Friends With...A-Rod?

It goes without saying that it's been a rough week for us Yankees fans.  We ended last week with the loss of our beloved stadium announcer Bob Sheppard.  Then this morning, we lost The Boss himself, George Steinbrenner.  By the time they're back in the Bronx on Friday, more time is going to spent on memorials than on the actual game.

So this news showing up on top of all of it seemed just plain weird.  Variety is reporting that Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez will be making his big screen debut alongside Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis in Screen Gems' Friends With Benefits.

With a script by David A. Newman and Keith Merryman, Friends With Benefits follows two friends as they recover from disastrous relationships (presumably neither of them involve A-Rod's brief fling with Kate Hudson last year).  The cast also includes Woody Harrelson, Patricia Clarkson, Richard Jenkins, Jenna Elfman, Emma Stone, and Andy Samberg.

Filming begins this summer in New York.  Screen Gems confirmed that they will working around Rodriguez's schedule by only shooting his scenes on Yankees off-days.

Which they better be doing.  Alex, the Yankees are only 2 games ahead of Tampa right now.  You can be a movie star after the season.  Like your teammate Derek Jeter, who filmed his scenes for The Other Guys after the World Series last year.

So that should be interesting, I guess.  It's got a pretty big cast, so if anything it's probably just a short role in the film.  But since I'm more of a Derek Jeter fan myself, so I'm more excited for The Other Guys.