THE THIRD WHEEL

Ben Affleck (who cameos) and Matt Damon produced this larkish script by newcomer Jay Locopo ? remember that name. Lonely, luckless Stanley (Luke Wilson) hasn't had a date in three-and-a-half years. He expects only another rejection when he asks smart, gorgeous Diana (Denise Richards) for a date. She is easily the most appealing woman he's ever seen. For months now he's been writing down and rehearsing the perfect way to ask her out. Then he finally summons up the nerve to speak to her, and to his great surprise, she accepts. Now Stanley absorbs himself in preparations for the Big Night ? the car, the clothes, the hair. But as the appointed hour nears, everything embarrassing that can go wrong does, thanks to an unexpected complication. A complication named Phil (scriptwriter Locopo). He's a derelict Stanley accidentally hits with his car, and whom the would-be swain can't bear to just abandon. Phil ends up accompanying Stanley on his rendezvous with Diana, constantly interrupting the auspicious evening. The proverbial Third Wheel, loco Phil threatens to run Stanley's budding romance off the track. But what starts off as an annoyance could turn into something that surprises them all.