The other, other Boleyn girl: Rachel McAdams is morphing into Scar-Jo

Rachel McAdams has been Toronto’s most promising talent for years, but despite starring in some pretty good movies and making high-profile pals—hell, she and her ex-beau earned their own amalgamated nickname, McGosling—Hollywood doesn’t quite know what to do with the girl. And so, after years of trying to carve out her own niche, the Notebook beauty has reverted to a less original but well-proven Plan B. Or, perhaps better put, a Plan S, as in the ultimate sexspian Scarlett Johansson. How McAdams has been pulling pages from the Scar-Jo playbook after the jump. 

Step 1: Land a Vogue cover
Johansson earned Vogue’s top honour in April 2007; McAdams scored the coveted cover girl spot in the January 2010 issue. Johansson looked like Marilyn Monroe; McAdams more closely resembled one of the gals from Designing Women. But hey, it’s the thought (i.e., the approval of Anna Wintour) that counts.

Step 2: Strike that perfect sexy-thespy balance
There are actors who are sexpots and actors who are serious. Johansson is a rare combination of the two, and, based on her scantily clad but critically lauded performance in Sherlock Holmes, so is McAdams.

Step 3: Catch Woody Allen’s eye
Word is R-Mac will work alongside Wedding Crashers co-star Owen Wilson and Marion Cotillard in an as-yet-untitled Allen picture, set to be filmed in France this summer. Johansson starred in three Allen movies in as many years between 2005 and 2008, making her one of the director’s most significant muses since Mia Farrow.

Step 4: Attract famous admirers
Logan Lerman, the adorable 18-year-old star of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, has revealed that McAdams is his “dream girl,” and Robert Downey Jr. had high praise for his Sherlock Holmes co-star, confessing he would have liked to film more sexy scenes.

Step 5: Land an A-list action hero beau
Bigger than the buzz surrounding McAdams’s gorgeous gown was the actor’s Oscar night encounter with Jake Gyllenhaal; according to People, Gyllenhaal introduced her to a friend as “the mother of my child.” Johansson is married to Ryan Reynolds, a hunky action star with a sensitive soul. Gyllenhaal will earn his action hero crown this summer in The Prince of Persia.

Step 6: Acquire a variation-of-J. Lo nickname
Everyone’s calling her R-Mac. OK, fine, we’re calling her R-Mac, but it’s catchy, even if it sounds like a very large truck or an airport’s runway. Then again, Scar-Jo kind of sounds like a coffee for doctors or a character from the Lion King, and it’s worked for her.

• Rachel McAdams joins Woody Allen film [Hollywood Reporter]
• Logan Lerman crushes on Rachel McAdams [Just Jared]
• McJakey & the Mighty Opes! [Lainey Gossip]
• What you didn’t see on the Oscars [People]
• Robert Downey Jr.’s man crush [People]