Hollywood's invasion of the body switchers

When this summer's hottest superhero flick, The Dark Knight, finally debuts, will audiences be baffled to see that Katie Holmes, who played Rachel Dawes in the last Batman film, has magically morphed into Maggie Gyllenhaal? I doubt it, since most people are probably just as baffled by Katie Holmes’ presence in a major motion picture anyway. But The Onion’s A.V. Club takes the opportunity to look back at “The Darrin Effect: 20 jarring cases of recast roles.” Named for Bewitched’s famous “Dick swap” with the character Darrin Stephens, The Onion’s list digs up some truly obscure switcharoos. There were three Cagneys on Cagney & Lacey? Three Kitty Prydes in X-Men, including Juno’s Ellen Page? Four Marilyns on The Munsters? Of course, a special prize has to go to Roseanne, which intermittently switched between “original Becky” Lecy Goranson and “second Becky” Sarah Chalke, now better known as Dr. Reid on Scrubs. They even worked the two-Becky gag into the opening credits of season 8. Can you even imagine how freaky it will be to see Katie Holmes morph into a completely different person? Oh. Wait. Photos via EW.com.

—Posted by David Griner

July 15, 2008 in Griner | Permalink