Paycheque movie roles

I watched a pretty crappy movie the other day and it featured a very well respected actor in a prominent, although still crappy role. After it finished, I sat discussing with my friend said actor's credentials and wondered what could possibly make someone like that take a role like that. We came up with two reasons - 1) they didn't read the script and are thus doing the role as a favour (nice to hear that you've admitted to doing this Judi Dench!), or what we considered the more likely reason - 2) they want a paycheque with minimal exertion - hence the Paycheque Movie Role (PMR) phenomenon.

*But Mally,* I hear you cry, *surely you're not implying that actors who have worked hard to establish their credibility would deign to appear in deliberately crappy roles!?*

Oh yes I am.

I don't know about you, but other than paycheque, I can't think of a reason why Ben Kingsley, Gandhi himself, would accept a role as Kagan in Bloodrayne. Admittedly if you look at his imdb profile you see among his quality roles and performances (e.g. Schindler's List, Sexy Beast, House of Sand and Fog) there's a lot of dross like Species or Thunderbirds so maybe he picks roles by flipping coins.

Morgan Freeman has freely admitted to money being the reason as to why he took the role in Batman Begins (which turned out pretty awesome, but you've got to admit you might have been a bit concerned after the development hell it went through and the last Batman movie). Since money seems to be a factor when he chooses roles, I'm gonna throw in PMR as the reason behind Bruce Almighty and Deep Impact. I'll also add his co-star Gary Oldman as he said he accepted the role of Sirius Black in Harry Potter 3 because he hadn't acted in a year (and he also wanted something he could show his kids after so many R-rated movies)

I understand acting is a difficult profession in terms of stable income and you've got to remember that sometimes taking a crappy role in a crappy movie that will be seen by a large audience regardless of how crappy the movie is may be a good thing. Anyway, here's a list of other people where PMR might be a factor

Anthony Hopkins - Bad Company, The Mask of Zorro
Derek Jacobi - Underworld: Evolution
Gabriel Byrne - Ghost Ship (really, with a title like that...)
Jeremy Irons - Dungeons and Dragons
Joan Allen - Face/Off (although this role comes close on the heels of the movies that she received a lot of kudos for, The Ice Storm, The Crucible, Nixon)
Mira Sorvino - Mimic (what an oscar follow-up!)
Halle Berry - Catwoman (ditto)
Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson - Maid in Manhattan
Jon Voigt - Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (permanent fixture on the imdb worst list and where he receives top billing, second is Scott Baio)

I'm sure there are plenty of others out there, but thinking of these things is kinda depressing.