Vinnie and Lula Cast in One For The Money (Stephanie Plum Movie)

We have a Lula!!!  This is what I have been waiting for.  We have Stephanie, Morelli, Ranger, and now Lula.  All we need now is a Grandma Mazur and we are done, the rest don’t REALLY matter.

Oh yeah, we have a Vinnie too.

So, who will be playing everyone’s favorite gun-toting, spandex wearing, ex-hooker?

Oh yeah, and Vinnie…

Lula

Wikipedia description of the character:

Lula was introduced as a minor character working as a hooker in the first book in the series, One For the Money. In Two For the Dough, she becomes Vinnie’s filing clerk and Stephanie’s sometimes partner. Stephanie refers to her as a plus-sized black woman who attempts to shove a size 16 body into size 10 spandex. According to the reader poll on Evanovich’s official site, the favored actress to portray Lula is Mo’Nique. She reappears in later books after she begins to work as a file clerk at the bail bonds office. The other file clerk quit after Vinnie attempted to sexually harass her. Lula is a poor file clerk, and frequently accompanies Stephanie when she is going after bonded clients who haven’t shown up for their court appearance (known colloquially as Failure to Appear, or FTAs). By the 11th book, Lula has worked her way up into being a full time bounty hunter and takes over for Stephanie after she quits working as a bounty hunter. Eventually Stephanie returns to the job, and Lula goes back to being the file clerk and Stephanie’s sometime partner.

It’s Sherri-Sherri Shepherd Y’all!!  Ok, so it’s not Queen Latifah as I had hoped in my movie casting wishes, or the favored Mo’Nique, but hey, I don’t think she’s too bad!  She’s got what it takes to be Lula, don’t you think?  I know like with most of the other characters there will always people who disagree because they had someone set in their minds to play them, but for the most part I think people will be ok with this.

She’s black, she’s got spunk, she definitely can be dressed up to look like an overweight whore and if that doesn’t convince you, look at this:

Dude, she’s totally gonna pop a cap in someone’s ass!  Doesn’t that have ‘Angry Lula Face’ written all over it?

She can do this, people!  I know she can!  It’s going to be hilarious, trust me.

The only concern I have is that I think a lot of people imagined Lula to be less… girly?  Sherri Shepherd may be bigger than the average gal but she’s also somewhat feminine and her voice is higher than I imagine Lula’s to be.  When I think of Lula I don’t think of big just as in overweight, but big in an intimidating way, perhaps a tad butchy with a voice that holds some real deep power.

Will Sherri Shepherd be able to make that side of Lula show through?  If not I may be eating my words about her being able to pull this off.

If you don’t know who Sherri Shepherd is, you may recognize her from being on The View.

Vinnie Plum

Wikipedia description of the character:

Vinnie is the owner of Vincent Plum’s Bail Bonds, where Stephanie is employed. He is also Stephanie’s cousin, and he can barely tolerate his employees. He’s rumored to have had a romantic relationship with a duck and is usually locked away in his office talking with his bookie; taking a snooze or having a conversation with his "Johnson".

Ok, so if I were to ask you if you knew who Patrick Fischler was, would you know?

No?  Me neither.

I’m sure you recognize him when you look at his photo though, the same as I did.  He’s one of those actors that you know from things, you always recognize his photo but if someone ever asked you who he is you’d never know.

Like that other guy, you know the blond one… in that show, with the girl.

Regardless, what I DO know from the shows I’ve seen this guy in is that he can do creepy, and really, what else do you need to do to play Vinnie?  He’s a skeezy guy who pops in now and then, it’s not rocket surgery.  He’ll be good in this role, that’s really all I have to say about it as Vinnie isn’t one of the characters I was really concerned about anyway.

You can stop banging your head now, this is where you recognize him from.

You’re welcome.

So all we have left now out of my main characters is Grandma Mazur.  This one they absolutely MUST get right or the movie may very well be ruined for me forever.

Oh yes, and a small side note.  A lesser known character has also been cast.

John Leguizamo has been cast in the role of Jimmy Alpha.

Who is Jimmy Alpha, you ask?  He’s the manager of Benito Ramirez that decides to take things into his own hands towards the end of the book.

I know this because I googled, not because I actually remembered him off the top of my head.  I read that book years ago, I don’t remember every little detail.  Sue me.

Point is, I’m not sure how big of a role this will be.  I do love me some John Leguizamo though, so I’m hoping that they beef up his character a bit so that we get to see a little more of him.

That’s it for now!  It will only be a matter of time now before we see the full cast.  I’ll keep you posted!