Cast penciled in for 'Easy A'

Lisa Kudrow, others join Screen Gems comedy

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Screen Gems has set Lisa Kudrow, Alyson Machalka, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Penn Badgley ("Gossip Girl"), Cam Gigandet ("Twilight"), Malcolm McDowell and Daniel Byrd to join Emma Stone and Amanda Bynes in "Easy A," the Will Gluck-directed comedy that begins production June 9.

Stone plays a high school student who, after being ostracized by a false rumor she's loose, uses the rumor mill to her advantage, pitting puritanical students and teachers against their liberal counterparts.

Pic was scripted by playwright Bert V. Royal, who weaves the plight of "The Scarlet Letter" heroine Hester Prynne into a parallel storyline to what the "Easy A" protagonist endures.

Zanne Devine and Gluck are producing.