One Degree: Going on a Hiatus

I am not tapped out of celebrity movie role trivia, but I am tapped out of topical, interesting celebrity movie role trivia. I could challenge you to name the two movies that Romola Garai and Benedict Cumberbatch are in together (I am not making this up--these are the real names of two British actors have appeared in two major motion pictures in the last year and a half), but few people would be able to do this without Google.

So, when a new movie is coming out and the actors have appeared together before in a non-obvious way (i.e. no Judd Apatow movies because his stable of actors always appear together), I will resurrect this column.

Before I put this on hiatus, an answer to last week's One Degree, as there may be more than one. This summer, the ultimate chick flick, spawned from a throw away line from Sex in the City, is He's Just Not That Into You. Comedy veterans Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Ben Affleck, Gennifer Goodwin and Justin Long have never appeared in the same movie together, but have no more than a two or three degree separation, when you count romantic links.

But my mind would not rest until I found a connection for their co-star Jennifer Connelly--curse her lack of romantic comedy experience, I couldn't fall asleep for an hour! Neither she, nor her husband Paul Bettany, who she met while filming A Beautiful Mind, had appeared with any of these folks before.

For a while, the best I could come up with was Jennifer Connelly in The Rocketeer with Bill Campbell, who was in Enough with Jennifer Lopez, who dated Ben Affleck. But that's three degrees so I kept working at it. My best answer is:

Jennifer Connelly was in The Hulk with Eric Bana, who was in Lucky You with Drew Barrymore.

However, computers will do this so much better: Here is what the Oracle of Bacon has to say:

The Oracle says: Aniston has a Connolly, Jennifer (II) number of 2.

Jennifer Aniston was in Picture Perfect (1997) with Greg Grunberg (I)
Greg Grunberg (I) was in Witchcraft V: Dance with the Devil (1993) with Jennifer Connolly (II)

And in fact, Drew, Ginnifer, Ben, and Justin, are all connected to Jennifer by a degree of three via one actor--Greg Grunberg, star of an earlier One Degree. Perhaps Greg Grunberg is the Kevin Bacon of the new millennium?

And since One Degree is taking a vacation for an undetermined length, here are the 1000 most connected actors in Hollywood to keep you going-Greg's got a long way to go.