But its not too late.

Carell was around the edges of some other stars' comedies, always stealing his scenes: "Bewitched" (where his spot-on Paul Lynde impression was not only funny,but the only thing that felt like the TV show the movie came from); "Anchorman" and, of course, "Bruce Almighty."

Meanwhile, he shone in two projects which, one suspects, had other auteurs: "40 Year Old Virgin" ("Knocked Up" reveals the Power Of Judd) and "The Office," (Carell's great, but so is the rest of the cast and the writing, from a fine British model.)

So now: the danger zone. Carell is moved up to the lead of a massive-budget, under-thought summer sequel (which the fading Jim Carrey evidently passed on.) It doesn't sound too good, but I'm posting this before the grosses come in. Sounds like they have to be BIG grosses, at a $175 cost. Like Chevy Chase, Dan Ackroyd, John Belushi, and Eddie Murphy before him, Steve Carell is poised to get very rich in white-bread movies that remove what was funny about him in favor of big-budget safety.

Tim Allen, indeed. Carell starts growing a Noah-beard he can't shave? Wasn't that "The Santa Clause?"

Next year (summer?) comes Carell in a movie version of "Get Smart." Sounds perfect, with Carell doing a spot-on Don Adams, Anne Hathaway nicely cast in the Barbara Feldon part, and Alan Arkin as "The Chief." Yet rumor has it the script isn't that good -- the original series got funnier each year as "hip" writers started coming on board -- and there's something about the perfection of a long-ago TV cast that is hard for modern stars to shake. Alan Arkin is a GREAT actor, but Ed Platt's long-suffering straight-man act as the Chief came from the reality base of a longtime second-tier character man suddenly given the role of a lifetime. We'll see. (The Rock seems to be playing the Hymie-the-Robot character, but with a different name, as Hymie is no longer "usuable." Sorry if I offend today.)

Oh, well. Carell's getting rich. "The Office" is still functional. There's time for career correction, if he wants it.

But the Tim Allen career is certainly lucrative.

So what if the Santa Clause "Hair Schtick" is a little boring on the cultured palettes of those who expect something completely new or fresh every time out. Sounds to me that most critics bemoan Almighty II not because it revisits material that's already been done before, it's apparently because the Carellites want more of the dark, innuendo-laden perversity that has become the predictable hallmarks of his earlier work. God damn him to hell for trying to flap new wings and flee those comfy familiar pigeon holes his adoring fans would prefer to keep him penned.

Carell is a great comic. Some of his funniest stuff is when he was a virtual nobody on The Daily Show. But people are allowed to change. People are allowed to break from their mold and try "different". I thought Jack Nicholson was a hackneyed one-dimensional screen personality until he did As Good As It Gets. Personally, I thought he was playing himself in every other movie roll I'd ever seen up until that work. I gained a new-found admiration for Nicholson because that role was different from the same ol' tripe that he regularly churned out in virtually every character he portrayed.

Maybe Evan Almighty is a piece of shit. I'll find out today. But I can't criticize a person for trying something new. John Belushi put in a forgettable performance in Continental Divide . But I would never discourage any performer from trying to break through and discover new frontiers.

Just because Carell's departure to "family friendly" or "religious friendly", or "eco-firendly" is unexpected, I admire his flexibility and desire to cross the spectrum and try his hand at widening his fan base. Leslie Nielsen was an underwear model turned banal character actor. For years he was that face that everyone knew, but whose name escaped them. Airplane put him on the map and made Frank Drebin a household name.

Nothing wrong with getting rich. But only Allen, and the string of SNL alumni can say for sure whether they "sold out" or not.

I will withhold judgment and wait to see if Evan Almighty makes me laugh and leaves me with a good feeling when I walk out of the theater. That's why I go to movies, after all. To have my load lightened. To make me laugh and lift my spirit. Sometimes I'm up for a good "edge-of-your-seat" thriller, and those movies provide a 120 minute ride. Either way, I get a good endorphin rush. Either way, I walk out of the theater with a sense of well being. The gritty real-life type of movies that only leave me feeling like I was sucker-punched in the balls, I generally pass on. Maybe that makes my cinematic tastes a bit jejune or pedestrian to the sophisticated film aficionado, but who the hell cares? I don't. I go to sleep a happy man. The sophisticate grinds their teeth at how insipid a great segment of their society seems to be.

Tim Allen did an interview earlier this year where he rather laughed about his status, saying that he KNEW he was "stuck in a hole" of roles, but was content to get rich staying there. "I like it in my hole. I'll stay in my hole," he said. Or something like that. (And "Wild Hogs" ,from deep in that hole, was a big hit.)

The vast majority of us don't get the chance TO sell out as all those comedians did. My guess is: we'd all take it.

Look at Dan Ackroyd: he stopped being funny after a few too many bland movies, and his star career collapsed, but he got richer than hell, landed a gorgeous blonde wife (Donna Dixon) and has spent his recent years managing the House of Blues and jammin' to his heart's content.

So it becomes rather an esoteric conversation. Steve Carell starts to go the way of...everybody else. Once a "hot" suppporting player to Will Ferrell, now he IS Will Ferrell. ("Get Smart" was a Will Farrell project before being passed to Carell.)

Of course, Carell has this interesting angle: "The Office." Can one be a TV series star AND a movie star? Some have, but not very long. Guys like Dick Van Dyke, Travolta and Clooney eventually jumped their TV shows for more lucrative movie pay.

Remains to be seen with Carell.

On a tangent: Doesn't it strike you that 1) Hollywood is coming rather late to "Get Smart" (weren't they already hip deep into the late '70s?) and 2) Hollywood remakes of '60s spy satires have a less than stellar track record (see Avengers, The and Spy, I)? It makes me wonder how long the project has been languishing in development.

"Evan Almighty" does seem like something of a fork in the road for Steve Carrell, and it would be nice to think that he goes the way of Bill Murray rather than Tim Allen. Though I wouldn't begrudge the man a lucrative career, I did think his performance in "Little Miss Sunshine" was a good sign that he has enough range or talent to do more than generic whitebread comedies. (Then again, perhaps the "Evan Almighty"s make the "Little Miss Sunshine"s possible...)

Agreed on "Get Smart," both 1 and 2. It HAS been in development awhile. I guess it got a greenlight because it now has the "hook of the hot" -- Carell and Hathaway are solid properties right now(and she does seem right for the mix of the sexy and the innocent that Barbara Feldon brought to the original.)

Carell and Alan Arkin (playing the Chief) are both FROM "Little Miss Sunshine," and now they'll be reunited for much bigger paychecks.

Bill Murray does seem to be the "alternative universe" version of an SNLer who didn't sell out and has staked out his own indie cred (He was offered Carell's role in "Little Miss Sunshine" first.)

To do so, Murray rather voluntarily discarded his star career After hitting huge in "Stripes," "Tootsie" and "Ghostbusters," he quit movies for four years and "broke his star rhythm." He also started picking smaller projects. I'm not sure how many superstar comedians quite want to do THAT.

The "Evan Almightys" DO make the "Little Miss Sunshines" possible. Carell now joins those heavyweights who can flit from superstar pay (often for silly projects) to near-scale for Oscar-bait. Problem: this "one on, one off" practice is starting to look so pre-fab that the indiefilms look like superstar vanity projects.