Burt Reynolds after he posed naked in the April 1972 issue of "Cosmopolitan". Reynolds said he did it for "a kick. I have a strange sense of humor" and because he knew he had "Deliverance" coming out. He later expressed regret for posing for Cosmopolitan. "Deliverance" was a huge commercial and critical success and, along with the talk show appearances, helped establish Reynolds as a star. "The night of the Academy Awards, I counted a half-dozen Burt Reynolds jokes," he later said. "I had become a household name, the most talked-about star at the award show." He was then in "Fuzz" (1972),
Ned Beatty film "The Incredible Shrinking Woman", directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Lily Tomlin. In 1982, Beatty returned to work with Richard Donner and Richard Pryor in the comedy "The Toy". Beatty worked with Burt Reynolds again in the auto-racing farce "Stroker Ace" (1983). In the middle of the 1980s, Beatty appeared in the comedy film "Restless Natives" (1985), directed by Michael Hoffman. By the end of the 1980s, Beatty appeared in another comedy film, as the academic "Dean Martin" in "Back to School" (1986), starring Rodney Dangerfield. He played a corrupt cop in the 1987 American neo-noir crime film "The