Although I can’t name anything Brendan Fraser’s starred in the last decade, I still have love for him from Encino Man. I probably saw that movie a dozen times.

I thought I heard his marriage was in trouble. Apparently he split with his wife years ago after an alleged fling with Maria Bello and is now dating a “civilian.”

Although they are rarely in the public eye together, Brendan and Natalia Bruschi, a hairdresser at L.A.’s Fred Segal, are going strong.

“Brendan is very private about Natalia, but that doesn’t mean he’s not into her,” a pal tells Star. “He says she’s the love of his life.”

They toasted their second anniversary with romantic candlelit dinners in Manhattan — where Brendan, 42, was starring in the Broadway play Elling — during the first weekend of December.

But a trip down the aisle isn’t likely just yet. After splitting from wife of 12 years Afton Smith in 2007, the dad of three “isn’t ready to remarry, because the split was so painful,” says the source. “But Natalia knows he’s in it for the long haul with her.”

[Star, print edition, December 27, 2010]

Is it too easy to go for the balding-actor-dating-a-hairdresser joke? Thought so.

According to IMDB, Brendan’s been working steadily, including several sequels to The Mummy, and a turn on Broadway.

He seems like a genuinely nice guy who isn’t into the Hollywood scene, so it’s a shame if an on-set fling broke up his marriage, but good for him for finding a stable relationship again.

Brendan Fraser is shown at the premiere of Elling on 11/21/10. He’s shown with costars Jennifer Coolidge, Denis O’Hare, and Jeremy Shamos. Credit: WENN.com

Note: this is Fraser’s Broadway co-star Jennifer Coolidge, not his new girlfriend.

And he looks like hell here because he’s in character:

These photos of Brendan Fraser are from yesterday, where he was apparently wandering around New York City as part of a photo shoot. I don’t really know why he would be doing press for anything – Furry Vengeance came out months ago, and he doesn’t have any films coming out any time soon. I guess it’s not important. What is important? Look at him. Remember when he used to be hot? Remember School Ties and Gods and Monsters? I even loved his performance in The Quiet American (an underrated film, worth watching just for Michael Caine’s performance). At one point, Fraser was going to be an excellent actor, in the vein of Harrison Ford, able to swing from drama to comedy to action film, excelling at everything. And then something went wrong.

Was it the hairline that went first? The midsection? Is it just that he’s a dad and he wanted to do a bunch of family films that his kids could watch? Was it the lure of easy money? I don’t know. But whatever happened, it was bad, and it’s all over him.

Am I being too harsh? Probably. After all, everything that I’ve heard and read about Fraser is that he’s a nice, professional guy. He’s never had crack shenanigans, no DUIs, no big drama. He’s just a guy who had a lot of potential who threw it all away for a safe, steady paycheck and some donuts. There are totally worse things. But I still can’t accept it.

Mummy star Brendan Fraser, 39, is said to have committed a minor retail sin. He bought designer clothes for a special event to the tune of thousands of dollars. He then had them rush dry cleaned and is said to have put the tags back on so he could return the items and get his money back.

Brendan Fraser… spent thousands on designer clothes he wore to a special event, then sneakily reattached the tags and returned them to the story for a refund after hurry-up dry cleaning!

Insiders say Frugal Fraser’s assistant arranged a 2:30 am laundry pickup at his swank BevHills hotel, insisting that the dirtied duds had to be ready by daylight because “the items were being returned to the store” where he bought them.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, August 18, 2008]

Have you ever done this? I’ve returned clothes of course, and sometimes after I’ve worn them, but it wasn’t like I had the intention of returning them at the point that they were purchased. That makes it ok, right? Usually the returns were for a reason, like the clothing itched or didn’t fit right. I’m not a returner so much as someone who tries on as many clothes as possible in the dressing room, which can also be annoying for retail staff. There are other people who just buy a bunch of clothing at the store, try them on at home, and then return what they don’t like.

Maybe Fraser had a justifiable reason to return the clothes, but it sounds like he bought them with the intention of bringing them back. Fraser is going through an expensive divorce and hasn’t had a lot of films out in recent years, so maybe he’s trying to save some cash where he can.

Many stores have a database that’s set to detect when people habitually buy clothes and return them. For example, The Limited and Express stores allow only so many returns from a single person in a 60 day period. Are you a wear and return type of person or do you know someone who is? Is this ever justified?

Brendan Fraser is shown outside of The Today Show on 7/30/08. Credit: L. Gallo/WENN

If you have children, you were probably subjected to Nickelodeon’s 25th Annual Kid’s Choice Awards ceremony on Saturday night. You have my sincerest condolences. I, too, had to watch, and it was often eyeroll-inducing: lame banter between celebrity presenters; boring and unfunny “behind the scenes” skits; stupid slime stunts that dragged out the show even longer and wayyyy too much Disney product, in the form of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. Miley Cyrus won favorite female television star and favorite female musical artist, much to my daughter’s delight.

There were a few bright spots in the broadcast, including host Jack Black’s over-the-top opening musical number, in which he wore a bright green superhero costume and rocked out with a giant octopus playing guitar to the Kiss song “I Was Made for Loving You,” with the lyrics changed to “I Was Made for Sliming You.” (In my opinion, Black was the only funny, high-energy part of the show and should have been allowed to riff and get crazy even more.) The theme of each Kids’ Choice Awards, you see, is that celebs and kids in the audience get buckets of green slime poured on their heads at random moments. Slimed celebs included Harrison Ford, who recreated a famous scene from “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which concluded with him being covered in green slime. Other mildly amusing segments included a celebrity belching contest that featured Jodie Foster attempting to burp along to the song “YMCA.”

All in all, the show had the same problems as most other awards shows: it went on too long, there was too much unfunny dialog, and the host didn’t get enough chances to do what he does best. But if you are at all interested in the winners, here they are.

Favorite TV Show: Drake and Josh
Favorite Reality Show: American Idol
Favorite TV Actor: Drake Bell (from Drake and Josh)
Favorite TV Actress: Miley Cyrus
Favorite Cartoon: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Favorite Movie: Alvin and the Chipmunks
Favorite Movie Actor: Johnny Depp
Favorite Movie Actress: Jessica Alba
Favorite Animated Movie: Ratatouille
Favorite Animated Voice: Eddie Murphy (Shrek The Third)
Favorite Music Group: The Jonas Brothers
Favorite Song: “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne
Favorite Female Singer: Miley Cyrus
Favorite Male Singer: Chris Brown
Favorite Male Athlete: Tony Hawk
Favorite Female Athlete: Danica Patrick
Favorite Book: Harry Potter Series
Favorite Video Game: Madden NFL 2008
Wannabe Award: Cameron Diaz

If anything, the Kids’ Choice Awards gives parents a glimpse into the music, movies, and other pop culture their kids like– which should scare the crap out of you. I know I had a hard time sleeping knowing that the youth of America wants to be just like Cameron Diaz.

Brendan Fraser’s marriage may have fallen victim to the dreaded on-set romance that creates and breaks so many Hollywood relationships. Frasier is said to have become too cozy with his latest Mummy installment co-star, Maria Bello, when the two were filming together in China.

Star Magazine quotes a source as saying “Brendan and Maria would disappear together for hours at a time,” and claims that their flirtatious relationship was obvious to all the cast and crew:

Star has learned that the 39-year-old father of three has grown closer to Maria Bello, his costar on The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor! “Brendan and Maria became tight because the shoot in China was challenging, and Maria was a friendly face,” a source tells Star. “They had chemistry for sure. It lit up the set, and everyone commented on it.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, January 28, 2008]

Fashionable Bello, 40, is a single mom who Star notes “was last linked to production assistant Bryn Mooser.”

If this is true and not just guesswork it makes me sad. Fraser has three children with his estranged wife, Afton Smith. They have three boys: Griffin Arthur, 5, Holden Fletcher, 3, and Leland, 21 months. As the mother of a toddler you can see how having three kids can put a strain on a relationship, and they were probably having other issues that were complicated by this possible on-set flirtation. Still, you can’t help but get a little indignant at the thought of a husband leaving the mother of his children for someone he works with. We’ll have to wait and see if this is more than a rumor and if these two are a new couple.

Maria Bello is shown at the 7th Annual Awards Season Diamond Fashion Show Preview on 1/10/08. Brendan Fraser is shown at the 2005 Vanity Fair Oscar party, thanks to PRPhotos.

You know the hot guy from those “Mummy” movies? I don’t know if it was just the lure of the sexy leather bracelet he wore or that he pretend scored with Rachel Weisz. Either way he is back on the bachelor market. He and his real life wife have confirmed that they are splitting up via Fraser’s rep.

“They continue to maintain a close and caring friendship,” the actor’s publicist, Ina Treciokas, said Wednesday in a statement.

[Associated Press]

The couple has been married for 9 years. They also had three kids, which kinda makes me feel bad for circling like a vulture. He and soon to be wife Afton met at a barbeque hosted by Winona Ryder. They then fell in love and married in 1998. Currently reasons behind the parting are still a secret.

I am guessing it his obsession with his male pattern baldness. He had a full thick head of hair in his heart throb days following his “Mummy” movies success. But in 2003 his hair tragically vanished only to reappear last month for the new installment of his claim to fame, “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.”

I bet he went the route of Nicholas Cage. He went and got himself some wicked hair plugs and willed himself back to hotness.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Brendan Fraser and his wife Afton Smith and 2/3 of their kids (the last one wasn’t born yet) are shown at the Halloween Carnival at Universal Studios on 10/23/05. Brendan and Afton are also shown at the Critics Choice Awards on 1/10/06 when Afton was pregnant. They have three boys, Griffin Arthur, 5, Holden Fletcher, 3, and Leland, 20 months.