The Box-Office Smash of Role Models Makes You Ask: Why Isnt Paul Rudd a Bigger Star?

Paul Rudd, whose artful way with a comic line makes bad movies bearable and good ones way better, just moved closer to the stardom he so richly deserves. Role Models, the raunchy, R-rated comedy in which Rudd steals every scene hes in, nearly doubled box-office projections and grossed $19 million in what Variety termed, the biggest surprise of the weekend. OK, Role Models didnt beat the animated kiddie sequel Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, which took in a gargantuan $63 million as America again narcotized itself in family blather. Chihuahuas, high school musical and now this! But Rudd, whos hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend, scored big time in a role that suited his deadpan comic wizardry to a tee. Rudd and co-star Sean William Scott play two losers who are forced to do 150 hours of kid-mentoring community service after destroying public property with their monster truck. Rudd is assigned to mentor McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), but gets huge laughs just by ragging on lifes idiocies like Starbucks using venti to describe a large coffee. So its time to praise Paul Rudd, a supporting actor who is ready for the star spot. Here are my top picks for Rudd at his best. Chime in with yours.

The 40-Year-old Virgin, especially the know-how-I-know-youre-gay riff he does with Seth Rogen.

Rudd: You know how I know that youre gay?

Rogen: How am I gay?

Rudd: Youve seen Rent three times.

Rogen: Being able to appreciate music, dance, and doin guys in the ass is not the same thing.

Rudd: Yeah, but all three of those things comprise the movie Rent.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

As TV reporter Brian Fantana, sex-crazed sidekick to Will Ferrells 1970s-era anchorman, Rudd tossed out the cheesiest dialogue like a master.

Rudd: Ill give this little cookie an hour before were doing the no-pants dance. Time to musk up.

[opens cologne cabinet]Its called Sex Panther by Odeon. Its illegal in nine countries Yep, its made with bits of real panther, so you know its good.

Ferrell: Im gonna be honest with you, that smells like pure gasoline.

Rudd: Theyve done studies, you know. 60% of the time it works, every time.

The Object of My Affection

Rudd plays a gay school teacher who moves in with a pregnant social worker (Jennifer Aniston) so they can raise the baby without the complications of sex. Until she tries to turn him straight. Working with a script by playwright Wendy Wasserstein, Rudd cuts deep into a character that could have been a sitcom cliche like Mike Hannigan, the guy who married Lisa Kudrows Phoebe Buffay on Friends.

The Shape of Things

For those you dont know Rudd can do drama as well as comedy, watch him do both in the film version of this Neil LaBute play in which he plays a fat-assed nerd of a museum security guard who gets a makeover from a sexy art student (Rachel Weisz), and becomes in a display of Rudds scrappiest acting a monster of his own making.