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• Ken Baker

Congratulations, Ken Baker!

Our E! News chief news correspondent will be portrayed on the big screen by none other than Elijah Wood in the movie The Late Bloomer inspired by Baker's 2001 memoir Man Made: A Memoir of My Body.

The film follows the amazing true story of then-People magazine news reporter Baker, who found out at 27 that he hadn't fully experienced puberty, thanks to an undetected brain tumor. 'But when the medical condition was removed, in several short, overwhelming weeks [he] did so,' the filmmakers said in a release.

Man Made: A Memoir of My Body Hardcover – Bargain Price, February 28, 2001 by Ken Baker (Author) › Visit Amazon's Ken Baker Page. Find all the books, read about. Man Made: A Memoir by Ken Baker (2001, Hardcover) The lowest-priced item that has been used or worn previously. The item may have some signs of cosmetic wear, but is fully operational and functions as intended. This item may be a floor model or store return that has been used. Man Made: A Memoir of My Body Hardcover – 1 March 2001 by Ken Baker (Author) › Visit Amazon's Ken Baker Page. Find all the books, read about the author, and more.

Baker tells us, 'The movie will bring both heart and humor to what was a pretty rough chapter in my life. After getting to meet and hangout with Elijah recently, it's almost scary how perfect he is to take on the role!'

This Randall Einhorn-directed comedy is expected to go into production this January.

'The combination of Einhorn and Wood is exceptional, as we've seen with the success of Wilfred,' said Maggie Monteith, president of Dignity Film Finance, which is producing the film. 'I know that they will honor Baker's true story in a very entertaining way.'

Baker's latest book, the novel Fangirl, hits bookstores on Tuesday.

It’s all based on a true story, or as the opening credits suggest, “Some ridiculously f**ked up sh*t.” But the real life guy is Ken Baker, an E! TV personality whose memoir Man Made: A Memoir of My Body came out in 2001. That “The Late Bloomer” manages to screw up his stranger-than-fiction story is a revealing flaw; answering to Ken’s tale with the irony of an unqualified but somehow brilliant sex therapist is a grotesque contrivance that pointlessly makes the film’s pitch more confusing. How can this intelligent man think he should talk to people about sex when he hasn’t had any? In articles on Baker, he says that denial was a huge factor to the secrecy of his condition. But “The Late Bloomer” turns a fascinating biological concept (one with comedic potential, yes) into a huge stretch, distancing us from whatever made Pollak want to tell this story in the first place.

Pollak’s film does have the boost of Johnny Simmons, who showed that he was game for an unusual masculine narrative with this year’s “The Phenom,” a baseball player drama that takes place off the pitcher’s mound. Here, he’s cast for how boyish he can look as a 30-year-old with a lifeless haircut and oversized suit. But his appearance is played, like everything else, far too on-the-nose. Once Peter’s puberty begins, Simmons is put through a list of montages and set-pieces meant to be like greatest hits of growing up, including rogue erections, reckless masturbation or apocalyptic zits. But with whatever commitment Simmons offers these scenes they always head into the same punchline—that they’re happening to a clueless, helpless adult. When Peter’s squeaky voice is the focus of a radio interview segment about his book, you can imagine how that scene plays out.

Ken Baker

Though the extensive supporting cast makes for a loaded poster, the results are disappointing. Brittany Snow is relegated to the love interest who also likes to cook; Kumail Nanjiani and Beck Bennett play Simmons’ far more sexually advanced friends, who offer banter about guy time or watching “Valkyrie” that’s well below their comedic potential; Maria Bello plays Peter's mother, whose open sexual dialogue with Peter makes for tired hippie jokes. Even the appearance of Jane Lynch as Peter’s boss is more of a cruel reminder of how much more efficiently “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” did what “The Late Bloomer” wishes it could. Cameos reveal the movie's cheap taste: model Charlotte McKinney (as 'Attractive Woman') appears in the beginning to simply beg therapist Peter for a sex act, which is then appropriately book-ended by a climactic, heavily-anticipated cameo from tacky TV chef Bobby Flay. Really, it’s about the fragments that Pollak gets from his wasted, massive cast, like the image of Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons simulating intercourse using a sausage and a bagel with a smile on his face.