How Will Kevin Bacon's Latest Role Affect His Six Degrees Game?

Photo illustration by Michael Saba

And perhaps most importantly, how does all of this affect Paste?

Chances are, you’ve heard of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Maybe you can even connect yourself with the actor in six steps or less. After all, the guy has worked with seemingly everyone in Hollywood, and according to THR, he’ll soon add more connections to the list. Bacon just signed on to join the cast of an untitled movie in which he plays the suave co-worker of Julianne Moore, whose marriage to Steve Carell is falling apart. The couple is in counseling with a life coach, played by Ryan Gosling, but that doesn’t stop Moore from having an affair with Bacon’s character. Emma Stone also stars.

If you’re still reading, you probably have a general idea of how the game works. The objective is to connect Bacon to another actor in six degrees of separation of less. But what about your friends at Paste? Because everything’s better with Bacon, below we’ve drummed up a handful of ways we’re connected to the actor via his new co-stars:

Kevin Bacon will star in the above-mentioned movie with Emma Stone, who was in Superbad with Michael Cera, who starred in Juno with Rainn Wilson, who, during a rather hilarious interview conducted near some porta-potties at Sasquatch in 2008, revealed to Paste that The National are uppity douchebags.

In the unnamed movie, Bacon will also act alongside Steve Carell, who was in Dan in Real Life with Juliette Binoche, who was in Chocolat with Johnny Depp, who regularly collaborates with Tim Burton, who was recently named one of Paste’s Fifty Best Living Directors.

Julianne Moore stars in the psychological thriller Chloe with Amanda Seyfried, who is a member of HBO’s Big Love cast alongside Chloe Sevigny, who stars in Divorce Ranch with Zooey Deschanel, who appeared on the December/January 2009 cover of Paste with She & Him partner M. Ward.

Emma Stone was also in Zombieland, which boasted a rather excellent cameo from Bill Murray, who was no doubt honored when he found out that he was the star of one of Paste’s best celebrity alcohol endorsements.

The writer of this movie, Glenn Ficarra, also wrote Bad Santa, which starred Billy Bob Thornton, who Paste photographed while performing with his band, The Boxmasters, at a Country Music Hall of Fame event in 2008.

Finally, let’s take this thing full circle. Bacon is in this movie with Ryan Gosling, whose eatery, Tagine, was featured in our list of musician-owned restaurants with an establishment owned by Justin Timberlake, who will star in The Social Network this year with Joseph Mazello, who was in The River Wild with Kevin Bacon.

Annnnd, we’re spent.

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