SIMON PEGG
...is the next John Cleese
Okay, yes, Simon Pegg was never in a legendary British sketch-comedy troupe. But like Monty Python's John Cleese, Pegg is a quick-witted, hyper-literate pop-culturalist who co-wrote and starred in a cult British TV hit set in quaint-and-crazy living quarters (Spaced was sort of a modern-day Fawlty Towers). Both went on to co-write and star in reverential parodies of long-standing movie genres — this year's Hot Fuzz did for buddy-cop action pictures what Python's Life of Brian did for the biblical epic. Next year, Pegg, 37, will star in Run Fat Boy Run with Thandie Newton and How to Lose Friends And Alienate People with Kirsten Dunst. Factor in his upcoming turn as a young Scotty in J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek (Christmas '08), and it seems his career has hit warp drive. —Adam B. Vary
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