Gregory Coolidge

Born December 28, 1972, in Redbank, NJ, the up-and-coming writer/director Greg Coolidge made his first official foray into showbiz when he worked as associate producer on J. Max Burnett's 1998 sports drama Possums (with country singer and Will Rogers Follies star Mac Davis in a central role). In the picture, Davis (fresh from a string of direct-to-video duds that followed 1980's Cheaper to Keep Her and 1983's The Sting II) plays a local hardware store owner who attempts to resuscitate the local team of has-beens by broadcasting imaginary games. Few individuals saw the picture, which received extremely limited release in spring 1999; those who did responded more or less negatively. Coolidge's career continued unabated, however. He wrote the script of Wally Wolodarsky's 2002 comedy Sorority Boys, a gender-bending comedy about a bunch of geeky fraternity members who go undercover (in drag) and join a sorority to obtain revenge on the coeds who wronged them. Touchstone Pictures issued the spring 2002 release as a first-run feature; even as most critics panned it, it performed reasonably well at the box office and paved the way for 2006's Employee of the Month. The effort not only marked Coolidge's highest-profile endeavor to date, but his first turn in the director's chair. Pop diva, tabloid mainstay, and reality-TV celebrity Jessica Simpson stars as Amy, the newest cashier at a discount super mart who sparks a hot rivalry between two male clerks, played by Dane Cook and Dax Shepard. Produced by Tapestry Films and Lionsgate, the film was released in September 2006.

~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide