In “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” she’s a hot-to-trot drunken driver terrifying Steve Carell in the passenger seat; in “Knocked Up,” she played Paul Rudd’s wife; and in Apatow’s latest, “Funny People,” he’s written Mann an even bigger role — the one-who-got-away from Adam Sandler’s character.

“He’s growing up and learning more about women so he’s able to write better female parts,” Mann said in a recent interview, referring to her husband. But Mann quickly reconsidered that statement, amending that Apatow has always written good female roles, though he’s generally improved as a writer. There’s some sensitivity to the issue because the co-star of “Knocked Up,” Katherine Heigl, famously criticized the movie for being “a little sexist” and claiming it painted women as “shrews.”

“I kind of don’t know what she was talking about,” said Mann, who praised Heigl’s performance in the film. “I’m an actress reading scripts and I’ve seen what’s out there and it’s slim pickings. Judd does write great female parts.”

Actor/comedian Seth Rogen is one proud guy nowadays. He has enough and more reasons to be so and no one can say anything to him on that. At the age of 27, he has achieved a lot, being an actor, a comedian, producer and a writer. However, it is not his achievements that has anything to do with his pride, it is merely his terrific weight loss that seems to the reason.

That is one thing that is zooming in to everyone’s notice as the actor has been doing his rounds of visiting talk shows and interviews for promoting his new released film “Funny People”. Rogen seems much more skinnier than ever before. Being his usual self and talking to MTV about the “loss” that he is not moaning about the funny guy said, “I’m actually way more funny now because I’m hungry. And if comedy comes from pain, then I should be way funnier now than I ever was.”

That is for sure though. He does not seem to be any less funny now than he ever was. His jokes and gags still get people in to splits. He still retains his ability to respond to any question with his stand-up wit accompanied with his trademark raspy laugh.

The trimming down is mostly because of his upcoming future project, “Green Hornet”, where he gets to play a masked crusader. His weight loss is the other most talked of features of “Funny People” which is the third directorial screen venture of Judd Apatow. The movie also Adam Sandler, Eric Bana and a host of other names besides Rogen.

It has been mentioned previously how both Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen are miffed with Katherine Heigl. Heigl has slammed the movie that launched her film career, Knocked Up – by calling it “sexist”, amongst other things.

Judd had mentioned that he would have given her the benefit of the doubt, had she apologized for what she said. Well, she’s finally done it Judd. She has an apology all set up in her interview with this coming month’s edition of UK Marie Claire. We should warn you, though, it’s rather half-ass.

When asked if she would take anything back in her career, Katherine replied:

“If I was to say I wish I’d never made that comment about Knocked Up [being sexist], it’s not that I don’t feel the way I do about it, it’s just that it maybe didn’t need to be communicated via a magazine interview.”

Seth Rogen and “Knocked Up” director Judd Apatow are still miffed over former costar Katherine Heigl knocking the hit blockbuster. Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2007, Heigl famously remarked that the comedy “paints the women as shrews,” while the men look “lovable.” She added, “It was hard for me to love the movie.” (She later said she was “disheartened” her remarks became “the focus of my experience with the movie.”) But Rogen says he doesn’t see how Heigl’s new comedy, “The Ugly Truth,” makes women look any better.

“That [movie] looks like it really puts women on a pedestal in a beautiful way,” he quipped on Howard Stern’s SIRIUS XM radio show on Thursday.

Added Apatow, “I hear there’s a scene where she’s wearing … Underwear … with a vibrator in it, so I’d have to see if that was uplifting for women.”

Apatow figured Heigl was “probably was doing six hours of interviews and kissing everyone’s a**, and then just got tired and slipped a little bit” when she made the remarks to Vanity Fair.
Regardless, Rogen said, “I didn’t slip and I was doing f****** interviews all day too … I didn’t say s***!”

Even more baffling, said Apatow, “We never had a ‘fight’” with Heigl while filming. “Seth always says, it doesn’t make any sense [because] she improvised half her s***,” Apatow said, adding that she “could not have been cooler.”

Apatow said he hasn’t spoken to Heigl since her remarks. He doesn’t know if he’d make a big deal about it, either.
“It all depends on how much coffee I have had that day,” he said. “If I was fighting … with someone else about something I may handle it wrong, and if I’m in like total Buddha mood, I’d be like ‘I feel sad that she hasn’t learned the lesson of her journey yet,’” he said.

After the remark, “[You think] at some point I’ll get a call saying ‘Sorry, I was tired…’ and then the call never comes,’” he said. Rogen said he doesn’t feel bad since Heigl seems to run her mouth at most people, including “Grey’s Anatomy” staff.

“I gotta say it’s not like we’re the only people she said some bat **** crazy things about,” he said. “That’s kind of her bag now.”

Seth Rogen is a master at getting big-screen laughs with his in-your-face style. So get ready for a surprise. In Funny People, Rogen puts the lid on his persona and plays a stand-up comic who bonds with a comedy star (Adam Sandler) facing a terminal illness. Parade.com’s Jeanne Wolf found out why Rogen didn’t mind the change of pace.

Becoming kinder and gentler.
“Judd Apatow was very clear that he really didn’t want me to do any of the stuff I normally do in movies. I’m not that dirty in this. I’m not that aggressive. I’m pretty quiet. I really don’t even say that much in lots of the scenes I’m in. And I had a really good time doing it. It was different for me to play kind of the passive reactor.”

Remembering early awe of Adam.
“Doing the movie, I would actually think about how I felt the first time I met him when I was like 17 or 18. I went out to dinner with Adam, Jim Carrey and Garry Shandling, and then we all went to go see Gladiator. I don’t think I said one word the entire night. I just kind of had this goofy look on my face and I tried to just put myself back in that position while we were filming. Actually, it was reflected in some of the conversations about Adam I had with the other actors like Jonah Hill. We were like, ‘It’s crazy. He’s right over there. Adam knows our names. That’s awesome.’”

What he’s learned from the superstar.
“I think a lot of famous people in this business just start to insulate themselves from people that work for them. People that are their friends kind of fall by the wayside and become less important in their day-to-day lives. One of the things about Adam that I love is he really has kept a balance in spite of his stardom. Of all the mega-famous people I’ve met, he seems to be the most well-adjusted and the most nice and the most willing to go out of his way to ingratiate himself to people and be their friends.”

After throngs of people filed out of the San Diego Convention Center late Wednesday night at Comic-Con, Seth Rogen, co-writer, executive producer and star of Columbia Pictures’ July 2010 summer action film “The Green Hornet,” unveiled the film’s “third lead” character — the custom-built, fully-armed, 1966 Chrysler Imperial car known as “Black Beauty.”

“Many people said this day would never come and I’m excited to say this film is going to happen,” said Rogen, who confirmed principle photography will begin August 31 in Los Angeles. “If you’re big fans of the original, you’ll be pleased with what we’re doing. If you never saw the show, we’ve created an origin story that you’ll like.”

The actor, who joked that he’s lost “700 pounds” for this role, also confirmed that the studio is in talks with Cameron Diaz to play Lenore “Casey” Case, the love interest of Britt Reid (The Green Hornet), and with Nicolas Cage to play the film’s villain.

“We want it to be a scary villain,” said Rogen. “We want it to be a scary villain. We are not looking for a goofy, comedic villain. We want it to be real danger in the movie, so that is what we are going for.”

The Green Hornet’s kung fu master sidekick, Kato, played by Bruce Lee in the 1966 TV series, remains uncast after Stephen Chow dropped out.

“We’re still looking for Kato,” said Rogen. “We’ve seen tons of people and there are some people we like a lot. It’s a big decision. We still have a few weeks until we’re in real trouble.”

An avid comic book fan, Rogen was at home at Comic-Con, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

“If there’s one group of people who understand my desire to buy comic books, it’s these guys,” said Rogen.

Rogen was joined by producer Neal H. Moritz (“The Fast and the Furious”), director Michel Gondry (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”), and co-writer Evan Goldberg (“Superbad,” “Pineapple Express”).

The deliberate progress on Seth Rogen’s big screen version of “The Green Hornet” is the stuff of movie junket jokes, with updates coming slowly from one promotional press conference to the next.

“I’ve decided we’re never gonna make the movie,” Rogen laughs. “We’re just going to promote it for the next 10 years.”

Rogen is currently handling publicity duties on the Judd Apatow-directed “Funny People,” but the most recent information on “Green Hornet” hasn’t been of a positive nature. Stephen Chow, originally set to direct the movie and step into Bruce Lee’s shoes as Kato, first departed as director and then exited as Kato, news widely reported last week.

“In my head, we lost Stephen Chow in April, so it’s something I’ve had a lot of time to wrap my head around,” Rogen tells reporters. “That’s not a change. It might appear to be one to the world in the way that this type of information is doled out, but to me, we haven’t had a Kato since April and we’re looking. So it really doesn’t change that much as of late. We’re kind of in the same boat that we were in beforehand.”

Rogen is quick to emphasize that just because the small setbacks are what attracts buzz on the Internet, “Green Hornet” is progressing at a reasonable pace. It’s a pace that just reflects the growing pains of Rogen’s latest elevation in writer-producer-star status.

“It’s really hard to make a big movie. It’s exponentially more difficult to make a $100 million movie than it is to make a $20 million movie, especially in this economy,” he explains. “That actually does effect things. DVD sales are down, which scares the studios. And we’re not trying to make what they would probably consider to be a 100 percent safe version of a movie like this. You know? We like to push the envelope in some directions. We like to do things that we find interesting and original and you bring Michel Gondry into the equation and that opens up a whole new bag of worms. So, I think just for us to make a movie that we feel confident in and for them to have a movie that they feel confident in, that’s taking a long time.” Rogen adds, “Luckily it’s all very personal relationships with these people. I mean Matt Tolmach and and Amy Pascal, we’ve been working with since “Superbad.” So I’ve known these people for a while. They know us. They trust us. We trust them. So it’s been pretty pleasant. It’s not like anyone’s screwed anyone or anything like that. It’s been a great process. It’s just hard. It’s difficult to get a movie like this made.”

Proof of the advancement of “Green Hornet” — with or without a Kato — may be only days away, with San Diego’s Comic-Con seeming like a good place to kick-start some momentum.

“There may be a little something at Comic-Con,” Rogen acknowledges, haltingly. “I never know what I can say and what I can’t say,” he says, followed by a nervous laugh and no further answers. After the press conference, HitFix approached Rogen and asked if, as we’ve heard, Comic-Con throngs may get their first glimpse at the film’s version of Black Beauty, Green Hornet’s famed Chrysler Imperial.

“It may be…” [Long pause.] “It may not be.”

In the new movie Funny People from director Judd Apatow, actor Seth Rogen gives the iconic “Respect Your Mother” tee a little a little screen time. There are at least two scenes in the trailer that feature the shirt — and we’re thrilled that sales might pick up.

Why?

In 2007, profits from each “Respect” tee go directly to Global Green to help fund sustainable initiatives. Currently, the organization is pushing a “green schools” campaign to increase environmental education in classrooms across the U.S. So we think it’s cool Rogen is flashing the design for the upcoming comedy flick.

First he was no longer directing The Green Hornet, now, Stephen Chow, the Hong Kong actor-helmer-madcap mayhem maestro behind the martial arts comedies Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer, has left the production altogether. Chow will no longer be playing sidekick Kato to Seth Rogen’s Green Hornet in director Michel Gondry’s relaunch of the 20th century pulp hero as 21st century superhero.

“There was a mutual and amicable decision by both sides to move on,” a Columbia Pictures spokesperon said in a statement. “We are out now to cast a new Kato and remain fully committed to Michel Gondry’s exciting vision for the film, which will begin production this September.”

Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) is directing from a script written by Rogen and frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg (Superbad). Cameron Diaz is in talks for the female lead.

Hello everyone,I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day whether you have someone to celebrate it with or not! Enjoy!Love,Rachel