Alanis Morissette is shown in Prague on 8/12/08. She looks great. Credit: WENN.
Alanis Morissette used the be the poster child for angry ex-girlfriends, “You Oughta Know” is almost like an urban myth come true – an ex-girlfriend writes a nasty song about him and makes millions while he owns an emu farm in New Zealand. Emus are farmed for their meat. Those birds can run fast and are about six feet tall, I’m not sure how easy it is to catch them.

Former Full House actor Dave Coulier, the bad ex-boyfriend of the song, has spoken out about hearing it for the first time twelve years after the release. Until this point Coulier was only assumed to be the subject of the song, but I guess this means it is confirmed. Alanis says she would never tell who it was about.

Yes, Coulier dated Alanis Morissette and it looks like she talked about their breakup in her bitter song You Oughta Know. Coulier was driving when he first heard it. “I said, ‘Wow, this girl is angry.’ And then I said, ‘Oh man, I think it’s Alanis.’ . . . I listened to the song over and over again, and I said, ‘I think I have really hurt this person.’ I tried to contact her and I finally got a hold of her. And at the same time, the press was calling and saying, ‘You want to comment on this song?’ I called her and I said, ‘Hi. Uh, what do you want me to say?’ And she said, ‘You can say whatever you want.’ We saw each other and hung out for an entire day. And it was beautiful. It was one of those things where it was kind of like, ‘We’re good.’ “

Calgary Herald

It seems to me that Alanis wasn’t exactly being nice here either – manners would probably dictate that if you are going to release an angry missive onto radio about your ex-boyfriend, you could at least let him know what he was in for first. The lyrics of that song were pretty graphic too – I can only imagine Dave’s wife or mother demanding “You did WHAT in a theatre?”

Listening to her new album, I think Ryan Reynolds got off pretty lightly in comparison.

Dave Coulier and “guest” are shown below at the Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget on 8/3/08. Credit: Jody Cortes / WENN. Alanis Morissette is shown in Prague on 8/12/08. She looks like she’s lost weight and she looks great. Credit: WENN.

The more 34 year-old singer Alanis Morissette talks, the more I like her. She’s incredibly quotable and she seems to be revealing genuine details about her life in a way that’s honest and not just geared toward generating the most press. I could be fooled, though, since she has an album out that’s not doing so well on the charts and is writing a memoir that will focus on problems that women face. Given the way she so openly talks about her life, I’m inclined to read that book when it comes out. Morissette recently revealed that she worked through her breakup with Ryan Reynolds by dating a lot and having sex but refusing to get in another serious relationship for a while. She doesn’t specify if she had sex with a lot of different men, but that’s what it sounds like.

She even banned herself from getting seriously involved with another man for 12 months after the break-up.
But Morissette admits she has enjoyed being back on the dating scene - because it meant she could have sex with different men without having to commit to any of them.

The star, who now has a boyfriend, says, “No strings relationships have helped cure me of love addiction.

“All my life I’ve been in long-term monogamous relationships. I had to break that pattern by not allowing myself to have a relationship for a year, stopping myself from committing to men. I haven’t been celibate. I’ve had lots of dates and lots of sex, but I haven’t been pushing to turn a date into a relationship. This has been a huge thing for me

[From Contact Music via Fark]

Many of those self-help relationship books for women recommend that you date several men and not get involved for a while in order to make an informed decision about who is right for you. They also say that you should hold off having sex because that could end up emotionally tying you to a person who might make a crappy boyfriend. If you can keep your emotions out of it and both of you are single and know what you’re getting into you may as well get laid, though. Personally I had a hard time doing that when I was single and picked more than one lousy boyfriend due to good sex. I wouldn’t call it “love addiction” to seek out a relationship though, so much as human - particularly female - nature.

Alanis Morissette is shown performing in London on 6/21/08. Credit: Ben Yacobi / WENN

Alanis Morissette is digging into her past to get some promotion for her new album, which has sold around 270,000 copies. First she told us about her experimental stage of ‘loving women up’, now she’s talking about being insulted by the Vatican.

The singer met the pontiff in Rome in 2000, but some French clergymen ruined the magical experience.

Morissette says the problems occurred as she left the stage after meeting the pope, and did not know whether to walk in front of cardinals or not.

She explains, “I’m post-Catholic; I don’t know how it works anymore, so there was this awkward moment and I walked in front of them.

“They were all French and they were speaking about me behind me, saying how rude and horrible I was.

“I speak French, so I bit my tongue the whole way out and they were just ripping me apart, and then right at the tail end. … I just turned back and spoke to them in French and said, ‘Thank you so much for your kindness.’”

San Francisco Chronicle

I used to work in an office with people that spoke different languages, and eventually we had to implement an ‘English Only’ policy as too much gossip was being spread! I would have loved to have done this to a few people that worked there – on more than one occasion I pointed out that gesturing towards the person who you were talking about made it a dead giveaway!

I do have to wonder, and maybe a Catholic might be able to answer this for me, what a lapsed Catholic is doing meeting the Pope? Not that non-Catholics don’t deserve an audience with him, but it does seem a little strange to me.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Alanis Morissette is shown on 04/08/08. Her hair is gorgeous. Credit: Fame

34 year-old rocker Alanis Morissette has a new interview in People Magazine in which she gives some pretty candid answers about her life. She won’t go into specifics about who the songs are about on her latest album, but says that “some are obvious.” Morissette sounds happy and at peace with things and although she doesn’t talk about her current boyfriend she does talk about how she “was loving women up” when she was in her 20s, calling it “an experimental stage.”

Thinking back to your kiss with Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City, did you ever think, “Screw men, I’m going to date a woman”?
Yeah! I went through my experimental stage in my 20s where I was loving women up. I actually think it’s a rite of passage, [but] there’s some great growth and healing for me in dating a man.

Tell us about the new man in your life.
Everything is slower and much gentler. Really it’s less about who shows up and more about where I am.

You’re 34. Do you still want kids?
I always imagined having kids in my late 30s. I’m in no rush.

There’s been some scrutiny about your weight lately. Having moved past your bulimia and anorexia successfully?
I know a lot of people - because I had a record out at 19 - are used to one thing. I feel very feminine and comfortable in my own body, but I have to stop taking feedback.

[From People Magazine, print edition, July 28, 2008, via ONTD]

There’s a real theme of taking it easy and taking time to heal in this interview, and Alanis seems to come back to those subjects often. The changes in the artist are also reflected in her music. She said that her music is softer and more sensitive now because she deliberately worked on not writing angry songs and not being upset in general:

You really got in touch with your sensitive side on these songs
Anger is so easy for me. Not immediately going to rage was huge. I eventually hot there. [laughs] I don’t write for the sake of revenge. If I wanted to seek revenge I could come up with a lot of sh**ty things.

I like how she said that the public has expectations of her body size based on knowing her for 15 years and that she’s not the same person she was then. She’s not angry or super skinny anymore and she seems really content with that.

Morissette is about halfway through writing a memoir that focuses on challenges that women face. It will feature chapters that cover themes such as sexuality, self image and relationships. I wonder if she’ll tell any good stories about her “experimental phase,” as she puts it.

Alanis’ new album “Flavors of Entanglement” is not doing that well on the charts. It’s number 58 on the Billboard 200 after five weeks and has sold about 270,00 copies.

Alanis is shown shopping in Cologne, Germany on 7/10/08. Credit: WENN. She is also shown performing in London on 6/19/08. Credit: WENN/Ben Yacobi

Alanis Morissette has been getting a bit of extra attention lately, mostly focused on her ‘pregnancy’ and her ex-fiancé getting engaged. She also has a new album out, which is shaping up to be pretty good.

On Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson’s engagement:

Reynolds began dating Johansson last year (07) just months after he ended his four year relationship with the Canadian singer.

But single Morissette insists she isn’t jealous or resentful, telling Entertainment Weekly, “On a certain spiritual level, I feel like everyone’s where they need to be.”

And the star vows never to play out another relationship in the public eye: “Public romance. I’m going to be avoiding that in the future. I think the only time I’ll talk about any guy I’m with will be when I’m married with six kids.”

Contact Music

I think this is her way of saying “butt out of my personal life,” but in the politest possible way ever. Something I just love about Alanis is that while she can be really angry and crazy in her music, she’s not an angry or crazy person. I’m looking at you, Courtney Love.

A couple of weeks ago she also had this to say about her break up with Ryan Reynolds.

“Every time I go through something difficult, I think, `This is the motherload. I’m not going to get through this one.’ And then, six months later, I’m like, `What’s his name again?’”

Contact Music

Good advice for anyone going through a break-up, particularly one that leaves you sobbing on the floor inhaling chocolate.

Her album, Flavors of Entaglement, has been getting good reviews, although it is full of break-up songs. Rolling Stone describes the new album as “heartfelt” and that it features “electro beats, Eastern percussion, [and] orchestral arrangements.”

Alanis is shown performing in Las Vegas on 3/18/08, thanks to WENN.

Alanis Morissette came out of hiding a couple of weeks ago to promote her new CD, and it was hard not to notice her weight gain. While Alanis didn’t directly address it, she did mention that she has been battling depression over the last couple of years. Now, because the singer abstained from alcohol at an event, rumors are flying that the weight gain isn’t from depression at all- it’s because she’s expecting.

Alanis Morissette’s camp is mum on rumors she’s expecting. Alanis did forsake shots of Patron Tequila at the Cutting Room party for her new CD, “Flavors of Entanglement.” Singing “Hands Clean,” she mentioned that the song is supposed to be about her relationship with another woman. Morissette, who has no current boyfriend of record, said that’s not true, but didn’t mind the gossip.

[From NY Daily News]

Sooooo, let’s see if I understand the message here: a woman who puts on a little weight over a bad breakup and refuses to do shots of tequila must be pregnant? NY Daily News, you’re an idiot. Maybe Alanis doesn’t like tequila shots. Not everyone does, hard though it may be to believe. Lord knows if I’d been there, there wouldn’t have been any Patron left, but hey, that’s just me. Maybe she didn’t want to get drunk because she had to perform. Or maybe she just doesn’t drink at all. Sometimes, women just put on weight and there’s no baby involved, okay? Did you ever think of that?

Alanis is shown performing at performing live at Rock in Rio Lisboa on 5/31/08, thanks to WENN.

Alanis Morrissette performed her hit “Ironic” along with a new song, “Underneath,” on the Today Show this morning. Alanis’ new CD Flavors of Entanglement is out in the US on June 10 and internationally on June 2.

Alanis recently revealed to People Magazine that she’s been going through a tough time the past two years. She said she “hit rock bottom” and that she “took a break over the past two and half years.” and “was tending to [her] personal life.” She said she got through her depression with “everything from pounding pillows to sharing with intimate friends.”

Alanis was engaged to actor Ryan Reynolds, but their relationship ended last year and may have contributed to the problems she went through. Reynolds is now engaged to actress Scarlett Johansson. Alanis said that she’s dating someone, but isn’t ready to share his identity just yet.

Here are videos from Alanis’ performance on The Today Show this morning. She can definitely still bring it, and unlike a lot of other singers out now (*cough* Ashlee Simpson *cough*) she has unique vocal style and a very strong voice. I hope this album is a big hit for her.

It’s hard not to notice that Alanis has gained some weight, and is not styled very well. She’s a singer, and as long as she sings well and puts on an entertaining performance that’s all that matters. You can see the vulnerability in her and the way she seems touched by the crowd’s response to her. You want her to do well. She’s incredibly talented and is giving her best.

Alanis did a concert tour as a special guest with Matchbox Twenty and Mute Math from January to March of this year. She will headline her own tour of North America later this year.

“Underneath”

“Ironic”

Thanks to WENN for these photos.