Isn’t this bizarre? We rarely get paparazzi photos of Julia Roberts these days, and magically this weekend there are all of these photos of not just Julia, but Julia with her husband Danny Moder. And they’re holding hands and walking arm in arm and stuff. Weird! Is this some kind conspiracy pushback that I’m unaware of? I see blind items about A-list actresses and their low-key husbands all the time, and most of the guesses are always about Julia Roberts or Nicole Kidman. Has there been some kind of major “maybe Julia’s marriage is in trouble” rumor out there, and this is the photo-op pushback? Or am I simply too much of a conspiracy theorist for my own good?

Anyway, yes, Julia and Danny were spotted in Santa Monica on Saturday. Apparently, they had lunch with friends and then went for a surprisingly pap-friendly walk around Santa Monica. What game are you playing, Julia?!?! Alternate theories: one, Julia is trying to remind people she’s still around, maybe because she wants a particular role or project. Two, Julia is about to commence on some kind of huge comeback, and these are the first steps towards easing herself back into the game. That might be it, actually? I could see Julia making an appearance at the Oscars next weekend, then following that up by signing on to some huge role, then she’s part of the big prestige picture August: Osage County, which comes out this fall/winter, and there will be an Oscar campaign for that. And then next year she has another prestigious project, The Normal Heart. So is this The Year of Julia? I wouldn’t hate it. Julia brings out strong opinions and she’s almost always a good interview, and she’s as big of a narcissist as all of the current greats – Julia could out-narcissist Beyonce. I’m just sayin’.

Come on, Julia! Make a comeback!!

PS… I hate her outfit. Those jeans are incredibly unflattering and that whole shirt/jacket combo is terrible.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

One thing I can admire about Julia Roberts is that she and husband Danny Moder seem committed to raising their children outside of the Hollywood zone. Hence the family’s main home base on a ranch in Taos, New Mexico and a relative dearth of paparazzi photos of the children. These photos of Julia with her 7-year-old twins, Hazel and Phinnaeus, go way back to last September, and I guess I hadn’t realized how fast they’d grown. We all know where Phinnaeus’ got that amazing shade of red hair too, right? People often talk about how Nicole Kidman really should go back to red, but I’ve always felt that way about Julia as well.

Anyway, Julia has been working up to some heavy duty press for the dreadful looking Mirror Mirror, and she’s already given a slightly superior interview to Vanity Fair about how there could never be another Julia. Julia also gave a statement last fall about how she never wanted her kids to find out that she’s playing the Evil Queen, which left plenty of room for punchlines. Still, I sort of think Julia needs to relax about that issue because the Mirror Mirror trailers reveal because her Evil Queen to more of a Sarcastic Queen. It’s nothing like the badass Evil Queen that Charlize Theron has taken on in the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman movie. Whatever the cause, Julia has calmly explained that she and Danny don’t really let their kids watch much of anything at all:

Julia Roberts’ kids don’t watch her movies – yet.

She’s starred in countless films, but according to the actress, it will be a while before her kids get to see any of them.

Roberts’s three children, 7-year-old twins Hazel Patricia and Phinnaeus Walter and 4 1/2-year-old Henry Daniel, will even have to wait to see her latest film, family flick Mirror Mirror.

“I think they are [too young] considering the part that I play,” Roberts, 44, told reporters at a press conference for the film, in which she plays Snow White’s evil Queen.

“We have a pretty rigid viewing feeling in our house,” she says of her policy with her husband, director Danny Moder, about exposing their kids to their work.

“We’ll find our right time that will be happy and joyous for us to share that all together, but it probably isn’t in two weeks.”

For now, her three kids don’t watch many movies or TV shows at all.

“Those nice, cozy, very short hours before bed, we just really spend together as a family talking and sharing the day and reading books, and really, before you know it, it’s time for bed,” she shares. “Part of it is there’s just not time for that. We would prefer something different in that time.”

Rather than spending family time gathered around the television set, Roberts and Moder share story time with their children.

“We’re more book people in our house,” she explains, adding that her family is interested in “stories and poetry and talking, sharing ideas.”

Which isn’t to say the actress is entirely opposed to her kids watching TV.

“They do get to watch some things,” she says. “But for us, we just feel there’s a real time and a place for it.”

[From People]

I definitely see Julia’s point, which is family time with cuddles and bedtime stories are much more important than watching whatever garbage happens to be playing on the Disney Channel. Parents of young children know what I’m talking about when I say that the quality of that channel has severely declined in the past couple of years — let’s call it the Hydra Effect — when “Hannah Montanna” went off the air and several other (worse) shows sprung up in its place. Now it’s like Disney keeps playing the same few episodes of “Shake It Up,” “Good Luck, Charlie” and “Hey Jessie” over and over again.

So yes, children’s television in general and many of the movies don’t provide an ample source of great role models. Still, there are ways to frame issues, and Julia comes off sounding sort of holier than thou in this interview. Or does she? However much she tries, her kids will eventually watch all of her movies … and I think she shouldn’t be nearly as worried about the Evil Queen role as the one where she plays a prostitute a law student. Egads!

Julia shown with twins Hazel and Phinnaeus in LA on 9/15/2011; Julia and Danny Moder shown with Henry on a Kauai beach on 9/14/2011; photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

So far, Julia Roberts has been able to keep the fact that she’s playing the Evil Queen from her kids, but that certainly doesn’t mean that she didn’t acquire some, uh, baggage while on the set of her as-yet-untitled “Snow White” movie. Presumably, Julia’s metabolism has caught up with her as she’s progressed into her 40s, which means that she’s no longer able to stay rail thin without effort. How tragic. Allegedly and according to The Enquirer, Julia’s pissed off about this weight gain because it makes her look really bad next to her hardbodied husband, Danny Moder. Here he is looking pretty good while competing in the Malibu Triathlon:

Desperate to maintain her “Pretty Woman” figure after a recent weight gain, Julia Roberts has turned into a workout maniac, say pals.

The fiery redhead, who turned 44 on Oct. 28, is furious at herself for piling on 10 pounds while filming her role as the Evil Queen in the as-yet-untitled new “Snow White” movie.

And the mom of three is determined to trim down by pounding the pavement with pals. In fact, Julia was recently spotted looking winded after jogging with a companion near her Los Angeles home.

Her goal, say insiders, is to get as lean and mean as her six pack-sporting spouse, cameraman Danny Moder.

“Julia saw the photos of herself in the beach in Hawaii this past August and thought she looked pretty good in a bikini,” said an insider, “But standing next to Danny, with his taught stomach and muscular arms, she seemed completely out of shape in comparison.

“She told him, ‘It’s not fair that you get to look as good as you do without even trying, but I have to bust my ass just to lose a couple of pounds!’ After that, Julia was absolutely determined to look almost as toned was her hubby.”

According to the source, Julia’s biggest problem in her battle of the bulge is that she tends to eat whatever she wants when she’s working. And that’s exactly what happened while making “Snow White” in Montreal.

This isn’t the first time Julia has gained weight on a film set. The 5-foot-9 actress normall weighs between 125 and 130 pounds but balooned to nearly 150 by the time she’d finished filming “Eat Pray Love” on location in Italy in 2009. “In the scene with the pizza, we started shooting at eight in the morning and by 8:45 I’d eaten eight or 10 pieces of pizza,” she told a reporter.

But now she’s running like a madwoman and doing yoga three times a week to get back in fighting form.

Still, the sources says Julia has insisted to pals that she’s not weight-obsessed “like some people in Hollywood.” “I’ll never be a stick figure,” she admitted. “But I want to give Danny a run for his money!”

[From Enquirer, print edition, November 14, 2011]

So is this story true? It’s not farfetched to believe that Julia gained a few pounds on her movie sets in recent years. Certainly, the lure of the everpresent crafts services table would be irresistable for most people, and eating pizza as a requirement for the job, well, that’s tough competition for an aging metabolsm. She probably does feel like a slouch next to her triathlete spouse, but Danny certainly works for his physique, and it never hurts anyone’s health to be in better shape. If that’s the inspiration that Julia needs to start working out, then she’ll be better for it in the long run. Maybe she’ll even get a serotonin rush or two and stop being so bitchy to her overweight sister too. Julia was photographed wearing compression pants on 9/14 although that could just be due to poor circulation, but it might also be a sign that she’s now obsessed with working out to the point of wearing them underneath her regular pants.

Photos courtesy of WENN, PCN, and Fame

Eat, Pray Love opens here in Germany tomorrow, Thursday, and it seems like Julia Roberts is all over the place. There are signs up at my gym, billboards around town, and she’s being interviewed in the German press. In one interview, with German newspaper Bild, she reveals that she has a box that a friend gave her in which she keeps all her love letters from the past ten years from her husband, Danny Moder. She says that she’s going to give them to her daughter someday.

I have a box that a friend gave me and it’s painted on the inside where says ‘love letters to Julia from Danny’ [where] I’ve kept all the notes and letters that my husband has written to me over ten years.

It’s grateful to give to my daughter when she grows up. Great way to get to know your parents, I think.

[From video interview on Bild.de]

It sounds kind of awkward where she says “it’s grateful” but the video is dubbed in German and I had a hard time hearing exactly what she said.

Most of us know how Julia met a then-married Danny when he was working as a cameraman on the set of The Mexican in 2001. I’m sure he sent her plenty of sweet notes while they were cheating as well as in the early stages of their relationship. They’ve been married for eight years and have three children together, so maybe Julia gets a pass for everything now, despite the very petty things she did to Moder’s ex wife. It’s been nine years and everyone has moved on. I don’t know if she should be so willing to share all that with her daughter, although Hazel, now nearly six, will be a grown woman when she inherits her parents’ love letters and is confronted with the reality of her father’s infidelity.

Swiss newspaper 20 Minuten (it’s one of those free papers they give out at the tram stations) has several non-dubbed English video interviews with Julia and her delicious co-star, Javier Bardem. They’re really flirty with each other and Julia tells a story about how her friends gasped when they first saw Javier in the trailer for their movie. Penelope should watch her back.

Julia Roberts is the cover girl for this week’s National Enquirer, and it’s an old-school one. Personally, I don’t really think people still care about what’s happening in Julia’s private life, now or twenty years ago, but maybe I’m wrong. Anyway, if any of this is true, it’s pretty juicy and pretty funny. According to The Frisky’s coverage of the cover story:

The Enquirer has the inside scoop on “Julia Roberts’ Bizarre Double Life,” claiming that drugs and physical abuse runs in her family. A source says that Julia “used to smoke a lot of pot” and she would get stoned with husband Danny Moder and play Halo.

Apparently, Julia’s childhood home was raided and cops found drugs inside a hollowed-out bible. Roberts’ brother, Eric, claims that their mother “beat the hell out” of him for years and friends claim that Julia shares a similar temperament and often takes it out on her relatives or Danny, most recently screaming and humiliating him after photographers tried to get a picture of them together.

[From The Frisky]

Of course it’s likely that this is all bullsh-t. But part of me really hopes and dreams that Julia did in fact spend several years getting high and playing Halo. That one image alone makes me really, really like her. As far as the abuse stuff – eh. I have no idea, honestly, why Eric Roberts and Julia are no longer in each other’s lives, but I’ve always bought the theory that it had something to do with how Eric treated Emma’s mother, and I think Eric has some demons. Of course, it would be easy to believe that Julia is a temperamental piece of work, because that’s already my image of her. But I doubt she abuses Danny, for real.

Here are some new photos of Julia in Japan yesterday (or tomorrow…?). The time difference gets me. I have to admit, I kind of like this muumuu.

Enquirer cover courtesy of CoverAwards.

This is an odd little blurb from In Touch Weekly about Julia Roberts and her husband, Danny Moder. I’ve always wondered what their marriage dynamic is – because, in my opinion, Julia can be a real pill, and Danny seems dumb as a box of hair. Thus, I’ve always thought that Julia must be the one who wears the pants, while Danny just does whatever Julia wants. But could their dynamic be something totally different? In Touch’s source claims that Danny keeps telling Julia that should take any and all work she’s offered because “If you get offered a job, you have to take it, or the offers will stop coming in.”

Too much family togetherness isn’t always a good thing. Just ask Danny Moder, who’s happiest when his wife, Julia Roberts, who is currently filming in Canada – is working!

Although their kids Hazel, Phinnaeus and Henry “want her around every minute, and the don’t like being with nannies,” according to an insider, Danny is always watching out for Julia’s career.

“Danny keeps telling her, ‘If you get offered a job, you have to take it, or the offers will stop coming in,’” according to the insider.

[From In Touch Weekly, print edition]

Damn! Danny was all, “You’re not getting any younger, Jules.” Do you think he really said something like that? Like, “Seriously, why don’t you do a movie? Weren’t you, like, a movie star when I married you?”

Anyway, Julia’s big comeback role is going to be Eat, Pray, Love – unless that film bombs, which I’m kind of hoping it does. I’m not expecting it to, of course. It has the Oprah seal of approval. Julia’s been giving a couple of interviews here and there ahead of the film’s August release, and most of the quotes are just dumb. Let’s see… Julia was talking about how much weight she gained doing the movie, and she said: ““I probably put on about seven pounds in Rome when we were shooting. I ate a lot of pizzas
in Naples. It was just great. But it was hard on Take 10 on a giant plate of pasta. It is a challenge and I love a good meal. Someone suggested I had a spit bucket but I can’t do that because it makes me gag. It just grosses me out.” Thus spoketh The Julia.