Paul Rudd, Steadiest Man in America

Many of you, well about six of you, may be wondering why Paul Rudd? Or better yet, who is Paul Rudd? This post is dedicated to giving you, the reader, a bit of background knowledge on the steadiest of steady movie actors (I have reservations about calling him a movie star, Paul Rudd is far too humble to warrant that title).

Paul Rudd is what I like to call an institution in the land of film. He makes a good movie better, a bad movie the best, and he even saved a now classic TV show from tanking in the ratings and ending one season too soon. His acting prowess is felt like a cool breeze on a hot day, just a light touch turns things completely around.

Not attractive enough to lead in an academy award winning drama and not quite funny enough to make a comedy cult classic on his own, Paul Rudd understands that his role is to prevent Rome from falling without having Caesar on his name tag.

Let us inspect the invisible hand of Paul Rudd.

• Clueless (1995)- Rudd supports as Josh, the antidote to Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), THE valley girl persona that defined female youth personality, fashion and politick for the decade following. Without Rudd playing the cause oriented, benevolent college intellectual, the world would never have been able to accept a man whose mother married his love interest's father but subsequently divorced her thus not making them step-siblings. Thank you for making the 90's more open minded Paul Rudd.
• Wet Hot American Summer (2001)- Rudd supports as the stud bully lifeguard in this summer camp comedy. Not the attractive lead, but more the continuous comic relief that holds this stellar comedy together, Rudd proves that the 'Strangers with Candy' series may have really hit the big time if he had been around the whole time.
• Anchorman: The legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) Knocked Up (2007)- All three of these movies were deemed "comedy classics" by mainstream America the year they were released. The cast rotates a bit, but Rudd is the one constant in the equation of these three films. Coincidence? I think not. Thank you Paul Rudd.
• Friends (17 episodes, 2002-2004)- Paul Rudd saved this series from ending a season too early when he was contracted by NBC as a ratings swingman. The cast was receiving exorbitant amounts of money per episode and they had all lost their edge when Rudd stepped in as Phoebe's new found love interest in season 9. Rudd may not have improved the ratings but he prevented them from plummeting. Rudd deserves the title as 7th friend, becoming the only permanent love interest outside the group of the original 6 (Tom Selleck comes in a close 2nd for this title as his role as Monica's paternal lover Richard in seasons 2 and 3, but alas, the 'stache is second to no one but Paul Rudd).

Paul Rudd is not a superstar. But he certainly deserves an entire blog titled in his honor. Perhaps the author feels a kinship because of the striking similarities between himself and our hero.

The Hero...

...The Author