a half-thought on matthew mcconaughey [ha'-penny]

In Tropic Thunder, half-wit action star Tugg Speedman is listed in his fratty, dude-friend agent’s phone as “Tuggernuts,” a name that not only encapsulates the insult-affection of frat life, but which is also definitely in the running to be that of my next puppy. I’m thinking of this partly due to puppy lust (pug? dachshund? st. bernard?) and partly due to the latest trailer of the underrated actor who played that agent, Matthew McConaughey. Rick “Pecker” Peck was a return to the fine, even respectable comic form of McConaughey’s Dazed and Confused days, and  can’t tell you what shocked me more, seeing him really cut loose as an actual character or simply seeing him in a movie that doesn’t co-star some quirky starlet poodle.

The trailer for McConaughey’s latest gooey gigglefest is sadly (predictably?) below even Kate Hudson’s standards. I mean, by title alone – Ghosts of Girlfriends Past? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0821640/ good lord.…for serious, gag me. Poor Jennifer Garner, stuck playing earnest sweetheart to his skeezy successman…it’ll surely be a dull plastic take on a good old storyline (the ever-popular and deliciously sentimental Guy Gets Girl Who Originally Got Away) and will be (even sadder?) at least number two at the box office its opening weekend.

[Note: this was basically the only photo I could find of Mr. McConaughey without his shirt on...a characteristic which Matt Damon perfectly pinpointed on Letterman not too long ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuYD2cwMbpw.]