The Farrelly brother's Three Stooges project has seemed doomed from the start. Originally getting Jim Carrey, Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro to play the roles of Larry, Moe and Curly, the casting process has seen more dropouts than an inner-city high school. One spot of good luck the production seemed to have temporarily was after Sean Penn announced he was taking a hiatus from acting, it was announced that Paul Giamatti had taken his place in the role of Larry. While the news had come directly from the mouth of co-director Peter Farrelly, it was apparently all bull.

MTV recently caught up with Giamatti, who is currently promoting the DVD for his film Pretty Bird, and asked him about the rumor. Turns out that it all started as a joke:

"My involvement in that was some completely flukey thing...I was never supposed to be doing that movie."

"Somebody said something to me at Sundance, and I thought [they] were kidding. They said to me, 'Are you going to play Larry in The Three Stooges?' And I thought that was just a joke question somebody was asking me, and I said 'Yes I am. Then it became this whole thing on the Internet. I don't know what's happening on that movie, I had no idea."

Since the announcement of Giamatti, Sean Penn has returned to the project and Benicio Del Toro, ever the rock, is still involved, but the Farrellys don't have anyone lined up for the role of Curly. The brothers have said that the Three Stooges project has been shelved until they finish working on their next film, Hall Pass, starring Owen Wilson, Alyssa Milano, Jenna Fischer, and Jason Sudeikis. Considering how rocky everything has been since the first announcement, perhaps someone is trying to send a message that the material shouldn't be messed around with.