I will sound the alarm right off the bat…CHICK FLICK ALERT! Every once in a while, I ask you guys out there to bite the bullet and take your special someone to a good old fashioned romantic comedy. And no Hollywood Hottie will get your sweetie’s heart pounding like the loveable Josh Duhamel. He began stealing hearts in the soap “All My Children” back in 2002, and fortunately, for us, and for him, he has made his way to the big screen in a big way. In his new movie, When in Rome, Josh plays one of many suitors trying to win the attention of Beth (played by Kristen Bell), who is apparently as unlucky in love as he is. We talked with Josh about the film and why he loves making us laugh!

Your character has an interesting back story in the film. Tell us about him.
My character is Nick Beeman. He grew up in Minnesota and, at the age of 12, moved to New York. He was always a football player and ended up playing college football at Syracuse and was about to be drafted in the first round when he got struck by lightning in a football game.

Obviously he has a change in the course of his life and he winds up meeting Beth, played by your co-star Kristen Bell. What is their relationship in the movie?
They really hit it off in the beginning. It seems like it’s almost love at first sight. It’s going that well and then something happens, and she doesn’t want to talk to him again. And he doesn’t know why. Then it becomes about trying to get her back. A lot of it is about trying to figure out what happened. He thought everything was perfect, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t. Then he finds out why, and also that he’s competing with all these other guys [for her attention], and he has no idea what that is all about either. So, it’s pretty chaotic.

What was it like working with Kristen?
Some girls can just turn it on, and some girls are just natural, and she’s got it. She’s able to be right there, and it makes it a lot easier whether it’s a funny scene or a scene where it’s pivotal to the movie that’s more of a romantic part than a funny part; she can do them both. She’s good. She’s very good.

You really seem to have a natural flair for comedy. Do you prefer action packed roles we’ve seen you do in the past?
I love doing the stuff that’s silly. It actually drove the director crazy because I was always trying to make it goofier, and he was like, “No, no, no, you’re the straight guy in this movie.” So, we created a happy medium there, but they allowed me to do a lot of things physically that I wasn’t allowed to do before.

You can check Josh out, or take your girlfriend to check him out, right now! When in Rome is playing in theatres nationwide and is rated PG-13 for some suggestive content. For all of this week’s new releases and more of your favorite celebrities, check out my show Reel Critics on Time Warner Cable Video on Demand under the North Texas programming tab.