Steve Carell

The drama and romance of "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World," starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightley, starts imploding long before the massive asteroid hurtling toward Earth is due to deliver annihilation. At least it's an ambitious misfire from the filmmaker, screenwriter Lorene Scafaria making a rocky directing debut. The movie ponders what people would do with their final days if the end were a fait accompli . Will anarchy reign or will humanity win out? Will Dodge (Carell)

Click here to download TV listings for the week of June 17 - 23 in PDF format TV listings for the week of June 17 - 23 in PDF format are also available here This week's TV Movies CBS This Morning Author John Coates. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Steve Carell; Mark Bittman; Fun performs. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC Live With Kelly Sissy Spacek; Beth Behrs; Mark Ruffalo; Lisa Rinna; co-host Josh Groban.

Hollywood's usual last-minute heroics don't factor in "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. " In writer-director Lorene Scafaria's opening scene, a space mission to prevent a 70-mile-wide asteroid from hitting Earth fails spectacularly, giving everyone on the planet just three weeks to live. With the clock ticking, Dodge (Steve Carell) and Penny (Keira Knightley) try to figure out how to do just that. Romance and the apocalypse don't seem like obvious movie partners, which is precisely why Scafaria (who wrote "Nick and Norah's Infinite Play List")

Steve Carell didn't mind the slapping. But the man-kissing was too much. During filming for his new movie "Crazy, Stupid, Love," a romantic dramedy about a father attempting to remake himself after his marriage hits the skids, Carell found himself on the receiving end of some surprise high jinks from costar Ryan Gosling. Like smacking. And smooching. When Gosling improvised a scene by administering a strike across the face, Carell didn't break. "All I wanted was for him to hit me harder and harder," the actor said.

Screenwriter Dan Fogelman has the kind of Hollywood story that could make a struggling scribe jump off a very tall building. Working his first Hollywood job some 12 years ago writing TV show blurbs for TV Guide Network, the New Jersey native wrote his first script in his spare time — a coming-of-age story centered around a bar mitzvah. "I thought there might be some agents who were Jewish who would like it," Fogelman says, laughing. "It worked. " Though it was never produced, the screenplay earned Fogelman a manager and an agent, both of whom still oversee his career.

Thursday night, Steve Carell bids goodbye to Michael Scott and "The Office," in which character and series he has lived for seven seasons. Seven years is a long time -- statistically, the average American changes jobs almost twice that often -- and whether or not this is a wise move, it is a creatively understandable one. There have now been about 10 times as many episodes of the American version of "The Office" as there ever were of its British...

Despicable Me Universal, $29.98/$34.98; Blu-ray, $39.98/$49.98 The computer-animated "Despicable Me" follows a supervillain named Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) as he tries to restore his standing in the evildoers' community ? an effort complicated by the arrival of three adorable orphans. The movie's sentimental side is pretty pat, but Gru's various capers are wittily staged, and any scene involving his tiny yellow minions is pure slapstick gold. "Despicable Me" is recommended for parents who want to introduce their kids to actual comedy.

With summer coming to a close, the season's animation underdog is poised to upset a king. "Despicable Me" has sold a total of $236.1 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada. Though its box-office run will end in the next few weeks, the animated family film is almost certain to surpass the $238-million total for "Shrek Forever After," which virtually has finished its time in theaters. "Shrek Forever After" is the fourth entry in a hugely successful animated series from DreamWorks Animation; "Despicable Me" is the first movie from Universal Pictures' new Illumination Entertainment family label and is based on an original story.

Need even more Steve Carell in your life? Talk about "Date Night." The world's best boss, Michael Scott, may be leaving the offices of Dunder Mifflin, but don't get your panties in jello just yet. He's got one season left! You might even do his career a favor by checking out "Dinner for Schmucks." Not into taxidermy? Check out Carell alongside fellow NBC star Tina Fey when the DVD of "Date Night," a screwball comedy about a husband and wife caught in a web of mistaken identity is released.

What do you get when you combine a swell French comedy concept, a top American comedy director and two of the best comedy actors around? Against all reason and expectation, the result is a distinctly unfunny film. That would be "Dinner for Schmucks," starring Steve Carell and Paul Rudd and directed by Jay Roach. The film's noticeable lack of laughs is as baffling as its choice of a once-taboo Yiddish word for its title. Certainly Carell and Rudd, who've worked together in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," are actors who know their way around humor.