Bridesmaids

STARRING Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Jon Hamm
DIRECTED BY Paul Feig

Though the trailer for Bridesmaids makes it look like the female equivalent of The Hangover, director Paul Feig believes his film occupies territory of its own. ”It’s a new genre that I like to call a ‘sismance,”’ says Feig, who along with Bridesmaids producer Judd Apatow is responsible for the beloved cult series Freaks and Geeks. ”I wish that it was a more elegant word. A ‘galmance’?”

Whatever the term, Bridesmaids is definitely a female-centric story. Kristen Wiig stars as a forever-single failed cake-shop owner whose bond with her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) is strained when Lillian gets engaged. ”Her one friend that she had with her throughout being single is getting married,” explains Wiig, who co-wrote the script with Annie Mumolo. ”So she’s feeling not just the loss of that friendship but, What am I supposed to do now? But in a funny way! It’s about losing your friend in a really funny way!”

Luckily, the two stars were already pals from their days on SNL. ”We only overlapped for a short time, but there are those people you instantly click with,” says Wiig of Rudolph. The cast also includes Damages‘ Rose Byrne as an uppity bridesmaid, Mike & Molly‘s Melissa McCarthy as Lillian’s scene-stealing future sister-in-law, and Mad Men‘s Jon Hamm as Wiig’s sleazy on-again, off-again boyfriend. The movie opens with a hilarious montage of Wiig and Hamm in a series of uncomfortable sex positions. ”When we got Hamm on board, we didn’t really even fully have his character fleshed out,” says Wiig. ”Then he showed up and it’s like, ‘Okay, take your clothes off…and we’re doing a sex scene!’ We had so much fun trying to think of ways he could just throw me around.” Sounds like a tough day at the office. —Tim Stack