- Carmen Electra, Scary Movie, 1999. Like Jenny McCarthy, the latest pop smash was up for Drew Decker in the first Scary. Spears also passed on the sequel…
- Natasha Lyonne, Scary Movie 2, 2001. Two pop-singers, Spears and Christina Aguilera, refused to be the possessed Megan Voorhees as the Wayan brothers (Keenan Ivoy, Marlon and Shawn) sent up the franchise something rotten. Voorhees, of course, was also the nams of the killer in the Friday The 13thfranchise.
- Rachel McAdams, The Notebook, 2004. McAdams beat many people to the role of Allie, including Britney and Ashley Judd.
- Naomi Watts, I Heart Huckabees, 2004. Britney auditioned twice to be Dawn Campbell when first choice Gwyneth Paltrow passed and Nicole Kidman was trapped in The Stepford Wives. Jennifer Aniston was seen but then, with a bound, director David O Russell’s iniial choice was free.
- Jessica Simpson, The Dukes of Hazzard, 2005. In contention for blonde bobbydazzler Daisy Duke were Jessica Biel, Mandy Moore and Britney Spears. Jessica Simpson had a huge hit with her cover recording (for the movie) of the Nancy Sinatra hit, These Boots Are Made For Walkin’. However, het acting won a Razzie nomiintion as Worst Supporting Actress. Ditto for her sister, Ashlee, for Undiscovered in the same year. The good news was that neither sister won.
- Vanessa Hudgens, High School Musical, TV, 2006. Disney’s wonder musical franchise – two tele-films and a cinema feature – grew out of… Grease 3. In 1999, Spears and Justin Timberlake were signed to play the kids of Danny Zucko and Sandy Olsson from the 1978 film. Re-writes were afoot (to hopefully add Christina Aguillera to the mix as Betty Rizzo’s daughter) when the idea was shelved in 2004. Apart from obvious and well-greased angles, the script was, basically, what we saw in HSM.
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Live Free or Die Hard, 2006. Hollywood’s bad girls – Britney and Lindsay Lohan – were considered for good guy John McClane’s daughter, Lucy Gennaro McClane. But his problems were not supposed to be at home. Also seen : the original Lucy – Taylor Fry, just eight in Hard 1, and now (25 screen roles later) aged 25.
- Zooey Deschanel, Gospel According To Janis, 2008. She lost the role of Janis Joplin. But never stopped playing her the same drink-drugs path throughout 2007.
- Ari Graynor,, The Disaster Artist, 2017. Dreadful film-maker Tommy Wiseau, the subject of the movie, wanted Johnny Depp or James Franco to play him. And Franco did, plus producing and directing the piece about Tommy’s worst film ever made – The Room, in 2003 – and he wanted Ari Graynor or Britney Spears as Juliette.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls: 9