Casting the Inevitable Charlie Sheen / 'Two and a Half Men' TV Movie
Between the nonstop interviews and webcasts, Tweets, celebrity reactions and online parodies, the seemingly neverending Charlie Sheen saga is rife with material for a dramatic made-for-TV movie.Clearly this whole 'Two and a Half Men' tragedy (I mean the fallout from Sheen's departure, not the actual show) is bound to get a seedy tell-all deal when the dust settles and a rehab doctor finally gets all of the tiger blood out of Sheen's system. See: the TV movies surrounding the 'Charlie's Angels' and 'Dynasty' scandals.
Because we're here to help, here are TV Squad's casting picks for the sure-to-be "winning" movie.
Matt LeBlanc is Charlie SheenIf all this madness had broken out before the former 'Friends' star got a new gig on Showtime, he should've gotten the part just to give the poor guy something to do after 'Joey.' But even though he's on TV again, he could still conjure just the right amount of warlock to be the real "MaSheen" we've all come to know.
LeBlanc's a good looking leading man who knows what it's like to fall from grace and then rise above it. So even though he's nowhere near as cocky as the real deal, he could certainly find the proper motivation for the character. Or he could just get really coked up and say the word "winning" a lot.
Matthew Broderick is Jon CryerGranted, the chances of this seasoned stage and screen actor taking on a hammy role in a made for TV tell-all about the messy scenes of a CBS sitcom are about as good as doing another one about 'The Golden Girls' and getting Bea Arthur to play herself. Then again, he did do "Deck the Halls."
Broderick's acting is so good that he could probably destroy the universe with it if physicists found a way to harness his dramatic power into some kind of high-tech laser beam destroying thing (not a technical term). He also just seems like the same "Aww, shucks" nice guy who has probably seen more than his fair share of Charlie Sheens than most people would care to breathe the same air with on a regular basis.
John C. McGinley is Chuck LorreIf Lorre is a victim in this story (as Robert Wuhl's father once said, "judge slowly"), the 'Scrubs' star could certain fill his well-shined and highly expensive Italian shoes nicely.
Sure, he may sound like a better candidate for the Sheen casting category based purely on his irascible performance as the demeaning but well meaning Dr. Cox, but my thinking on this makes him a better candidate for the guy behind the curtain. So far, Lorre has dealt with the brunt of Sheen's spittle-filled rants to anyone who will listen, but he's surely going out of his mind with frustration and worry about how a multimillion dollar show will ever be able to survive the aftermath and impending lawsuit. McGinley turns off pure rage and even-handed emotion faster than you can switch off the TV when a particular horrid episode of 'Two and a Half Men' comes on, depending on how fast you can get to the TV because you can't find the remote.
Bob Balaban is Stan RosenfieldStan Rosenfield's name might not register many weird bits of pop culture trivia in your mind, but he plays a pretty big role in the careers of some of the biggest names in the movie and TV industry -- including his now-former client, Charlie Sheen.
Sheen's former publicist found himself in the spotlight when he became so exasperated trying to pick up the pieces of Sheen's dwindling public image that he dumped the former TV star. Balaban would be perfect for the role in looks alone, but he also seems to possess a unique, business-like quality to his acting roles -- particularly in movies like the detail-oriented producer in "A Mighty Wind" and the even more exasperated TV executive in the HBO movie version of Bill Carter's 'Late Shift' book about the battle for 'The Tonight Show' between Jay Leno and David Letterman.
Bruce McGill is Alex JonesIt takes a crazy mind to let an equally crazy man completely throw away his entire career by doing something monumentally stupid ... twice. Meet the guy who brought Charlie Sheen into every home in the world AFTER he got kicked out of television.
Jones is the nationally syndicated conspiracy radio host who started pontificating about globalized governments and fascist dictatorships taking over the country long before Glenn Beck made it profitable and even more amusing. Jones befriended Sheen, then welcomed him as a guest on his show to announce to the world his wild theories about how the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center were staged. Jones was the first to give Sheen a voice that led to his inevitable road to crazy town, and in turn gave Jones a national spotlight of his own. McGill could easily fill the madman's role because five minutes of Jones' radio schtick immediately brings to mind McGill's motorhead madman D-Day in 'Animal House' or the short-tempered, hard-charging lawyer in 'The Insider.'

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