With The Back-Up Plan, Jennifer Lopez proved that she still knows where the studio is, so it’s easy to see why she’d be such a sought-after face for future film projects. Vulture reports that Lopez is now one of the top names in negotiations to join the upcoming ensemble comedy adaptation of the hilarious paranoia manual What To Expect When You’re Expecting, once more mining pregnancy for laughs. If she signs on, Lopez would join the previously cast Cameron Diaz and also possibly Ed Helms as one of the expectant fathers who doesn’t know what to expect when his wife is expecting, but through the course of the film, learns that what you expect when you’re expecting isn’t always what you get, because expecting when you’re expecting isn’t exacting, like you’d expect. And speaking of expecting, Isla Fisher may also get another shot at the breakout everyone has been expecting her to have since Wedding Crashers by taking on a role originally occupied by Kristen Wiig, until the latter realized Bridesmaids meant she didn’t have to do contrived ensemble comedies anymore passed because of conflicts with her Saturday Night Live schedule.
And then there are other things with Jennifer Lopez in them. She’s also in negotiations to join the Donald Westlake adaptation Parker, playing a woman who gets tangled up with Jason Statham’s no-nonsense thief (NO NONSENSE, PLEASE) in the Taylor Hackford-directed film. Of course, Lopez’s impending commitments to two lead roles—not to mention her recently announced quest to do a Latino version of American Idol—has fueled speculation about whether she’ll even return to judging the show that made her relevant again in the first place. But maybe she could just pre-tape herself saying the words “You’re beautiful” or “You go, girl!” for some sort of hologram—like Marlon Brando in Superman—and no one would know the difference.