Not Exactly Starry Dynamos: Soap Stars to Play Famous Literary Figures. Casting Updates on ‘Howl’

Ok, so. I’m no longer as apoplectic about James Franco playing Allen Ginsberg as I used to be, mostly because he looks so dashing in these new photos:

Still not quite realistic, but I guess we can always count on Hollywood to make every actor in a bio pic a 9 or a 10 when their real life counterparts were mousy 4s or 5s. Remember when they slapped a unibrow on Salma Hayek and called her Frida Khalo?  Crazy woman artist with her fuzzy wuzzy eyebrow and death monkey visions. That was adorable. 

I’m excited that Mary Louise Parker, Jon Hamm [Ed's Note:  Jon, if you're reading this, which I'm sure you are, over a pile of newspapers and oiled up women, with a half sucked grapefruit clenched in that masculine mitt you call a hand. I you to want know that I can cast you in the ultimate to star vehicle ie my vag, like WHENEVER YOU WANT.  Ok back to Sash] , Jeff Daniels, and possibly Paul Rudd will have parts in Howl. But let’s take a look at who will play the arguably most important Beats, Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. According to imdb, we’ve got Todd Rotondi and Jon Prescott, respectively.

Who???

Oh, apparently they were on “As the World Turns.” Was Lawrence Ferlinghetti even consulted for this film? If this casting info is correct, it’s the equivalent of torching City Lights bookstore and building a tanning salon in its place. Who exactly are the producers hoping to draw with these choices, besides the most vacuous gays and housewives among us?

Kerouac and Cassady were more than pretty boys twinkling in the background of Ginsberg’s obscenity trial. They were poetic visionaries, aggressive, masculine queers, and significant cultural figures. And they deserve better than the B-shift at Spagos.