Joel McHale lands role in next Anna Faris romantic comedy—because hey, work is work

Combining a guy we unabashedly love with a girl many of us seem to want better things for, Joel McHale is in final negotiations to star alongside Anna Faris in the comedy What’s Your Number?, to begin shooting at the end of May. McHale will reportedly star as Farris’ “mildly charming boss” whom she gets all coworkers-with-benefits with, which immediately sets her off on a trek through her past sexual partners to find “the one that got away”—which sounds a lot like other romantic comedies, such as Little Black Book and Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past, for example. But oh neat, this one comes with its own conceptual twist, as the “number” in the title refers to a number of sexual partners, and the film is said to explore “the idea of sexual quotas and whether such numbers matter.” Bet they don't!

The script is a co-production of Seinfeld/Simpsons writer Jennifer Crittenden and Scrubs writer Gabrielle Allan, using Karyn Bosnak’s novel 20 Times A Lady as a basis. You may remember Bosnak as the woman behind “Save Karyn,” the cyberbegging site on which Bosnak asked for donations to pay off the credit card debt she’d amassed while buying expensive clothes for herself—a pioneering form of web-based panhandling that paved the way for Stephen Baldwin, among many others—which turned Bosnak into an international celebrity with a wildly successful publishing deal, so fuck her, right? Also making us cringe in advance is the fact that some of Farris’ paramours in the film include Chris Evans (who will probably play a self-absorbed douche) and Zachary Quinto (who will probably play someone vaguely creepy). But hey, good for McHale, whose booking this gig comes on the heels of landing a plum role opposite Owen Wilson, Jack Black, and Steve Martin in the upcoming The Big Year, and seems to hint toward a promising future in movies. He still better not quit The Soup, though.