This year has been good to Colin Farrell. He started off with a critically-acclaimed role in In Bruges, starring with heavy-hitters Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. After Heath Ledger’s death, he was one of the four actors who stepped in to cover Ledger’s role in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam. And even though his Woody Allen film Cassandra’s Dream was panned (and died a quick death at the box office), Farrell was one of several Irish actors to garner a Golden Globe nomination this year. In Bruges picked up three Golden Globe nominations overall.

Though “In Bruges” was released in February — an eternity away from the fall premieres of most awards-seeking films — the Colin Farrell film emerged as an unlikely contender at the Golden Globes.

“In Bruges” scored three nominations from the Globes, including best picture for a musical or comedy and dueling best actor in a musical or comedy nominations for Farrell and his co-star Brendan Gleeson — a first for each.

Written and directed by playwright Martin McDonagh, the film received good but mixed reviews, and grossed less than $8 million at the U.S. box office. In it, Farrell and Gleeson play hit men laid up in the picturesque and quaint town of Bruges, Belgium.

“It had been brought to my attention by people that it was a possibility, a dark-horse possibility, for getting some recognition, but I really, really didn’t expect it,” Farrell said. “It had been released in the early part of the year, it didn’t do huge money, it wasn’t seen by that many people. But it’s a testament to (McDonough’s) writing in his film debut that it obviously struck a chord with them.”

[From AP Hosted By Google]

After several years of being known as a public hell-raiser and all-around bad boy, Colin Farrell has kept a low-profile. He’s become (from all appearances) an extraordinarily good father to son James, who was diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome. Farrell is also in a committed relationship with Emma Forrest, but they are rarely photographed together, despite some mutterings of “bump watches” and the like. So with all of these changes, it’s no surprise that Colin would choose to spend a quiet Christmas at home in Ireland with his family, rather than some gaudy paparazzi-extravaganza at one of the hotspots.

Colin Farrell is shown at LAX on 12/22/08 (credit: Fame) and at Heathrow Airport on 12/23/08. (credit: WENN). This isn’t the first time he’s been seen out with what looks like a wedding ring, and it may just be a ring he always wears on his left ring finger.

Colin Farrell has turned into a new man recently. Showing a much more vulnerable and mature side than in the past, Farrell has opened up about personal issues and become introspective. Colin recently spoke about his addictions, and the pressures of fame, and now, he’s talking about the effect the panning of his film Alexander, and his performance in it, had on him.

“Alexander hurt, you know — and again people are going to say ‘Get over it, you were well paid’ and all that. But Alexander hurt,” Farrell told reporters.

“The response that it got was really painful and all of us got a really hard time, and I didn’t come across too well either in the majority of reviews and even with the audiences — people did not respond to it.

“It was a film that was made to be seen by many people. Not many people saw it and they weren’t particularly fond of it, and that was s—-, it was really s—-,” he said.

“I took it to heart. I felt like I had let a lot of people down, I felt like I had disappointed a lot of people … And it took a while to get over that,” Farrell said.

[From Reuters]

I feel an overwhelming urge to hug Colin Farrell and tell him it’s ok, and stroke his hair. I would make it all better…

Collin is getting through it without my help, though, sadly for me and my fantasies. After working in a couple movies he feels good about, Farrell has found himself in a place where the “disillusionment ceased to be something that is still present” in his life regarding his work.

Colin is currently starring with Edward Norton in Pride and Glory, one of the movies that helped him get over his feeling of failure. The movie debuted at No. 5 last weekend and is getting mixed reviews, but hopefully Colin will take it in stride. He can comfort himself in knowing that In Bruges, an excellent film, has been nominated for seven British Independent Film awards, tying for the most nominations of 2008 with the Steve McQueen directed Hunger. Both movies are nominated for Best Film.

Colin Farrell is shown at the premiere of Pride and Glory with the director, Gavin O’Connor , at the Rome International Film Festival on 10/28/08. Credit: OLYCOM/bauergriffinonline.com

Colin Farrell, 32, and Ed Norton, 39, star in Pride and Glory as two brothers and cops who work to solve a multiple cop killing. Jon Voight plays their father, who also works on the force. The case ends up tearing their family apart.

Farrell recently said in a BBC interview that he made his infamous sex tape in 2003 because of the thrill of taping it and that it wasn’t about watching it again later. He also explained that “I think I was high” when it was made. Farrell said he would do it again, but that he would just take the tape with him next time. He admitted that he was offered a lot of money for the tape, but said “God forbid” his mother should watch it and say “oh you remind me of your father at certain angles.”

Farrell was rumored to be dating his co-star, the lovely Lake Bell, 29, back when the two were working on the film. He has since moved on to English novelist Emma Forrest.

Pride and Glory is out in the US next Friday, October 24. Here’s the trailer:

Here are photos from the premiere with Colin, Ed Norton, John Voight, Lake Bell, Manny Perez, Noah Emmerich, and Jennifer Ehle.

Credit: WENN

Colin Farrell has a long reputation of being a bit wild and unruly. Aside from the very public bedding of pretty much anyone he wanted, Farrell has a fairly well documented party past. More recently, however, Colin seems to have become a lot more introverted and introspective, proving to be a phenomenal father to his disabled son, and no longer being seen on the party scene.

In a recent interview, Farrell reveals that he started drinking at 14 and realized a few years ago it was going to kill him.

“It was a fairly drunken life for 16 years so it was a tough life change, but I was dying and I’m one of the lucky ones in that so far I’m out of it,” he said.

“For me there was no choice. I was pretty sick. I went away for five or six weeks and that was a very safe environment and I began to come out of the haze that I had burrowed myself into so deeply.

“I came back into the world and everything was in a degree of focus that I hadn’t experienced.”

[From Belfast Telegraph]

Throughout Farrell’s problems his fame continued to grow, which undoubtedly added to the situation. Although his movies rarely earned critical acclaim they made him a bad-boy sex symbol, a reputation he fueled with his wild ways and which put even more stress on his psyche.

He now claims, however, that during that time he felt he was always on the verge of a meltdown.

“Desperation will allow you to do incredible things in the name of survival,” he told BBC’s Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.

“So much of the work that I did I was struggling so hard to keep my shit together. A lot of my energy was going into trying not to have a complete meltdown. By the end of Miami Vice I was just done. ”

While his career was hugely successful, Farrell says that internally he was “in pain” and that his nature was the cause of much of his behaviour. “I had created an environment for myself, a way of living for myself which, on the outside, seemed incredibly gregarious and vivacious.

“I don’t believe I have any chemical predisposition towards depression, but let’s just say I was suffering from a spiritual malady for years and I indulged it.

“To be in pain, if it’s self-perpetuated, can be very sweet at times. You can feel very alive when you’re in pain, and I also know that from another perspective, like when somebody who I love in my life has passed away.

“There is something incredibly internally vivacious about feeling pain or mourning, even if it’s something as egocentric or self-indulgent as mourning for yourself, or pitying yourself.”

[From Belfast Telegraph]

It’s been heartwarming to watch Colin Farrell turn into a thoughtful man and devoted father. He’s been in a relationship with Emma Forest for nearly a year and says he’s out of the dark cycle he was in and he’s very happy. His recent weightloss was a bit alarming to see, though, and led to speculation he may have fallen off the wagon. Farrell said it was for a role, as a photographer in war-torn Bosnia for the movie, Triage, and that he had done it in a healthy way.

You know what’s even sexier than a bad boy? A reformed bad boy.

Colin Farrell is shown out in NY yesterday, 10/14/08, in a grainy photo below. He is shown in the header at LAX on 10/10/08, credit: WENN

Heath Ledger on the set of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus on 1/18/08. Credit:
Kavi/WENN
When Heath Ledger died he left his final role in Terry Gilliam’s film The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus incomplete. Actors Johnny Depp, Colin Farrel, and Jude Law were hired to take over Heath’s role. It’s a fantasy film set in a carnival and the actors will play different versions of Heath’s character as he is transported through other dimensions.

Heath’s will left all of his money to his father as it was made out before he had daughter Matilda, now nearly three, with Michelle Williams. Heath’s father, Kim Ledger, has said that “Matilda will be provided for,” but there’s some controversy over his control of the funds. Kim’s brothers accuse him of squandering over a million dollars when he was running their late father’s estate and question his ability to manage Heath’s money. Matilda’s mom Michelle is certainly doing well for herself as a Hollywood actress and Matilda will probably never want for anything in her life. Now Heath’s three co-actors have ensured that the little girl will definitely have part of her father’s legacy - they’ve donated their entire salaries from the Imaginarium film to the toddler:

TERRY GILLIAM: The great thing about it is that when Heath died, and we have a character that wasn’t finished in the movie, those three actors [Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell] came along and saved the day. And so the character is now basically four actors creating one character. And that’s . . . it’s very interesting, and maybe even more interesting than it would have been with one actor going all the way through. I’m still not the best judge, because I have in my head what the film was going to be with Heath all the way through, and now there’s a different film there. But all I know is, it’s very funny.

Gilliam sounded proud of his film and genuinely awed by the generosity of the actors who came forward to save the picture and ensure its completion. Despite their high profiles, Depp, Law, and Farrell took no compensation for their work; instead, they donated their salaries to Heath Ledger’s two-year-old daughter, Matilda:

TERRY GILLIAM: The three actors were totally heroic coming in. This doesn’t happen very often . . . where there’s a tragedy like this, and very famous, very successful actors suddenly say, “Okay, we’ll do whatever it takes to help.” They came; they did the work; they allowed the movie to be finished; they didn’t take money–the money goes to Heath’s daughter. That’s extraordinary! And wonderful . . . and when you’re part of that, you think, “Ah, this is maybe why I went into the movies, in the beginning. I thought it would be full of wonderful people. And in our case, we’ve got a movie full of wonderful people, who did extraordinary things to help.

[From video interview on Ischiaglobal-channel.com and published on Johnnydepp-zone.com via ONTD]

That’s really nice to hear and is a wonderful gesture on the part of those three actors. It’s especially gracious of Jude Law, because he hasn’t had a lot of work lately and is said to be struggling financially relative to some of his millionaire peers. I like Law and would like to see him gain back some of the classic movie star luster he had when he was playing in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is due out in 2009.

Emma Forrest, far right, is shown with Rose McGowan and Minnie Driver, both contributors to her book Damage Control. Forrest has been named as Farrell’s girlfriend

Yesterday we caused a big controversy with an article that pointed out that Colin Farrel was on the beach with seven month’s pregnant Minnie Driver over the weekend and could possibly be the father of her unborn baby. Driver gave three hints in an interview earlier in the year as to the identity of the father, but has otherwise left him unnamed, saying she wants to keep him out of the spotlight. The three hints included the fact that he was busy, was “sort of in the same business,” and was English. The English part was not directly quoted and seemed like it was an interpretation by the journalist. Colin is a Dubliner and in my infinite stupidity, I initially thought there must be some way that being from Ireland could be construed as “English.” I asked if there was anything she could have said that would have been vague enough to indicate “English” to the journalist, but to have included Ireland, and the best answer was “across the pond.”

As I mentioned in the comments, no offense was meant to anyone with my stupid question, and the main issue was that I was desperately hoping that hot Colin, 32, was the secret father of 38 year-old Minnie Driver’s soon-to-be-born first baby. That would make for great gossip as well as a super attractive child.

Driver is good friends with Colin’s girlfriend, an English novelist
Alas, my willful misinterpretation of geography and a beach outing probably doesn’t equate to Colin’s powerful seed making a new life with Minnie. They were on the beach that day with someone else who I initially didn’t notice - a dark-haired woman who was sitting on the towel near where Minnie was standing. It was possibly an English writer named Emma Forrest, who has been named as Colin’s girlfriend of several months. Forrest and Driver are friends and Driver has even contributed to one of her novels.

But in the past six months the Irish hellraiser has found his soulmate — pretty English novelist EMMA FORREST.

The couple have been as thick as thieves since being introduced earlier this year by top film director MARTIN McDONAGH.

A source said: “Colin is a changed man. He has knocked the boozing on the head and is enjoying life in a completely different way. Emma has been a steadying influence and they have hit it off big time.

“They have spent months trying to keep the relationship under wraps because they are falling madly in love…

“They are planning to move in together in LA soon, on his next break from filming…”

Emma has had several novels published and earned quite a few quid. So any suspicions of her being after Colin for just fame and fortune are well wide of the mark.

Like Colin, she has had tough times in the past and has penned some seriously dark blogs on the internet about contemplating suicide.

[From The Sun via commenter lalie]

If you watch the video of Colin and Minnie on the beach taken by paparazzi agency X17, you can see Colin hand his son to a woman on the towel at about :40 seconds in. I completely missed this part when I saw it the first few times because I was so focused on Colin and Minnie and my delusions of their coupling.

One commenter who went by “Jane” on our last post says “It’s def. not Farrell. I know for a fact. The father is a noncelebrity writer and they broke up months ago.” Her IP address was from Los Angeles at a major movie studio, so it could be true.

Sorry for running with this story so blindly that I forgot basic geography and didn’t notice an entire person. We published photos of pigs yesterday though, and I was desperate for any kind of scandal.

Update: This story is based on my overactive imagination and stupidity and is probably not true. Minnie is close friends with Colin’s girlfriend, who was most likely with them at the beach that day.

Here’s a link to the video of Farrell and Driver on the beach. In the video, Farrell gets upset when he notices the paparazzi filming him with his four year-old son in the water. He takes his son back to a towel where Driver is standing, and then runs up to the camera, saying “Are you f’ing taking a picture of me and my boy? Turn that off.” The photographers stop videotaping at that point.

In a March appearance on The Tonight Show confirming her pregnancy, Driver declined to name the father of her baby, saying she preferred to keep him out of the spotlight.

It’s possible Driver broke up with the father of the baby, that she’s with Farrell and he’s not the father or that she’s just friends with Farrell. You can understand him getting upset about his son being filmed, but it seems like he might also be trying to keep his relationship with Driver secret.

Commenter lalie also notes that British-born Driver, 38, has been wearing a ring with a green stone on her left ring finger. Farrell, 32, is from Ireland, and has also been seen with a suspicious ring on his wedding finger. He was last known to have been dating a Irish student, but commenters say that they’ve been broken up for nearly a year.

In an interview with the newspaper The Independent in May, Driver gave three clues about the identity of the father of her baby, all of which apply to Farrell. She denied it was musician Craig Zolezzi, with whom she’s been photographed. She said they’re just good friends.

The only clues Driver will offer about the identity of her “baby daddy” are that he is English, and “sort of in the same business”, and that they have evaded detection because “he’s really busy, like me”.

[From Independent.co.uk]

People from Ireland can also be considered “English,” can’t they?

Update: There is no direct quote from Driver in that article about the nationality of her baby’s father, just the journalist’s interpretation that he’s “English.” It’s possible she said something like “He’s from the UK” and it was written as “English.”

Update: This story is based on my overactive imagination and stupidity and is probably not true. Minnie is close friends with Colin’s girlfriend, who was most likely with them at the beach that day.

This news came out a little while ago, but we missed it in the shuffle. Colin Farrell was seen wearing what looks like it could be an ornate wedding ring on his left hand. The 32 year old Irish actor was photographed at the airport in LA smoking a cigarette and talking on the phone. When he spotted photographers he put his left hand in his jacket pocket, awkwardly holding his phone on his left ear and keeping the cigarette in his mouth.

The gossip press is speculating that Colin may have secretly married his young sweetheart, student Muireann McDonnell, 22. Colin met Muireann at a party during the 2006 holidays in Dalkey outside of Dublin. She was working at a gourmet food store nearby. The two were photographed on a romantic holiday in Italy in May, 2007.

Colin was previously married to English actress Amelia Warner for five months in 2001. He has a special needs son, James, four and a half, with his ex girlfriend, model Kim Bordenave.

Farrell recently lost 20-30 pounds to play a guilt-striken journalist in war torn Bosnia in Triage, a film adaptation of a 1998 novel by Scott Anderson. These latest photos look as if he’s gained a few essential pounds back. His character isn’t married, according to the synopsis of the book I read on Wikipedia (spoilers in that link obviously), so it’s not probable that he’s wearing the ring for the film.

Congratulations to Farrell if he’s married. If he’s not, then many of his fans will breathe a sigh of relief.

Colin Farrell drew alarm a couple weeks ago when a photo came out like of him looking extremely emaciated and like a shadow of the buff Irish actor with a heart we know and love.

He lost the weight, which looks like 20-30 pounds off an already-thin frame, for a role. Farrell plays a Spanish photojournalist in war-torn Bosnia in the early 1990s in the film Triage, based on a novel by Scott Anderson. His character is torn apart by guilt and regret for the difficult choices he’s forced to make in an effort to survive.

Farrell said in a press conference that he lost the weight because my role demanded it” and added “It was all very healthy.”

Either the earlier photos made Farrell look deceptively gaunt or he’s added some much-needed weight back, because these latest photos on set have Farrell looking too-thin but still healthy. It could be all the clothes he’s wearing but he’s not scary skinny looking to me here. I would still fail to check him out if he was walking down the street, unlike the buffer, more clean cut Colin of days past.

Thanks to WENN for these photos, taken today in Dublin.

Former bad boy Colin Farrell has a lot of eyebrows raised in his direction over his recent extreme weight loss. He says that he did it for his role in the upcoming film Triage, and even had a passage at the ready to explain his gaunt look to reporters.

Why is Colin Farrell looking so thin? At a recent press conference in Spain, the usually fit actor stunned reporters with his appearance – not to mention what he said. “I lost weight because my role demanded it,” Farrell told reporters simply of his upcoming film, Triage. “It was all very healthy.”

The actor also referred to the Scott Anderson novel on which Triage is based, reading the sentences that inspired his dramatic weight loss: “He went to the bathroom to shave. Once his beard was gone he saw that his face had become drawn. He pressed at the hollows beneath his eyes, the pronounced nubs of his cheekbones.”

“Amen,” director Danis Tanovic followed, breaking the tension. Everyone – including Farrell – laughed. Farrell spent five weeks in Alicante, Spain, filming Triage, in which he plays a war reporter in Bosnia in the early 1990s. The actor also spoke of his great respect for war reporters “spending time in war zones to tell stories that capture the imagination – as well as for their wives and girlfriends.”

[From People]

I suppose that’s an acceptable reason for an actor, but holy cow. Talk about method acting. Farrell really took it to an extreme – his face is more than drawn. It’s gaunt. He’s also been demonstrating a bit more bizarre behavior, at least according to Page Six.

Colin Farrell may be taking his war-photographer role in “Triage” too far. The lusty leprechaun has lost so much weight for the part, he’s almost unrecognizable, and he was spotted Tuesday in New York acting loopy. “He was looking at ties in Bloomingdale’s and faking a Spanish accent to the cashier,” said our spy. “He was rail thin. One customer asked ‘Are you Colin?’ And he said, ‘Who’s that?’ in a weird fake voice and stormed off.” Farrell’s rep said “he’s in Spain shooting a film.”

[From Page Six]

Thank you so much, ever helpful Colin Farrell rep. We’re well aware he’s shooting a film in Spain. However due to a wonderful little invention called the airplane, that doesn’t mean that he can’t be in New York for a day or two. So just saying that he’s in Spain is certainly not a denial or an explanation. It’s just a wussy way of giving a “no comment.” I am totally going to spend the rest of today sitting outside of Bloomingdale’s in an attempt to spot Colin Farrell. Or a homeless drug addict. Because I could easily mistake one for the other at this point.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Header image is from Mr. Paparazzi via The Sun.