Lance Armstrong and Hollywood have always been pretty tight. He and the puppy-eyed Jake Gyllenhaal would go bike riding together; Matthew McConaughey and he have been buds (and Austin neighbors) for years and the guy was even engaged to poor Sheryl Crow. But now it looks like Hollywood — where liars and cheats usually thrive — is turning its tanned back on the disgraced cyclist.
After the bombshell interview with Oprah, stars took to Twitter to express their disdain. Carson Daly tweeted: “He is a cheater and liar. I’m embarrassed that I was such a fan for so long.” Meanwhile, Seth Meyers joked: “Say what you will, he’s still the Lance Armstrong of d*ckheads.” And perhaps Piers Morgan was just bitter that Oprah got the interview and not him when he wrote: “The fact @lancearmstrong admits he had to look up what the word ‘cheat’ means, says all you need to know about the man. #LiveWrong.”
But there’s one person in Hollywood that is hot to trot for Armstrong’s story: JJ Abrams. The “Star Trek” director and “Lost” co-creator is reportedly set to produce a film about Armstrong’s life, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Abrams and Paramount Pictures recently acquired the rights to New York Times sportswriter Juliet Macur‘s book “Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong,” which is set to be released in June. Sony Pictures has been working on a much more complimentary Armstrong movie for years, with Jake Gyllenhaal reportedly attached to star at one point, but those plans were scrapped after Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles in August.
This is a perfect pairing. After all, Abrams and Armstrong are two figures famous for spinning wheels and disappointing endings.
