Thanks to some Pulitzer-worthy reporting by IGN and their “trusted source”, the blogosphere has learned that Angelina Jolie may have to drop out of Edwin A. Salt.

You may remember that Edwin A. Salt was the spy thriller to which Tom Cruise was originally attached.  They had recently replaced him with Jolie and were planning to re-write the title and parts of the script to accommodate the gender change (all the standing-up-to-pee scenes had to go… ha, just kidding, it was written for Tom Cruise! Kazam!).

We’ve been informed that Jolie may have to drop out due to the needs of her newborn twins and thus might not be able to meet the picture’s start date. While it’s not official yet, Jolie’s departure from Salt certainly appears likely.

If Jolie does indeed drop out of the project then the studio is expected to go back out to male stars for the title role.

Please, no man could possibly replace Angelina Jolie.  Except maybe Clive Owen.  I’d totally bone that guy.

Edwin A. Salt is a spy thriller script written by Kurt Wimmer (previously of Thomas Crowne Affair… and the creator of Gun Kata!) and set to be directed by Phillip Noyce (The Quiet American).  Tom Cruise had long been attached to star, but now the word is Tom Cruise is out… and Angelina Jolie is in?

Jolie is close to a deal to play the title character, a CIA officer who’s accused by a defector of being a Russian sleeper spy and must elude capture long enough to establish her innocence.

Jolie took a liking to it, prompting the studio’s decision to rewrite it. Sources said the project won’t require that much of an overhaul to suit her.

After Universal beefed up Jolie’s role in "Wanted" and then marketed the action film squarely on Jolie’s shoulders and watched it gross $132 million domestically, Jolie reestablished in the wake of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" that she is the rare female who is viable in an action genre that has been almost the exclusive domain of men. [Variety]

So, uh, Edwina A. Salt then?  Edna A. Salt?  Anyway, you know who’s going to be happy about this decision?  My penis.  I hope she eludes the Russians by putting baby oil on her boobs, I hear they hate that.

Last week, the "Black List" came out – the list of Hollywood’s 100 hottest unproduced screenplays.  Number 13 on the list was Edwin A. Salt, a spy thriller with Tom Cruise attached that Michael Mann was originally set to direct.

Now that Mann has jumped ship to do Public Enemies with Johnny Depp, the studio is reportedly considering The Kingdom-director Peter Berg, who recently finished Hancock with Will Smith.

I enjoyed The Kingdom, but it would’ve been a lot better if Michael J. Fox hadn’t done the camera work.  Seriously, when is Hollywood gonna drop this shakey-cam-makes-it-realer crap? 

Wow dude, if this gets any more "authentic", grandma’s  gonna be scrubbing regurgitated Milk Duds out of these sweatpants (and these are my strip-club sweatpants!).