Who Should Play Ruth Reichl in Garlic and Sapphires?

When news broke last week that a film adaptation of Ruth Reichl's 2006 memoir, Garlic and Sapphires was still actively in development, the immediate question that sprung to mind was of course: Who's gonna play Ruth? After the success of a certain blog-to-book-to-movie, the sky may be the limit for nabbing some A-list talent for the film. So, here are some early picks for who should play the former Gourmet editor. Of course, please do share further nominations in the comments.

1) Meryl Streep: The obvious choice after she had a huge year playing not one, but two chefs on screen (we're told that her character in It's Complicated owned a bakery or something). Streep would also no doubt turn in an awards-caliber performance as Ruth and give the film insta-credibility, and what's more, once you plop a big black wig on the actress, she'd disappear into the role completely.

2) Zooey Deschanel: Hollywood's favorite it-girl with bangs as the food world's favorite it-critic with bangs. Of course, a Deschanel casting choice would ensure a slightly different spin on Reichl's life story (It might sub out any Manhattan scenes for Brooklyn/meat dishes with tofu), but at the very least, they'd sell a lot of tie-in copies of the source material at Anthropologie.

3) Sandra Bullock: Sandy's hot right now. With recent breakout hits like The Blindside, All About Steve and The Proposal, she's proven to be an ageless, versatile leading lady ... kind of like Reichl herself. This would no doubt be the most "method" performance, but hey, it would get some butts in the seats.

4) Tina Fey: She plays a food-obsessed New York media type on TV, so why not on screen? Cast Amy Poehler as a Gourmet staffer, Steve Carrell as her husband and Judah Friedlander as Jonathan Gold, and you have a great rom-com for the 30 Rock set.

5) Danny Devito: As brilliantly suggested by a commenter at Eater SF: "Danny DeVito in a wig, acting like Ina Garten, would be a perfect pretentious Ruthie. He can pontificate about the different shades of blue in the New York sky."

6) Ruth Reichl. Who better to play the legendary food writer than Reichl herself? We know that she's got plenty of time on her hands, the film can be tweaked into a docu-drama-expose of Conde Nast and what's more, she's not opposed to dressing up in silly costumes to entertain the masses:

· All Ruth Reichl Coverage on Eater [-EN-]