14 | Judd Apatow
Creating a brand-new ideal for Hollywood's
leading man
WHAT HE'S CHANGING: Not long ago, the Hollywood male ideal was a six-packed faceman who could smash a meteor headed toward Earth. Now he's a schlubby pot smoker with an aimless job and an infinite knowledge of crap television and Web porn. For that you can thank Apatow, whose crudely cute Everyman sensibility drove Knocked Up, Superbad, Pineapple Express and Forgetting Sarah Marshall and launched the careers of anti-Pitts Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Jason Segel.
FRENEMIES SAY: Knocked Up star Katherine Heigl said it was "hard to love" the movie because it was "a little sexist."
SIGNATURE MOVE: Seemingly ad-libbed pop-culture riffs like the scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin: "You know how I know you're gay? You like Coldplay."
NEXT FIGHT: His upcoming Funny People looks like Tuesdays With Billy Madison: Adam Sandler as a comic who thinks he's dying mentoring Rogen.
KEY QUOTE: "I always thought of myself as a nerdy guy. I relate to underdogs. It may be my way of saying to every girl who broke up with me, 'Why'd you do it?'"