2007'S CLASS CLOWNS: APATOW GANG

2007 was not, shall we say, a barrel of laughs in the world at large, so when writer-director-producer Judd Apatow (pictured, center) and his ever-expanding comedy clan (left to right: Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, and Paul Rudd) came along this summer with two stiff shots of cathartic humor — the oops-she's-preggers romp Knocked Up and the high school raunchfest Superbad— moviegoers drank them up to the tune of nearly $300 million in collective grosses. Today, when studio execs have a comedy that feels flat or formulaic, the call goes out to ''Judd it up'' — sweet irony for a man once best known for critically beloved flops like TV's Freaks and Geeks. ''It was always my dream to become a verb,'' Apatow deadpans. ''That's what I wrote in my high school yearbook.'' —Josh Rottenberg

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