Anna Karenina could have a lot in common with Ocean's 13, I've decided. The latter movie, which opens this coming week, has a cast that is packed with the cream of Hollywood's younger generation cream: Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, George Clooney, Casey Affleck and Scott Caan. There could be roles for more than a few of these guys in our fictional casting of new movie version of Anna Karenina. (For anyone who's late to this series, I've already thrown out ideas for a new Anna and Vronsky).

Luckily, there would also be a few roles for women, who seem to be in short demand in the Ocean's franchise (the first woman isn't listed until 17th place on the credits)

First up, Karenin and Oblonsky. They have to about the same age, and I am thinking that these characters were about 40 in the book. That's makes Clooney a little on the old side, since he just turned 46 in May, but, come on, wouldn't you love to see him take on these roles? OK, yes, I would pay to watch him read the phone book, but that's another blog altogether.

At first, I thought of Clooney for Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky, Anna's brother. I could see him milking the possibilities out of Part 3, Chapter 7, when "Stiva", as he is known is left in charge of opening the summer villa for his wife. Tolstoy tells us that "…he could never keep in his mind that he had a wife and children. He had bachelor tastes, and it was in accordance with them that he shaped his life." But then I moved on to Part 3, Chapter 13, in which Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin, Anna's husband, debates what to do with his errant wife. He weighs the merits (and danger) of calling Vronsky out for a duel. "Don't I know perfectly well," Karenin muses, "that my friends would never allow me to fight a duel--would never allow the life of a statesman, needed by Russia to be exposed to danger?" Yes, I could see Clooney having fun with that bit of writing too. So let's let Clooney be Karenin and have Hank Azaria do Stiva.

Then there's Dotty, Kitty and Princess Betsy. How about Carla Gugino (from Night At The Museum) for Dotty, Hilary Duff for the overwrought Kitty (she's wrapping a role as a Russian pop diva right now) and, for Princess Betsy, Cameron Diaz (the voice of Princess Fiona in Shrek). Yes, I know, I speculated about Julianne Moore the other day in the post about casting Anna, but I'm thinking Diaz would be a better bet for Tolstoy's life of the party.

Who's left? Levin. I'd pick Matt Damon, to carry through on the Ocean's 13 theme. Or Edward Norton, if the producers of Ocean's opt for number 14.

I just hope there will be room in the credits for my name…