Franco was really playing second fiddle to an ape acted by Andy Serkis with motion capture technology.

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Increasingly, doing so means a snagging a role in a comic book adaptation, or playing second fiddle opposite a press-hogging superstar.

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So until long-term data on Arimidex are in, AstraZeneca will have to be satisfied with its new drug playing second fiddle to its old one.

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Just across the English Channel, a less-dovish European Central Bank (ECB) policy stance and the ongoing euro-lending indicator improvements has the Pound Sterling playing second fiddle.

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Liz Moyer (a former Forbes Wall Street writer who now hangs her hat at the WSJ) reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission, perhaps tired of playing second fiddle to the Department of Justice in routing out crime in the financial industry, has introduced something new on their Web site: a bit of branding to showcase their work at routing out insider trading (right).

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Unfortunately, while men say they feel more comfortable than ever before with playing second-paycheck fiddle to their wives, the reality is much more complex.

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From playing to 250, 000 people on Brighton Beach in 2002, Cook played second fiddle to Bryce Moore, an engineering student from Corby, Northamptonshire.

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