CEBU, Philippines - Columbia Pictures pairs up Katherine Heigl (“Knocked Up,” “27 Dresses”) against Gerard Butler (“300”) in “The Ugly Truth,” a smart, sexy comedy about men, women and the giant abyss that stands between the ways we each think about, fantasize about and try to seduce the other.
Heigl and Butler throw sparks as two co-workers destined to despise one another. She’s out to find a sophisticated dream partner. He’s on a mission to tell women to get real and admit that men have just one thing on their minds. But when he decides to help her get what she wants, they both learn something unexpected about how powerfully even the most defiant opposites attract.
Abby Richter (Heigl) is an ambitious morning talk show producer on “A.M. Sacramento” who prides herself on being able to find an instant solution to any problem – any problem that is except her own unhappily single status. When it comes to dating, the always-in-control Abby has a flawless track record of failure.
When her show suffers a ratings slump, Abby is forced to team with the newly recruited special correspondent Mike Chadway (Butler), a man who couldn’t push more of her buttons. His “The Ugly Truth” segment promises to spill the beans on what makes men really tick. But his outrageously racy, gleefully chauvinistic, “shock jock” style rubs Abby in all the wrong ways and to make matters worse, becomes an instant ratings bonanza, sealing his network status.
Then Abby meets Colin, her neighbor, and he’s a single doctor! He’s everything Mike Chadway isn’t – suave, polite, not remotely into jello wrestling — and this time, Abby doesn’t want to blow it. She hates to admit it, but she needs Mike’s insight into the male mind to make the right moves. Now, as Mike coaches Abby and Abby puts Mike’s provocative theories to the test, they are both about to discover an ironic truth: as different as we might be, men and women share some of our most secret feelings in common.
Says director Robert Luketic (“Legally Blonde”), “I think we’re all starting to realize that men and women are wired differently and it’s liberating to be able to play with that in a movie that’s honest and frank, but also outrageously irreverent, about what makes us different and what brings us together. We are certainly all equal but the ugly truth is that there are things men need and there are things women need – and sometimes they clash, and yet . . . it’s that difference that makes romance so exciting and wonderful.”
Opening soon across the Philippines, “The Ugly Truth” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.