First, Greer scored a recurring role on the beloved Fox comedy “Arrested Development.” More recently, she snared a gig on the revamped, post-Charlie Sheen “Two and a Half Men.”

Her latest coup had nothing to do with happenstance. On Nov. 4, Greer picked up the 2011 John Cassavetes Award from the Starz Denver Film Festival. The acting honor typically goes to leading men – or ladies – but this time festival judges honored a character actress with an impressive body of work.

Greer is Hollywood’s go-to comic foil, the best best friend a romantic comedy starlet could have. She’s also an in-demand actress starring in one of the year’s most anticipated films, Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants” as well as a key gig on “Two and a Half Men.”

Her career began with a role in the 1998 Chicago-based feature “Kissing a Fool.” The film’s premiere was slated to be held in L.A., so she drove west in a car her father bought for her.

“My agent said she would send me on auditions while I was in Los Angeles,” she recalls, already plotting a Plan B in case the acting career didn’t catch fire.

“When it stops, I’ll move back [to Chicago], I’ll go to grad school and pick a new career,” she says. “Now I can’t  because I don’t know how to use computers.”

She worked steadily after the “Fool” gig, appearing in films like “Three Kings,” “Jawbreaker” and “What Women Want.” She also landed plenty of work on the small screen, including appearances on “Just Shoot Me,” “CSI: Miami” and a recurring gig as the dizzy, delightful Kitty Sanchez on “Arrested Development.”

“In the beginning I took every job I could,” she says, often auditioning five times a day during the television pilot season. She still auditions today, but her growing industry clout is making a difference.

“People say, ‘you still have to audition?’ Yeah, and if I told you who else was auditioning [with me] you would be like, ‘holy buckets!’ Who knew she had to audition?” she says.

Her “Two and a Half Men” gig didn’t require the standard audition process. Greer previously appeared on the CBS show back in 2007, but show’s creator, Chuck Lorre, rang her up to play new star Ashton Kutcher’s ex-wife.

“He said, ‘we don’t care if you were already on it, we just love you and think you’ll be perfect for it. How do you say no to that?” she asks. Greer arrived on set after the smoke finally cleared following Sheen’s departure from the show.

“Everyone on set was so happy – they got to go back to work,” she recalls of the atmosphere, one stoked by Kutcher’s post-episode parties.

The actress is used to working under wildly divergent conditions. She shot “The Descendants” and the upcoming “Jeff Who Lives at Home” at the same time, shuttling from the former’s Hawaii set to the latter’s New Orleans locations.

“Alexander’s set is really calm and specific and calculated,” she says of “The Descendants’” director’s style. That contrasted sharply with how “Jeff’s” directors, Jay and Mark Duplass, approached their film. “That was like two cameras, fast set-ups, very real and naturalistic. They find the voyeuristic slices of life, very improvisational. They would say, ‘talk about your hair for a minute.’ The cameras are always moving, everything works and anything goes. Whey they see something they like, they hone in on that.”

Greer continues to find work in both film and television, and her confidence deepens with every assignment. But she’s still skittish about the direction independent films appear to be headed.

“Independent film used to be such a great venue for first-time actors, first-time directors, first-time everythingers. Now, the independent movies don’t get made if there’s not movie stars in them,” she says. “No one has any money, and no one’s buying independent movies any more.”

Greer is often at her best supporting stars like Jennifer Garner (“13 Going on 30″) or Jennifer Aniston (“Love Happens”). She wouldn’t mind seeing her name above the movie title one of these days.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want a shot at starring in movies. Of course I do! But I’m super grateful for what I have. I can go to Target or walk through an airport by myself,” she says. “I have enough friends who can’t do that … or at least a couple who can’t do that. The ability to walk around and experience life by yourself adds so much to your work.”

My apologies for bringing up old crap, but Clooney’s statement, especially the part about how he’s so proud to be out of touch, is one of the most bafflingly odd things I’ve ever heard coming from Clooney, who’s also famous for telling anyone who’ll listen that everybody tells him all the time how brave he was for making a black and white movie about the red scare. It’s very revealing that Clooney would say this, to cheers, a mere three years after a child-rapist was handed an award by that same Academy.

Cut to the present, the child-rapist is caught, and much of Hollywood is outraged. “He should be allowed to live his life,” wrote Peter Bart, his words practically streaked with tears. Hey, guess what, Pete? He has been allowed to live his life. They’re all like Clooney, proud be out of touch. But why? To answer this question, we turn to the genius of one George Costanza.

They’re different than the rest of us. They’re “delicate geniuses.”

Back to the Academy Awards, who can forget Sean Penn humorlessly, smugly, embarrassingly chiding Chris Rock for poking fun at fellow delicate genius Jude Law? Rock’s offense? A joke, dripping with truth, which pointed out that Jude Law is not a box office draw. The box office doesn’t matter to them. Hell, look at the movies they nominate nowadays. They’ve grown more out of touch than ever. You think “The Sting” would get nominated for Best Picture today? Much less win? Or “Jaws”?

And then there’s David Cross (of “Arrested Development” fame), who brags that he snorted coke near Obama. If you don’t think that’s super-cool, then you’re probably a stupid Christian. He’s one of those atheists for whom it’s not nearly enough to just not believe in God, he has to build a stand-up career out of his atheism. He’s always been strangely uninformed about Christianity, but that doesn’t stop him from cracking hipster jokes about Christians. Back in 1999, he joked that he couldn’t wait to make fun of Christians when Y2K turned out to be a global non-factor. In this hilarious segment, Cross discussed Y2K more than my Southern Baptist Pastor did in an entire year.

Cross’ cocaine story, coupled with the story last week about Academy Award fixture Hilary Swank–the she sashays around the house nude in front of her boyfriend’s six-year-old kid–illustrates what’s gone wrong with the delicate geniuses.  Hilary, please, put us on a need-to-know basis. You were way cooler when you were the underdog, the “Next Karate Kid” made good. We simply know too much about the delicate geniuses. The delicate geniuses would be more respected and adored by their audiences if they embraced a little mystery. Remember when Sean Penn crazily demanded privacy? He was sooooo much cooler then. We all knew Paul Newman was a liberal, but I never got the impression that he thought that made him smarter than his audience.

But that’s exactly how the current stars sound when they take credit for the Civil Rights Movement, or wish shame on the grandchildren of people with different opinions than their own (that’s you, Mr. Penn), or indulge us with their stories about getting a snootful of Bolivian Marching Powder while in the company of The Savior, or traipsing around nekkid in the company of kids. They’re enlightened, you see, and we’re the uneducated masses.

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Hopefully the finished product will explore subjects beyond the (understandable) bellyaching about Fox’s shabby treatment of the show, abysmal ratings, regrettable lack of audience, etc. 

Note to readers: This documentary is not to be confused with the Arrested Development feature film, reportedly in production.

Note to self: Perhaps a separate post featuring a full-fledged ode to this brilliant show is in order.  Stay tuned for that, and join the fan club in the interim. 

[This blog post was sponsored in part by the Law Offices of Barry Zuckercorn, and by "Caged Wisdom," now available on DVD]