Unscripted and unleashed

Philadelphia Inquirer, The, November, 2006 by Ben Yagoda

The couple of dozen entertainment writers and half a hundred seat-fillers attending an advance screening of For Your Consideration at the Mann Chinese 6 Theatre have been attentive but mostly tranquil during the comedy's opening scenes. But then, 31 minutes into the film, as if on cue, they begin to howl.

The reason, it would seem, is the man who has just appeared on screen, the cohost of an Entertainment Tonight-like TV show. He is sporting a blond fauxhawk - strange on anyone, bizarre on a 67-year-old - but the real reason they're laughing is that he's played by Fred Willard. In each of the preceding three comedies directed by Christopher Guest, Willard was one of an improvisational cast of dozens, but he flat-out stole the show: in Waiting for Guffman as the small-town travel agent whose true passion was community theater; in Best in Show as the clueless dog-show ...