By MICHAEL CIEPLY http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/movies/18bulk.html?_r=1

LOS ANGELES — A scene from the new journalistic thriller “State of Play” says it all.

Jeff Daniels, as the politician George Fergus, squares off with Russell Crowe, as the pen-wielding journalist Cal McAffrey.

Two men. One notebook. Four chins.

Hollywood’s pool of leading men is getting larger — and not necessarily in a good way.

Based on a close look at trailers, still photos and some films already released, at least a dozen male stars in some of the year’s most prominent movies have been adding on the pounds of late.

In “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,” a subway heist movie due from Columbia Pictures and MGM in June, Denzel Washington, 54, goes cheek-to-jowl with the bulky John Travolta, 55 — and they are beginning to look like a matched set. Mr. Washington is no longer the lean, mean boxing machine he portrayed in “The Hurricane,” 10 years ago.

Hugh Grant, 48, who played the skinny cad to a puffy Renée Zellweger in “Bridget Jones’s Diary” just eight years ago, may find the tables turned in “Did You Hear About the Morgans?,” a comedy to be released by Columbia in December. His co-star, Sarah Jessica Parker, is the sleek one this time around, while Mr. Grant’s famous dimples pop out where they used to pop in.

Even Leonardo DiCaprio, the young heartthrob from “Titanic,” is better padded these days, at 34. Photos from the set of “Shutter Island,” a thriller on tap from Paramount Pictures and the director Martin Scorsese in October, show a little bit more to love.

Hollywood’s women may have weight issues of their own. But it is somehow less noticeable, possibly because actresses who expand do not often get roles to showcase that growth. Kathleen Turner, 54 and the onetime seductress of “Body Heat,” last December put in a rare film performance as Ms. Kornblut, the plus-size dog trainer in “Marley & Me.”

But the men are still playing leads into their 40s and 50s — giving glimpses of what age, and perhaps a little inattention, can do to a most admired physique.

“John Wayne always looked a bit portly,” noted Lawrence Turman, a veteran film producer who is chairman of the Peter Stark producing program at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.

“Mike Nichols once told me the one essential for an actor to have is a large head, so as to be seen,” Mr. Turman said.

Photos of midcentury stars — Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart, Clark Gable and others — show them to have remained rather gaunt at an age when many of the current crop are anything but.

The change in smoking habits may have something to do with it. Possibly, too, the audience has grown more tolerant of weightier men on screen as the society at large has become heavier.

In the past, heavier leading men were confined mostly to the comedy world, said Felicia Fasano, a casting director whose credits include films like “Bad Santa” and “Barber Shop 2: Back in Business” and the television series “Californication.”

But a new willingness to cast heavier men “may have happened organically,” Ms. Fasano said, as Hollywood over the last few years has been plagued by what has widely been seen as a shortage of reliably appealing stars.

Certainly, added girth did nothing to diminish the drawing power of Vince Vaughn. He has sized up considerably since “Swingers,” a cult classic that took in $4.6 million at the box office for Miramax Films back in 1996.

But far bigger crowds showed up to see the beefier Mr. Vaughn, 39, when he was paired with a petite Reese Witherspoon in “Four Christmases” last year. That may be good news for Universal Pictures, which has a still-substantial Mr. Vaughn in the lead of its comedy “Couples Retreat,” scheduled for release in the fall.

Still, size can become an issue when making a film.

“The bigger people are, the more concern there is about high blood pressure or the possibility of strokes or heart attacks” during a shoot, said Brian Kingman, a managing director of Arthur J. Gallagher & Company, which sells entertainment insurance. For all but the oldest stars, however, an extra “10, 20 or 30 pounds” is usually not a major underwriting concern, Mr. Kingman said.

And the weight thing does have its ups and downs.

Tom Hanks, the very skinny guy from “Cast Away,” is now 52 and was up quite a bit when he appeared briefly in “The Great Buck Howard,” a comedy shot in 2006 and released earlier this year. But a handful of photos from the drama “Angels & Demons,” due in May from Columbia Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, show a more compact star. (Some actors, of course — Mr. Hanks and Mr. Crowe among them — have gained and lost weight for specific roles.)

And Seth Rogen, 27, who became a star by playing an unlikely and chubby romantic interest in movies like “Knocked Up,” has recently made the television rounds in much, much slimmer form — perhaps in preparation for his coming title role in “The Green Hornet.”

Appearing on the “Today” show on Tuesday, Mr. Crowe, 45, said he was working his way down to fighting trim for his current role as Robin Hood in a new film for Universal, but he confessed that pounds were dropping more slowly than he had hoped.

He might want to get some diet advice from Jason Segel.

Mr. Segel, 29, was fairly hefty in “I Love You, Man,” a comedy released by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks in March. But his face looked surprisingly thin on billboards advertising the film.

The advertising photos were done some weeks after the film shoot, with a slimmer Mr. Segel, said Katie Martin Kelley, a publicity executive with Paramount. “There was no retouching done,” Ms. Kelley said.