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In ''Rushmore,'' Jason Schwartzman fought to save Latin. In the new Fox sitcom ''Cracking Up'' (created by ''School of Rock'' writer Mike White), he tries to save the dysfunctional Shackleton family, parented by an adulterous, subtly threatening dad (Christopher McDonald) and a loopy manic-depressive mom (''Saturday Night Live'' alum Molly Shannon). He had better odds with the dead language. As Ben, a psychology graduate student assigned to live with the wealthy Shackletons to analyze their wisely withdrawn 9-year-old son (possibly the only sane member of the family), the actor plunges into a showroom of pathologies: In the pilot, the cheerleader daughter comes on to him, and he catches the older, sexually confused jock son shaving his entire body. This could make Schwartzman the straight man for the first time in his quirky career. ''Well, the straighter man,'' corrects the 23-year-old actor, who replaced Nick D'Agosto (''Election'') when the pilot was reshot. ''There are moments when Molly and Chris are a bit loony, and it's hard not to sympathetically go with them into loony territory.'' Shannon doesn't stray far from her manic ''Saturday Night Live'' persona to play a drama queen addicted to any substance within grabbing distance (the third episode has her putting her son on Ritalin, only to raid his supply for herself). ''It's like those suburban people who send out the perfect Christmas card with the perfect picture and need to look so perfect to everybody,'' says Shannon. ''It's like, what's really going on here?'' (spring) |
I am still waiting for the advent of the computer science groupie.
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