The “sexy librarian” has long been a pop-culture fantasy and Halloween costume staple. But with Wikipedia and e-books killing the need to see librarians in their natural habitat, that fantasy could become obsolete, too. Rufus Wainwright has a solution to save this endangered archetype: Tap Helen Bonham Carter to play a bored, yet determined librarian in his new video for the breezy, Captain & Tennille-sounding “Out of the Game.” She’s tough (no smoking!) but is drawn to the bad boy, nevertheless. Well, a bad boy who likes a good book.

Wainwright’s new album, Out of the Game, arrives May 1 on Decca.