The entire cast of New Line’s Rock Of Ages movie is supposed to assemble in Miami on May 23rd for a table read before Adam Shankman’s big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical starts shooting. Today, around 3 PM, studio head Toby Emmerich officially denied to me a celebrity gossip report that Alec Baldwin had pulled out of the production. He said that Baldwin has a newly discovered medical condition that is expected to resolve so he can do the movie. But just now, at 7 PM, Emmerich told me that Baldwin had just asked New Line to replace him “if at all possible,” even though the actor committed to the movie. Emmerich is now pondering what to do. Baldwin is to play the owner of the Sunset Boulevard Whisky-A-Go-Go-like Bourbon Room owner, Dennis Dupree. Because the character is a meaty role with a big musical number, it’s not easy for New Line to recast, Emmerich told me. (Both Will Ferrell and Steve Carell passed, so that may make it more difficult still.) But Emmerich said he was curious to see if Baldwin also pulls out of his commitment to co-star in Woody Allen’s next comedy to be shot in Rome. It’s the first time Alec is working with Woody since the 1990 dramedy Alice. Allen just started putting the movie together a month ago and Baldwin was supposed to first do Rock Of Ages, whose cast includes Tom Cruise, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Bryan Cranston, Mary J. Blige, and Malin Akerman.

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