MONDO EXTRAS

If that's what he's doing with Viva Laughlin, then more power to him. Seeing him strut through a casino singing along with "Sympathy For The Devil" in the pilot seems sort of wasteful, since it's hard to make out a very fine voice when it's competing with Mick Jagger, but maybe the oddity of the project is what he's looking for. The odds that the show will last or be commercially successful seem awfully tiny, and he's not expected to be on screen very much, but maybe this -- popping up here and there, maybe singing and maybe not, going away from the screen for a year or two so you have time to miss him when he comes back -- is what he's built for.

Assets:

• Personal charm out the wazoo, as you know if you've seen him on Inside The Actors Studio and in his hosting gigs
• The accent, which he hasn't really even used yet
• He appears to really like his wife, which means we don't have to watch him in a series of stupid tabloid romances with Nicole Kidman or whoever

Liabilities:

• Maybe a little too good-looking, and likely to make the comic-book geeks feel insecure
• When we see him in Us Weekly, he always seems kind of...weirdly fratty, or trying too hard, or something
• Kate & Leopold runs on cable about every two hours, making it difficult to forgive

Current approximate level of fame: Matthew Broderick
Deserved approximate level of fame: George Clooney