One Degree: Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman

First, the answer to the last One Degree: Tobey McGuire and Robert Downey Jr. first starred together in Wonder Boys.

Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman memorably starred together in Juno as a yuppie couple seeking to adopt Juno's baby. However, they had already starred together in what movie, that same year?

Answers next week! Put your answers in the comments! Last one is a rotten egg!

One Degree: Robert Downey Jr. and Tobey McGuire

First, the answer to last week's One Degree: Scarlett Johanssen and Rebecca Hall played the significant others of Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, respectively in The Prestige. Now onto this week.

One of the best parts of Tropic Thunder were the fake trailers that opened the show. Tobey McGuire was perfect casting to star opposite Robert Downey Jr.'s character Kirk Lazarus in Satan's Alley, which kinda looked like In the Name of the Rose meets Brokeback Mountain. But it's not the first time Spiderman and Ironman have appeared together in a movie as lovers. What was the first movie the two actors starred in?

Leave your answers in the comments and check back next week!

One Degree: Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall

First, the answer to last week's One Degree. X-Men Origins: Wolverine will not only reunite Liev Schreiber and Hugh Jackman, it will also star two co-stars from Lost. Dominic Monaghan who plays musician Charlie Pace on Lost will be Beak while Kevin Durand, who played armed baddie Martin Keamy, will be Blob.

Onto this week's challenge. Even though I'm not watching TV, it's hard to miss the fuss over Scarlett Johansson and her kiss with co-star Penelope Cruz in Woody Allen's new flick Vicky Christina Barcelona. But co-star Rebecca Hall, who plays titular character Vicky, has gotten little press, even though this is her second film with Scarlett Johansson. What was the name of that first movie?



Answers next week! Post your answers in the comments. You can also check out past One Degree challenges.

One Degree: Find the Losties in the Wolverine Movie

Last week's One Degree asked what movie Liev Schreiber and Hugh Jackman were in together other than next year's X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The answer is a forgettable Kate and Leopold, starring Hugh Jackman as a nobleman Leopold transported to modern-day New York City where he meets Meg Ryan's character, Kate. Schreiber stars as Kate's physicist ex-boyfriend who accidentally brings Leopold into the future.

So who else from Wolverine has starred together before? Well, I saw a couple of guys from Lost in the credits for this movie. Can you name them? Technically, they don't appear in the same episodes, if that's a hint.

Post your answer in comments! Answers next week!

One Degree: Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber

Last week's One Degree asked the question--who has played both Will Ferrell's mother and stepmom? The answer is Mary Steenbergen, who played the stepmother to Ferell's Buddy in Elf and will play Ferrell's mom in Step Brothers.

Last week I posted links to the X-Men Origins: Wolverine trailer and had more hits than I have ever had on this blog. I also got two new challenges for One Degree--here's the first one:

Liev Schreiber will play Sabretooth to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine but the two actors have starred together in very different roles. What movie did they first appear in together?

Answers next week! Write your answers in the comments!

One Degree: Will Ferrell and Mothers

Wow, I had a lot of new visitors last week! Since some of you are new, I'll reintroduce the game I've got going called One Degree. It's like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, except in this case, you need to figure out what movie or movies two actors other than Kevin Bacon have appeared in together, rather than connecting a string of movies.

First, the answer to last week's challenge. Ron Perlman recently starred in Hellboy 2 as the title character. His co-stars from Hellboy rejoined him in the sequel, but Perlman has also worked with the actors playing the royal elf family. I knew about Luke Goss (Prince Nuada), who worked with Perlman on Blade 2, and later learned that he had also appeared with Anna Walton (Princess Nuala) in The Mutant Chronicles.

But connection that I thought was the coolest was with with 85-year old actor Roy Dotrice--as soon as I saw him appear as King Baylor, I knew I had seen him before. In 1987, Perlman starred opposite Linda Hamilton (before she got buff for Terminator 2) in the TV show Beauty and the Beast in the title role, while Dotrice played his adoptive father.

So, speaking of parents, here's the new challenge. In the past I just named two actors and asked for the movie they were in together, but I'm rephrasing this to make it Google-proof.

What actress played the stepmom of one of Will Ferrell's characters and will be playing his mother in a movie coming soon?

First person to post the answer gets bragging rights! Answers next week! Here's a Will Ferrell clip to get those neurons firing:

One Degree: Ron Perlman and a Former Co-star

I took a long break from One Degree. The last one I did was in May for Robert Downey Jr. in honor of his terrific comeback in Ironman. The answers are:
Mel Gibson (Air America, The Singing Detective),
Katie Holmes (Wonder Boys, The Singing Detective)
Elizabeth Shue (Soapdish, Heart and Souls)
Kevin Kline (Soapdish, Chaplin)
Marissa Tomei (Chaplin, Only You)
Ian McKellen (Richard III, Restoration)
Heather Graham (Two Girls and a Guy, Bowfinger)

On to the next superhero movie-- Hellboy II. While I liked Pan's Labyrinth and it's sepia tones, I thought Guillermo Del Toro's ornate creatures and special effects just overwhelmed and swallowed the real star of the movie: big red Ron Perlman and his snappy dialog. So here's the question:

Other than his co-stars from the first Hellboy, which two stars of Hellboy II have appeared with Ron Perlman before in movies or TV?

Answers next week! Leave your answers in the comments!

One Degree: Two-Timing Robert Downey Jr.

First the answers to the last One Degree, which was all about Iron Man Robert Downey Jr.'s connections with the Batman franchise. He was movies with three Batmen: Game Six with Michael Keaton, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang with Val Kilmer, and Good Night and Good Luck with George Clooney. He never starred with Christian Bale, the fourth Batman, but he did star in Less Than Zero which was written by Bret Easton Ellis, who also wrote American Psycho, the movie that launched Bale. Finally, he also starred with a bunch of Batman's leading ladies: Uma Thurmann in Johnny Be Good, Nicole Kidman in Fur, and Katie Holmes in The Singing Detective.

To close out the month, Robert Downey Jr. has starred in two movies with each of the following stars.

Name two movies in which RDJ starred with any one of these two actors: Mel
Gibson, Woody Harrelson, Katie Holmes, Elizabeth Shue, Kevin Kline, Marissa
Tomei, Ian McKellen and Heather Graham.

Answers next week! Leave your guesses in the comments!

One Degree: Ironman and Batman

It's Robert Downey Jr. Month, so here's the answer to last week's One Degree: Robert Downey Jr. starred with Anthony Michael Hall in Weird Science, Eddie Murphy in Bowfinger, and Dan Akroyd (who he has named as his favorite SNL actor) in Chaplin. If you know of more answers, post them to last week's game.

RDJ month continues here at One Degree. Downey remarked in interviews for Iron Man that he's seen his arty peers go on to star in major summer blockbusters--specifically, Wonder Boy's co-star Tobey McGuire's turn as Spiderman--and wanted to make a similar splash. However, Downey has three times more in common with actors who have starred as Batman.

Name the three actors that portrayed Batman on the big screen then went on to costar in films with Downey, and name those three films.

As a bonus, Downey starred in a movie based on a book by an author who wrote another book that was adapted into the career-launching film for the fourth Batman star--name the author.

And for the golden snitch, there are three actresses who have portrayed either Bruce Wayne's love interest or Batman's femme fatale who have also been Downey's costar. This does not count his Gothika co-star Halle Berry, who starred in Catwoman but has never appeared in a Batman film. Name the actresses and the movies they starred in with Downey.

Answers next week! Post your answers in the comments! Have fun!

One Degree: Robert Downey Jr. and SNL

My faith in One Degree is restored. Two weeks ago I decided I would go on hiatus until I thought of topical One Degree trivia starring well-known actors who were in or about to be in the news, which would rule out actors like Romola Garai and Benedict Cumberbatch. However, two people correctly wrote that those two British actors had starred in Atonement and Amazing Grace and it wasn't even a formal question. So now I know a few people are paying attention.

If there is one actor who is in the news this week, it's Robert Downey, Jr. and for once, it's not for getting arrested. I've been overdosing on Robert Downey Jr. trivia following the release of Iron Man so now my entire left hemisphere is flooded with factoids about RDJ. In fact, my brain's so full, this may just kick off the start of Iron Month, just so I can purge before I go into shock. Here's the challenge for week one:

Robert Downey Jr. was a cast member of Saturday Night Live for one season and has starred with at least three other actors who once starred on SNL--name the cast members and the movies they appeared in together (Bonus points for identifying his favorite SNL cast member).

Answers next week! Post your answers to the comments! I made this one up, so maybe there's even a fourth cast member he's starred with--show me up! We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own...

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.

One Degree: The New Bennifer, Times Three

First, the answer to last week's One Degree--Masi Oka and Greg Grunberg, who now appear on the NBC hit Heroes were previously in Austin Powers in Goldmember.

It's a very special One Degree this week, since I am having writer's block. So if anyone can connect Jennifer Connelly to any of these actors in the upcoming movie He's Just Not That Into You, you get a special bonus prize--my undying geek respect. This movie is rife with connections, but I can't seem to fit her into it. Here's how the other stars, in bold, fit together:

Ginnifer Goodwin starred in the TV show Ed with Justin Long, who is now dating Drew Barrymore, who was in Never Been Kissed with Michael Vartan, who starred with and dated Jennifer Garner, who married Ben Affleck, who dated his Bounce co-star Gweneth Paltrow, who dated Brad Pitt before he married Jennifer Aniston.

After Jennifer Connelly appears in this movie, she'll be extremely well connected, but until then, brownie points to anyone who can link her, via movie or romance, to any of the stars in bold, in as few degrees as possible.

One Degree: Greg Grunberg and Masi Oka

Sorry to be a little late. The answer to last week's One Degree was Empire of the Sun. Ben Stiller appeared as an extra, while Christian Bale, then a child actor, starred in his first lead role. I would have had no idea that Ben Stiller was in that film, except that he said he thought of his idea for his new movie Tropic Thunder, while working on Empire of the Sun.

If you like Heroes, you know Greg Grunberg as psychic policeman Matt Parkman and Masi Oka as time-traveling Hiro Nakamura.

What movie did Grunberg and Oka appear in together?

Answers next week! Leave your answers in the comments!

One Degree: Ben Stiller and Christian Bale

A special kudos to Miranda for totally blowing last week's challenge out of the water and for being the first person to buzz in on this game who doesn't know me. I thought I was so smart for knowing five movies that John Cusack (Say Anything, High Fidelity) and Jeremy Piven (Entourage), but Miranda counted off ten--take a look at the comments from last week's post for the full list. You are either a huge Pivack fan or a whiz on Google--either way, I'm impressed. Sadly, it is unlikely there will be an eleventh film, as the two seem to be on the outs.

I'm going to have to raise my game! I don't know if I can keep it up, but here goes.

On May 22, 2009, Ben Stiller and Christian Bale are slated to go head-to-head with competing movie premieres with sequels Night at the Museum 2 and Terminator 4. What movie did the two appear in together?

Answers next week! Post your answers in the comments! This one may be impossible without search engines, but see if you can do it without Google, or by just using imbd.com.

One Degree: John Cusack and Jeremy Piven

First the answer to the One Degree from two weeks ago (sorry for the break): Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman were first credited together for the movie Happy Feet, where they played singing penguin mates. They will soon star together in Australia, a historical epic by Baz Luhrmann set in Botswana. Just kidding.

I don't know how Hollywood works. I know all major movies have casting agents, but sometimes it seems like an actor befriends another actor at some early age and thinks of his buddy for parts in his movie (what else would explain Kate Bosworth being in all Kevin Spacey's movies)? There are the obvious pairs, like Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller, but then there are the more obscure duos.

What are the five movies John Cusack and Jeremy Piven have appeared in together?

Partial credit accepted! Answer in the comments! All will be revealed next week.

One Degree: Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman

First, the answer to last week's One Degree. Her paleness Tilda Swinton played Jadis the White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, while James MacAvoy was shirtless but incredibly un-sexy as the goat-legged Mr. Tumnus.

The world is awash in Australian actors, but two of the hottest, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, will be seen together for the first time in a movie in Australia, the new epic by Baz Luhrmann arriving in theaters in November.

But November will not be the first time they appear in the credits together. What movie stars both actors in singing roles?

Answers next week! Submit you answers via comments!

One Degree: Tilda Swinton and James McAvoy

Last week's One Degree featured three-time co-stars Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth, who will appear this month in 21. They also appeared in Beyond the Sea and Superman Returns. Why she keeps getting cast opposite Kevin Spacey, I'll never know, but if it happens again, I'll begin to think she saw him kill someone, because it ain't her acting.

OK, onto some this week's question. Tilda Swinton just won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton, while James McAvoy was nominated a Golden Globe for his work in Atonement.

In what recent movie did both of them appear in together?

Don't know who Tilda Swinton is? In the words of Stephen Colbert, "She's from a future earth where the sun has been extinguished and albino humankind lives underground--their only source of energy, the charged particles emitted from their iridescent hair." And James McAvoy is the young Scottish actor that is not Ewan MacGregor.

Answers next week! No Googling! Scout's honor! Write your answers in the comments!

One Degree: Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth

We have a winner! Bragging rights go to Kilroy, followed by CKL, for solving last week's One Degree: Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe were in Virtuosity together, in which Crowe was a virtual reality serial killer brought into the real world by nanotechnology while Washington was the cop hunting him down.

OK, I have a timely one. When I heard about the casting of 21, a new caper movie based on the true story six MIT students who scammed Vegas, I thought perhaps Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects) really isn't gay. For the third time, he starring with Kate Bosworth (Blue Crush, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton).

What were the first two movies in which Mr. Spacey and Ms. Bosworth starred together? And bonus points for alternate theories for why Spacey keeps getting her as a co-star?

Leave your answers in the comments for brownie points, answers next week. The movie 21 comes out March 28. Here is a link to Bringing Down the House, the book it was based on, followed by the trailer.

One Degree: Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe

Oops, I missed posting the answer to February 4th's One Degree last week Monday while I was on a business trip. Jackie Earle Haley and Patrick Wilson were in the movie Little Children, directed by Todd Field. These actors are a lot less well known than their actress co-stars, Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly but they will be gaining a lot more exposure when Watchmen comes out March 2009.

On to this week. I have a feeling I am losing people with the obscure C- and D-list actors so how about two A-list actors in early roles?

American Gangster starred Denzel Washington as real-life drug kingpin Frank Lucas and Russell Crowe as the cop determined to take him down. But Crowe played the villan when he first starred opposite Washington--what was the name of this 1995 movie?

Answers next week! Post your answers in the comments!

One Degree: Jackie Earle Haley and Patrick Wilson

First, the answer to last week's One Degree. The actors Carla Gugino and Matthew Goode were in The Lookout, which starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a mentally impaired young man, who, as a janitor at a bank, finds himself befriended by hoods who are up to no good. Carla Gugino plays his therapist, while Matthew Goode plays the con artist; both will be playing superheroes in Watchmen.

OK, I am sorry to be obscure. I am letting my geek flag fly free, especially for a comic book which I only recently discovered and with actors who almost no one has heard of. But here I go again. There is another One Degree in Watchmen:

Jackie Earle Haley, best known as a child actor in The Bad News Bears, will play the vigilante Rorschach, so named because he sees good and evil in black and white. Patrick Wilson, who was in the movie adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera, will play Night Owl, do-gooder inventor. In what 2006 Oscar nominated film did they appear?

Answers next week. Brownie points for posting your answers in the comments section. No Googling!

Update: Here's a video of the pair being interviewed by Entertainment Weekly at Comic-Con