How, how...HOW did Ben Stiller get to direct this?

i mean - UGH - that stupid, STUPID 'murder trial' subplot; Not funny... not original... and it's all just... painful posturing by a fame hungry guy whose television sketch show was widely ignored by viewers (if not RE-viewers, as it did win an Emmy, after all)... a show that was cancelled after it's first batch of episodes. HOW did he get this extra-plum gig of directing a $50+ million JIM CARREY(!) vehicle!? For those who weren't there, can't remember or just didn't care ... there was no bigger star on earth than Mr. Jim Carrey, in '95... not by a very long shot.

i guess it had to be the Apatow/Stiller connection from the show, of course, but where did APATOW get the kind of leverage needed to PRODUCE said Carrey vehicle?? it all just doesn't make sense... but that's Hollywoodland for you, i guess!

P.S. in the literal cavalcade of Stiller friends like J.B., and Andy Dickhead...? Owen Wilson does the MOST appallingly shoddy job as the "love interest's crummy date who gets manhandled in the bathroom by Carrey", while GRINNING THROUGH THE WHOLE THING. i mean WATCH the guy: he makes no effort to hide his stupid grin while directly facing the camera. was that REALLY the best take, Ben? Or did Owen have somewhere else to be...? like, say, a van down by the river? (Thank God for Jackie Chan, eh?)