn't in a joking mood.

Bring up the year's surprise hit comedy "Bridesmaids" and most moviegoers think immediately of the outrageous, über-raunchy food poisoning scene, in which the ladies had to vent their gastrointestinal distress amid the pristine environs of an appointment-only bridal salon. Whether you think of that scene as the movie's high point or its low point, it's interesting to discover that it wasn't actually added to the script until well into the moviemaking process, when producer Judd Apatow pitched it to the screenwriters.

"I love Maria Bamford. She makes me laugh. I think she's hysterically funny. She performs all over the place [in LA]. Have you seen her? She's so funny ? she's one of the few people that really makes you laugh hard, who's doing something so interesting and insane. She does a lot of voices. She has a very high voice and she does a lot of characters and people in her life ? with deep voices ? and it's just a unique, bizarre act. I've seen a lot of comics and it takes a lot to make me laugh really hard.

BOOKS Filmmaker Judd Apatow and writer and editor Dave Eggers team up to present a night of comedy and music to celebrate the release of Apatow's book, "I Found This Funny," which is an anthology of humor writing that Apatow curated. The book includes the writing of Steve Martin, Nora Ephron, David Sedaris and others. The night of entertainment includes appearances by the likes of Lindsey Buckingham, Randy Newman and Garry Shandling. Proceeds benefit 826LA, Eggers' tutoring and writing program.

Judd Apatow and his wife, Leslie Mann , have sold their Pacific Palisades home for $5.26 million, the Multiple Listing Service shows. The traditional house sits behind gates on nearly an acre at the end of a cul-de-sac. Built in 1997, the 6,000-square-foot home evokes an older period with its wood-paneled library with a fireplace and secret room. In addition to the five bedrooms and 51/2 bathrooms, there is a family room, a playroom and a butler's pantry with a temperature-controlled wine room.

Filmmaker Judd Apatow and author Dave Eggers seem an unlikely pairing ? one is an A-list, broad comedy writer-director-producer prone to fart jokes and penis cameos ("The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up," "Superbad" and "Pineapple Express" are among Apatow's hugely successful credits); the other is a somewhat headier literary hipster who has penned an acclaimed memoir, several novels and just enough screenplays to earn some Hollywood cred (Eggers wrote "Where the Wild Things Are" and co-wrote, with his wife, Vendela Vida, "Away We Go")

AS an 11-year-old growing up on Long Island, Judd Apatow began each week by studying the newspaper's TV section and highlighting all talk show guests of Mike Douglas, Dinah Shore and company. He spent afternoons holed up in his room watching TV, hanging out in his head with Charles Nelson Reilly. "I couldn't have had more fun in the saddest, lonely way," he says. "There was a period when I would get home at 3 and watch TV until 11, and I couldn't be happier."

It was just about this time last summer when life changed in a big way for Aubrey Plaza, who can currently be seen as Seth Rogen's love interest in the new Judd Apatow film "Funny People." She had come to Los Angeles from New York for a final audition for her role in the Apatow film and in short order also landed a part in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" -- the next film from "Hot Fuzz" director Edgar Wright -- as well as a supporting role as a blase intern on the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation."

Although it may seem a classic case of grasping at straws, the one positive thing that can be said about this fall season is that it has been equally tough on both genders. While female characters revisited the Madonna/whore trope, cramming themselves into girdles ("Pan Am," "The Playboy Club") and dialogue seemingly lifted from a Judd Apatow-inspired video game ("Whitney," "2 Broke Girls"), male characters revealed their inner morons, getting lost looking for the cheese aisle ("Up All Night")

The results are in: "Bridesmaids," the much-hyped girl-raunch comedy touted as the long-awaited antidote to Judd Apatow's "bromance" phenomenon, opened way bigger than expected at the box office, thereby proving that women can be just as funny -- and, moreover, sell as many tickets -- as men. (Apatow, it should be noted, is a producer on the film.) Billed in its tagline as evidence that "chick flicks don't have to suck," "Bridesmaids" is being seen as a watershed, a final blow to the notion that women in Hollywood comedies have two choices: the predictable, bland heroines endemic to romantic comedies or the improbably hot love interests of Apatow-style schlubs.

From the first overheated moments of "Bridesmaids," with its Kama Sutra-plus-six-positions sex ? so satisfying for him, so exhausting for her ? it's clear we're in for that rarest of treats: an R-rated romantic comedy from the Venus point of view. For the Mars crowd, that means real people in real relationships, real raunchy, real funny. Thank you, Kristen Wiig for every single one of those old-school Rs. In fact, so unusual is this sort of humor in testosterone-driven ha-ha-Hollywood these days, it almost makes me ha-ha-happy that producer Judd Apatow is currently the industry-anointed 800-pound clown prince, since it probably took all 800 pounds of his princely powers to get this film made.

Kristen Wiig has just come off an average Saturday night, one that required her to wear a 2-foot-high wig, shuffle lethargically around a stripper pole and bury her face in Helen Mirren's cleavage. "I was like, 'Are you cool with this? 'Cause I'm really gonna get in there,'" Wiig said of rehearsing the "magical bosom" scene with the 65-year-old British actress. "She was like, 'Oh yeah. Do whatever you need to do and stay in there as long as you want.' And I did. It's pretty intense in there.

It's been a long time since Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the onetime wunderkind kings of juvenile comedy, ruled the genre. "Dumb & Dumber," the doofus classic that defined a dorm-room generation, was released back in 1994, and the brothers' last bona fide hit, "Shallow Hal," opened nearly a decade ago. Now Peter, 54, and Bobby, 52, are attempting a comeback by exploring more, er, adult problems. This weekend they open "Hall Pass," their first R-rated comedy in 11 years, about two friends whose wives give them permission to cavort like single men for one week.

Judd Apatow and his wife, Leslie Mann , have sold their Pacific Palisades home for $5.26 million, the Multiple Listing Service shows. The traditional house sits behind gates on nearly an acre at the end of a cul-de-sac. Built in 1997, the stately 6,000-square-foot home evokes an older era with a wood-paneled library that has a secret room ? just the place to write a murder-mystery but perhaps not an irreverent comedy? Regardless, a new owner will have five bedrooms, 51/2 bathrooms, a playroom and a butler's pantry with a temperature-controlled wine room.

From the first overheated moments of "Bridesmaids," with its Kama Sutra-plus-six-positions sex ? so satisfying for him, so exhausting for her ? it's clear we're in for that rarest of treats: an R-rated romantic comedy from the Venus point of view. For the Mars crowd, that means real people in real relationships, real raunchy, real funny. Thank you, Kristen Wiig for every single one of those old-school Rs. In fact, so unusual is this sort of humor in testosterone-driven ha-ha-Hollywood these days, it almost makes me ha-ha-happy that producer Judd Apatow is currently the industry-anointed 800-pound clown prince, since it probably took all 800 pounds of his princely powers to get this film made.

In her review of "I Love You, Man" ["Again, Just One of the Guys," March 20], Betsy Sharkey wishes it lived up to the Judd Apatow standard. Just a year ago I was wishing Judd Apatow could live up to any standard. How low has cinema comedy dropped where we have to pine for the old, mediocre days? Adam White Burbank

"I love Maria Bamford. She makes me laugh. I think she's hysterically funny. She performs all over the place [in LA]. Have you seen her? She's so funny ? she's one of the few people that really makes you laugh hard, who's doing something so interesting and insane. She does a lot of voices. She has a very high voice and she does a lot of characters and people in her life ? with deep voices ? and it's just a unique, bizarre act. I've seen a lot of comics and it takes a lot to make me laugh really hard.