First thing’s first. No, Rachel McAdams and Russell Crowe don’t get it on in their movie, “State of Play.” Their characters don’t even flirt with each other. That’s one of a few clichés that “State of Play” manages to avoid: sexual tension between the male and female lead characters. (Another cliché that the movie doesn’t have: the coupling of a leading man with a leading lady who’s young enough to be his daughter.) The political thriller “State of Play” marks the return of McAdams to a major-studio film, after the actress took a few years off to do small independent films like “Married Life” and “The Lucky Ones.”

In “State of Play,” McAdams plays Della Frye, a blogger for a newspaper in Washington, D.C. She’s hot on the trail of a scandal involving politician Stephen Collins (played by Ben Affleck), a married congressman exposed for having an affair with a female subordinate who dies mysteriously on a train track. Della often clashes with her co-worker Cal McCaffrey (played by Russell Crowe), an “old school” journalist who happens to be a friend of Stephen’s. Cal also gets involved in the investigation, and the two reporters team up to get to the bottom of the story. McAdams recently talked about “State of Play,” why she could never be a journalist in real life and which of her “State of Play” male co-stars she thought was the hottest. (It’s not who you think.)

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