Ed Burns Chooses His Groomsmen

Love him or loathe him, you've got to admire the number of hyphens that Edward Burns fits into his job description. The writer-director-actor-producer is planning a new film, and once again he's assembled a starry supporting cast for The Groomsmen. There will be few surprises for regular Burns-watchers in the story. It follows a groom (Burns) and his four groomsmen (One best man just isn't enough for Americans, you see) in the weeks before the wedding. This being that sort of film, they wrestle with issues of fatherhood, honesty and growing up, get confused, having misadventures and realise that, at 30-something, perhaps it's time to grow up. So far, so give us a break. But Burns at his best has an ear for dialogue and a sense of character that almost justify the hype that surrounded his debut, The Brothers McMullen. And he has assembled an interesting cast this time around. Matthew Lillard, Jay Mohr, Donal Logue and John Leguizamo are presumably the titular groomsmen, while John Mahoney (Fraiser and The Brothers McMullen) represents the older generation. The ladies include Brittany Murphy, Jessica Capshaw (daughter of Kate and a star of TV's The Practice) and Heather Burns (no relation). Burns is badly in need of a hit