James Marsden in Magic Mike? Apparently, it almost happened.

During the Tuesday, Jan. 5 episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden, The Notebook star shared the real reason why he passed on the stripper-themed movie.

“I had fear I would be edited out of the movie,” the actor confessed. “Just all my lines would be cut out and I’d be an extra just rushing around in a g-string so I think it was a lack of courage on my part.”

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For Stephen King fans, CBS All Access’ new limited series The Stand has big shoes to fill. Not only is the book beloved by readers as well as critically acclaimed — and even comes in two versions, the original 1978 version and an unabridged edition published in 1990 — but the novel was previously adapted into a well-received miniseries in 1994 that featured a cast of more than 125 speaking roles along with performances by Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, Jamey Sheridan, Laura San Giacomo, Ed Harris, and many more. And when it comes to those performances, Sinise’s Stu Redman was especially stand out, even earning the actor a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. For James Marsden, who takes on the Stu Redman role in this new series, it was important to do right by not only Sinise’s work, but King’s novel as well.

Speaking with ComicBook.com, Marsden said that stepping into the role was “tricky” but that this new series is telling the story for a new generation.

“Gary kind of knocked it out of the park with that, in the miniseries, and Mick Garris [director of the 1994 miniseries] did a great job with it, with much less time, right? They had just a few hours and we have nine. But it’s always tricky stepping into the shoes of someone else who’s done a really incredible job with the trail,” Marsden said. “I think that said, we’ve not updated it but we’re retelling this story for a new generation and a new audience. It’s just another interpretation of the book and so, obviously, I want to right by the character in the book and by Stephen King and Gary Sinise, everyone who’s been a part of an iteration of this in the past.”

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Nov. 24 (UPI) — Universal Pictures is giving a glimpse of The Boss Baby: Family Business.

The studio released a trailer for the Boss Baby sequel Tuesday featuring the voices of Alec Baldwin, James Marsden and Amy Sedaris.

The preview opens with a now-adult Tim (Marsden) and Ted (Baldwin) having grown apart. The brothers reunite at Christmas and discover Tim’s daughter Tina (Sedaris) is a secret agent for BabyCorp.

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The second season of “Dead to Me” on Netflix started with one hell of a twist: Steve (James Marsden), who Jen (Christina Applegate) killed and then secretly buried with a little help from her friend — and his ex — Judy (Linda Cardellini), had a twin brother. The two had the same face but seemed to be worlds apart in personality — but by the end of the season they ended up sharing a more cosmic connection: Both were responsible for dangerous hit-and-runs.

“I love the perversity of the show,” Marsden tells Variety. “To me, that comedy can come from that is more of a mirror on the way we are in real life.”

As a series as a whole, “Dead to Me” began with the aftermath of Steve and Judy’s hit-and-run — although it was not known from the start that they were at fault for the car accident that took Jen’s husband’s life. Instead, the show started with her meeting Judy in a grief group, which Judy was attending to get to know Jen after the guilt from her role in the accident was weighing so heavily on her. The truth was slowly unraveled over the course of the first season. Similarly, the truth about Steve’s death gets unraveled over the 10 episodes in Season 2, and at the end of that second season, Ben learns his missing twin’s body has been found and he falls off the wagon, resulting in him drunk-driving into the side of the new car Jen just bought for her son. Thankfully this time, both Jen, who was driving, and Judy, who was in the passenger seat, lived.

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