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Whenever I hear about a celebrity couple planning some kind of destination vow renewal I cringe a little and wonder when they’re going to break up. You can blame Heidi Klum and Seal, who staged an elaborate party and/or vacation every year of their ill-fated, overly demonstrative marriage. (Did you know that was actually Heidi’s second marriage? I just found that out on Wiki, I had no idea.) So that’s why I’m not super psyched to hear that one of my favorite couples, Matt Damon and his wife Luciana, are planning a destination party/vow renewal type thing this summer (over seven years since they were married) and are sending their friends “save the date” cards. It may just be a nice way for them to have a vacation with their friends and celebrate their marriage. The NY Post goes to great lengths to explain why they’re doing it – they got married in relative secret when Luciana was pregnant with their first child together and they never really had a chance to celebrate. (Matt is also stepfather to her daughter from a previous marriage.) So that makes me feel a little better. Here’s more:
Matt Damon and his wife, Luciana Barroso, are planning to celebrate their marriage in April with the destination wedding they never had, Page Six can exclusively reveal.
A-listers were buzzing in LA over Oscar weekend that the “Saving Private Ryan” star and his wife have sent out “save the date” cards to close family and friends for an April bash that’s so top-secret, even the guests haven’t been told the location yet.
“They had a really low-key wedding in Manhattan,” a Hollywood source explained, adding, “so now they want to do something bigger.”
Sources said that while details of the bash are being kept hush-hush, one rule for guests lucky enough to be invited will be “no kids” on the trip.
Damon and Barroso wed back in 2005 at city hall — where the only non-family guest was Mayor Bloomberg, Damon has said.
The wedding was so private, it even reportedly caught some of Damon’s closest friends, including Ben Affleck, by surprise. So now, sources say, the couple will have the chance to celebrate with their nearest and dearest.
At the time, busy Damon didn’t have time for a honeymoon: He went straight back to the set of the movie he was working on — Robert De Niro’s “The Good Shepherd” — and brought Barroso with him to film in London. “I guess we’ll have our honeymoon there,” he was reported as saying.
Devoted family man Damon and his wife have four daughters, including one from Barroso’s previous marriage, who was also at his city hall ceremony.
Reps for the actor did not respond to a request for comment.
Unlike his buddy Ben Affleck there, Damon never has an unkind or passive aggressive word to say about his wife. He consistently praises her, says they’re in it as a team and she’s indispensable, etc. so maybe all my worries are misguided. It’s just that today we heard about two very sweet, solid-seeming couples breaking up. I love these two and hope they grow very old together. (Unless Matt is single at some point, in which case call me Matt!)
Also, I know these two are very private and we’re not likely to get pictures, but I’d love to see some. It’s sure to be a great party too.
Matt and Luciana are shown at the Naeem Khan fashion show on 2-12-13. They know him personally and Matt describes him as a friend. They’re also shown at the Gotham Awards on 11-26-12. Credit: WENN and Fame
Written by Celebitchy
Posted in Luciana Barroso, Matt Damon, Weddings
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Noooooooooo!
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if it were anyone but Damon I might be worried, but I think that there’s a lot of love between those two and they’ll be just fine.
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Ugh! the renewal vow curse!
Don’t do it guys!!
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Haha…yep, telltale sign of trouble!
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Ug. Not a good sign…..
Maybe they are doing it for their daughters? Little girls just love weddings. *Hoping*
I love Matt Damon so much. I’d say he is my fantasy husband, except for the fact that he looks exactly like my little brother.
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This. The whole vow renewal thing seems so try-hard to me no matter who’s doing it, but if money’s no object, why not do it for your kids who didn’t get to be there the first time?
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Hey, they ‘did’ get married in City Hall in NYC in front of just two or three family members (I thought at the time they did it there instead of a church because of Luci’s divorce … you know, she’s Argentinian and probably Catholic), so I don’t see anything wrong with having a ceremony for their friends, family, and children.
Of course, those who just want to see trouble will see it anyway.
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Well, very few kids actually get to witness their parent’s weddings. And they are married legally. So holding a wedding celebration “for their kids” seems a little odd.
But if she wants to wear a nice dress and they want a party with family and friends, who am I to judge? And it could just be that. Maybe they are done with the baby-making/infant stage and they figured now is the time to do this thing they put off for a long while.
And she is just gorgeous. She’ll look good in a wedding dress!
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It said it was a “no kids” event.
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@Emma Oh! Maybe the are able to have a church wedding this time? Like, Lucy’s first marriage was officially annulled…or her ex-husband died…or something else that makes a Catholic wedding possible? That would be a great reason to have another ceremony. My cousins were married for about seven years, but decided to have a church wedding so that their baby could be baptized.
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I like fabgrrl’s guess. I am going to go with that one for piece of mind.
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(Unfortunate trousers)
I think it’s okay. Do we need to assume every vow renewal belies a recent betrayal? Maybe we need to rename the whole thing so it doesn’t sound like crisis management? How about “Vow Celebration”?
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I still say uh-oh. What difference does it make after so many children and years later. Just take the friends and family on a nice vacation together or throw a big anniversary party. It looks like they need to put some excitement, romance, or publicity into the marriage. I guess with 3 or 4 kids later, reality of routine sets in.
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Because they got married at City Hall in NYC with just two or three people with them (probably Matt’s Mom, Dad, brother, and Luci’s daughter).
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The only marriage advice my stepmother ever gave me was, “Never renew your vows. Every couple I’ve ever known who has renewed their vows was divorced within a year.”
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I know a few couples who renewed their vows and didn’t split but they were at 20/25 year anniversaries. It was fun because the kids are grown, it’s a new chapter, let’s party! Doing it early in marriage is either a band aid or self indulgent.
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That’s how it was for my parents. They had a wedding and renewed their vows one night at church. I think it was on their 20th. It’ll be 31 years in September!
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My parents renewed at the 10 year mark. Their wedding was rushed in 1967 because my dad was being deployed with his fighter squadron to Vietnam. They had a quick, tiny wedding and BOOM! He was off to war.
So in 1977, when he was stationed at NORAD, they had a big to-do in the Catholic chapel at the Air Force Academy (his alma mater). They hadn’t been able to do a mass for their wedding, so the primary allure of renewing was to consecrate the sacrament.
At the time of my dad’s death, they had been married 40 years. They were joined at the hip, holding hands into their 60′s.
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Awww, How sweet!
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Is it weird that you have four kids and specify “no kids”? If you’re going to go for the big ceremony now, wouldn’t you want the kids there?
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sounds to me like it’s her wish to wear a wedding dress. I’ve known people like this…they would never have had a simple civil ceremony if it weren’t for the pregnancy before marriage. they make a promise to have a “real” wedding at a later date, then life happens and the wedding keeps getting pushed back. now that they are (probably) done having any more children, it may have seemed like a good time. also, in my friends’ cases, before they got any older
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Huge sexual orgy?(suspicious eyes)
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he looks happy with her. they seem solid.
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I love her dress in the top picture.
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In the last few months, I have known 3 couples to get divorced and in public they always seemed happy together and got along. So you never know what is going on behind closed doors.
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I’m not worried. I can relate to this — wanting the big celebration with your friends. They both seem like really nice, decent people.
I also know several people in strong marriages who have renewed their vows. I probably wouldn’t do it, personally, but I don’t see it as a death knell for their marriage or anything.
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Gah, she is so beautiful.
I like the idea of them as a couple, and with that many young kids, I really really hope they don’t split up.
I always gird myself when the vow renewals come along too, whether that’s valid or not…
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I’ve asked this before, but are ALL vow renewals really the kiss of death?
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That they did something small in the beginning and want to do it a little bigger now is great! It doesn’t mean there is a sign of trouble! And if they know most of their freinds invited have small children, they know as parents themselves how much of a distraction little ones are going to be!
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She looks a bit like Nina Dobrev!
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She looks like a younger version of Michael Caine’s wife, who is gorgeous.
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Shakira Caine renders my husband speechless.
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Maybe he just wants to give her the wedding she never had. They did married at city hall in NYC.
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Hope it’s all good and just a nice party for friends and family.
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I’m a little ragey at you for leading with the bald pic. Only hair from now on please.
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I have a thing for bald guys, it’s well documented here. I didn’t even do that on purpose that I’m aware of!
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@Celebitchy, who wrote: “I have a thing for bald guys …”
(blush) Me too!
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He just looks so old…and bald. I can’t deal with old and/or bald Matt Damon yet, which means I don’t know if I’m going to be able to see whatever movie he shaved the hair off for, even if it is an action flick. I know he had it buzzed for the Bourne movies, but he’s older now and I don’t want to be reminded of it. It should just be the We Bought a Zoo wig from here to eternity.
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@Alli, who wrote: “which means I don’t know if I’m going to be able to see whatever movie he shaved the hair off for, even if it is an action flick.”
The film is “Elysium,” which opens on August 9, 2013 and it is very much an action film. It was written and directed by South African Neil Blomkamp, who wrote and directed “District 9″ and seems to be continuing his visual metaphor of apartheid in this film as well.
The buzz on this film, which started at Comic Con 2012, is awesome! The first trailers will be shown in theaters in April 2013.
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Their body language is very connected. I have very high hopes for these 2
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The renewal itself isn’t what bothers me but rather that we KNOW about it. The one thing we know about Damon is that he’s super private – how often does he talk about privacy and not pimping out your family etc. . . there was all that stuff about how he might have been calling out Affleck because of doing that for the Oscars. Does Damon have a big movie coming out that may need Oscar buzz for 2013??? Just seems out of character in terms of publicizing it. . . . so I say uh-oh unfortunately.
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If this was a 10th Anniversary vow renewal, I wouldn’t worry. But 7th? Sorry but that spells apology-vow-renewal for major transgression to me. And there were those BIs about a squeaky clean actor who actually had a long running side thing that sounded alot like Matt. I like the guy, but he did dump Minnie Driver for Winona Ryder in a very public and humiliating way so…
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I remember how he dumped Minnie but don’t know anything about Ryder. Do tell.
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He went on Oprah right after the Oscar win or around the time that Good Will Hunting was being promoted and he announced that he was dating Winona. And that’s how Minnie found out that she had been dumped. Now that he was a famous wunderkind he traded up girlfriends and didn’t have the decency to do it with class. I figured he grew up after that but you never know.
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I remember that interview on Oprah and Minnie finding out she had been dumped that way. I was only a kid but I thought that was so awful. At the time I remember my mom calling Matt and jerk for doing that. Matt seems to have really rehabilitated his image and comes across as a really decent and wholesome family guy, but as you said, you can never be sure. I always thought that he and Ben were very talented but also quite arrogant and smart enough to hide their transgressions while coming off as good guys.
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He only said on Oprah that he was single, I remember watching that episode. It was a shock to Minnie and she later admitted that that was the first time she’d heard that they weren’t together. Matt never said that was with Winona during that Oprah episode. That was the douchiest thing he’s ever done (that we know of) it was very early in his career, and he’s been a stand up guy since.
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Matt broke up with Minnie in 92 he started dating Winona in 97
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http://www.vh1.com/celebrity/2008-08-04/90-matt-damon-dumps-minnie-driver-on-oprah/
Even if you believe that there was no overlap, it was lame. And I do believe the dumping was so he could get with Winona. She was kinda famous for that sort of thing…when she dated the Runaway Train song singer (Dave Pirner) he dumped his longtime girlfriend to be with her. Even Courtney Love bitched about that one.
I hope Matt sees that part of his life as stupid and immature, but you never do know.
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@Kim: Both Minnie and Matt were just starting out in 92.
They met on the set of GOOD WILL HUNTING around 96. Winona was 97.
@sirsnarkalot – there may have been an overlap because he dumped Minnie during promotion of GOOD WILL HUNTING and then BOOM with no decent interval he was with Winona.
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@Sirsnarksalot, Andy, Lak, Kibbles and anyone else still spreading this crap … ” I like the guy, but he did dump Minnie Driver for Winona Ryder in a very public and humiliating way so…”
Both Matt Damon ‘and’ Minnie Driver (even Minnie Driver’s sister) have said that Matt ‘did not break up with her on Oprah.’ They’d already broken up two or three weeks prior to his appearance on Oprah. Minnie Driver has said that in interviews.
Why would a man, who had never been accused of being a heartless coward before that incident, and hasn’t been accused of being a heartless coward ‘since’ that incident, all of a sudden deliberately embarrass someone on national TV in that manner?
Think people, think.
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Emma – the JP Lover – why am i included in this group?
Or is it that you simply object to the timeline i gave. It was a very close thing between Minnie and Winona.
I haven’t mentioned Oprah because i know that Minnie did clarify later. However, She played the sympathy vote in the immediate aftermath including showing up at the oscars in a FU dress which was very reminiscent of Diana’s FU dress moment to Charles. That’s why people remember it. By the time she clarified, it was cemented in people’s minds that he had dumped her on the show, and so it made little impact.
2ndly, given Winona’s relationship pattern of crossover, it isn’t mutually exclusive that she dated a guy who was in a relationship and his breaking off the relationship to be with her. That’s how close it was. The operative word in my original statement is ‘may’. Not that it was a certainty.
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Whenever I read about this, I smile thinking about what my father said a couple of years ago when he read about Seal and Heidi Klum renewing their vows:
“What? They didn’t mean it the first time around?”
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Matt did not break up with Minnie on Oprah. They had already broken up a couple of weeks prior to his Oprah appearance. Minnie’s sister came out and said it and I believe Minnie finally admitted it in a interview.
Matt and Lucy first met in April 2003 so this is a 10 yr anniversary. I’ve noticed in interviews he’s always referred to the total time they’ve been together not the yrs they’ve been married. They have been together for 10 yrs come April. Also they did get married in city hall with only her daughter in attendance. Matt was working and she was preganant. They never had a proper wedding.
I am a bit surprised that we know about this too but it’s not matt publicizing it. The article states invitations have been sent out and that it was a buzz over Oscar weekend. Sounds like somebody leaked the info. Maybe that’s why they didn’t reveal location info because they anticipated this.
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Luci, who is from Argentina, and her ex-husband, who is Cuban, got divorced. I assumed when Matt and Luci got married in City Hall it was because she’s catholic and had divorced her first husband and the church hadn’t cleared maters up or something. But yeah, she was pregnant at the time, too.
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I think the vow renewal curse is only for reality star marriages like Jon and Kate.And I noticed that anytime a married couple on the Real Housewives has gotten their vows renewed, they were divorced in a year.I personally think you should only do it after 20 years,but if they’re happy whatever.
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These two bore me, so no real comment except this: in that last pic, doesn’t Matt Damon look like a grown-up version of Ralphie from A Christmas Story?
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He does look like Ralphie but at least Raphie was cute. I’m not a huge Matt Damon fan but I think his wife seems pretty cool. Don’t really care about the vow renewal; good luck to them.
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Does anyone know what her personality is like?
All I know is that she was a cocktail server in Florida and had a daughter when they met. (I think?)
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@Runs with Scissors, who wrote: “All I know is that she was a cocktail server in Florida and had a daughter when they met. (I think?)”
Why does everyone want to make this woman an ex-cocktail waitress? She was a ‘bartender’ at a club in Miami (or wherever in Florida) Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear frequented while they were filming “Stuck on You.” Matt used to sit at the bar and talk to Luci while she worked. He liked her and one day asked her out … and the rest is history.
And the daughter Luci had when she met Matt is from her first marriage to a Cuban. Luci’s ex-husband, her daughter’s father, is why the Damon family lived in Miami as long as they did. Luci’s ex-husband is probably how that stupid ‘Cuba’ rumor got started.
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What was the Cuba rumor, if you don’t mind? The only rumor I recall about Matt was that he had a child with a Mexican woman after a drunken holiday there with friends. He supposedly brought the woman back to the states and hired her as a nanny or housekeeper – all with Luci’s approval, of course. lol
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(Blinks) What??? … no, I don’t even want to know.
Just Google the ‘Cuba’ blind vice.
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ah, ok. Found it. This was linked with the ‘chocolate’ rumors, which turned out to be Clooney. No question about Clooney’s preference. Not convinced about Matt though.
Interesting though that Clooney pays regular visits to Mexico. The Damon in Mexico story claimed he went there were several male friends, some fellow celebs, hoping their exploits would remain undercover in a small Mexican town. To be fair, some thought it was Ben Affleck. (He lived in Mexico as a teen and speaks fluent Spanish) But soon after the rumors, Matt was seen with a new and pregnant nanny. All that said, I don’t believe it.
I tend to think you’re right about confusion inadvertantly caused by Luci’s ex. Likewise, omeone notices the Damons have a new, young, and pregnant employee so surely that means Matt or Ben knocked her up. “sources” see something they don’t understand and think they have a new scoop
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why do you say that like being a ‘cocktail server’ is something to be ashamed of?
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I mentioned it upthread, but I’ll say it again. Perhaps they are able to have a Catholic wedding this time? Lucy was a divorcee and they had a secular wedding. Maybe something happened and they can wed in a church now?
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Agreed.
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I have serious hair envy. Crazy goog looking hair. They’re so sweet together. Definetly hoping they grow very old together.
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I remember reading a article after they were married (or it could’ve been an interview with matt) that they had planned on getting married at their Miami house. They decided not to because they didn’t want to deal with helicopters circling the house and paps. I guess they were under scrutiny because the media did know they were engaged and expecting a baby. They decided on the quickie wedding.
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In response to sirsnarksalot
http://community.fortunecity.ws/lavendar/fullmonty/282/faq.html
Hopefully this link works. It explains that Minnie’s sister did deny the Oprah dumping and Minnie admitted too. I think what got her mad is that he made it public on the Oprah show. It was probably hurtful for her and to find out he was with winona soon after didn’t help.
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Vow renewal ceremonies are dumb. You’re already married.
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How is she “gorgeous”? She has nice hair, but I don’t even find her that pretty at all.
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Oh, and PS: there is something about him I find slightly off, I cannot put my finger on it. He comes across as not being entirely there, or that he is aware that he is putting on an act and trying to keep it just suppressed enough under the slightly cheshire-cat grin. He seems to be the upstanding type in person but beneath it there is something too secretive, too weird. And I dislike the baldness immensely.
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Anna, that top picture is older than the ones of Matt and Luci at the fashion show. He was bald for a long time while filming “Elysium,” then he grew his hair back, and a couple of months ago he shaved his head again for a couple of re-shoots. He is not still bald.
Didn’t you guys see him take over Jimmy Kimmel’s show three weeks ago?
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He’s a great actor. That’s all I gotta say.
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I would feel like a total fool doing that whole walk-down-the-aisle spiel after years of marriage. Does a high-profile Hollywood couple really need more attention? Seems oddly needy & desperate.
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No idea why they are doing it, but I agree with you about feeling silly walking down the aisle after years of marriage and several kids… LOL Of course, we don’t know if the ‘no kids’ part is really true, but if so, that seems strange to me. If they are wanting to have the ‘real wedding’ now, finally… one would think they would want to include their kids? Having no kids for something like this seems even more weird… like pretending it is the first wedding, before the kids? Why not just have a ‘destination’ anniversary party, if they want adults only? I don’t know that I’ve even heard of a vow renewal, where the couple has kids, and the kids aren’t part of it? I guess that bugs me (if it’s true).
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Wait..WHAT??? I never hear “the pregnancy nanny rumor” before. In fact, Matt said recently in Berlin, that they don’t have a nanny and they were thinking of hiring one…
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That blind was never about Matt (he was out of the country or nowhere near the location when everything was said to have taken place).
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