As I just discussed in the Blanchett story, last night was a big screening for Hanna, the Cate Blanchett-Eric Bana-Saoirse Ronan film that comes out tomorrow. Cate wasn’t at the screening! Boo! But Eric Bana was there, and my GOD. This man. I’ve always liked Bana, but lately he has just been doing it for me, Big Time. And you know, I generally don’t go for the nice, handsome beefcake-types. My type is willowy, pasty, smarmy bastards with an accent. Maybe it’s Eric’s fabulous accent work that wins me over? No, it’s not just that. It’s his EVERYTHING. The bitch is fine.

Saoirse Ronan is turning out to be a beautiful young woman, isn’t she? I love her too! She might be a little mini-Blanchett. We’ll see!

And just a little Matt Bomer – he was at the screening too, and the boy can wear the hell out of a suit.

Photos courtesy of WENN & Fame.

Eric Bana is the cover boy for the September’s Men’s Health Magazine. It’s a great shot of him – that man can wear a suit like nobody’s business. I’m not sure about the scruffy facial hair, though. If it was an outright beard, I would be all over it. But it looks like Eric hasn’t shaved in a few days, and really needs a razor. Maybe that’s what’s “cool” for men now. So many male stars are sporting that facial hair look. Blech. I mean, I’d still nail it the wall… but afterwards, I would ask Eric to shave.

The cover interview isn’t all that interesting. Maybe my theory about Eric Bane is right – I tend to think that he’s one of those really talented actors who gives horribly boring interviews. There are worse things to be, of course. Like the object of Barbara Walters’ affection, when she accosts you to get naked again. Instead, Eric spends the interview talking about his love of New York, Australia, cars, and a good tailor:

On New York in the 1980s: “I loved New York, even back then. It was such an overwhelming animal. I loved the energy and attitude of the place.”

On America: “It’s great for being productive and creative.”

On his wardrobe: In Australia, Bana’s everyday wardrobe is jeans and a T-shirt. “I’m usually grossly underdressed,” he says happily. But Bana has come to admire tailored clothing. “When someone is a good craftsman, I appreciate it,” he says, naming John Varvatos, Calvin Klein, and Gucci as a few of his favorite labels. “I guess it comes from appreciating design when it comes to cars.” But you won’t catch him in an expensive suit at home in Melbourne. That’s his Hollywood uniform. “I think everyone in my local café would literally stop talking if I walked in wearing a suit,” he says with a chuckle. “They’d laugh at me.”

On driving (and crashing) race cars: “It’s something you look back on and realize how lucky you were. But I’ve crashed before and I’ve chased since. I guess what makes this one significant is the fact that I really convinced myself I would never crash because I was driving that car (1974 Ford Falcon XB Coupe). If it were any other race car, I wouldn’t have been bothered at all.”

On questioning authority: “Australians are bred to be antiestablishment. We’re wary of authority.”

Eric’s style advice for men: Avoid a generic look by seeking out understated features, like contrast lapel stitching or a colorful lining. “When I look at an item on the rack, there needs to be one distinguishing feature that makes it pop,” says Bana. “I look for a detail that I know I’ll appreciate 5 years from now, not just at that moment.” Side vents and subtle patterns, such as a tonal windowpane plaid, offer interest without looking flashy. “I love a slim-fitting suit,” says Bana. “Tom Ford is a favorite.”

[From Men’s Health]

I hope Eric’s publicist tells him to stop talking about his damn cars in interviews. When I hear a man talking about cars, my eyes glaze over. Maybe that’s because I was at the mechanic yesterday, so it has me annoyed. For men, their eyes glaze over when women talk about purses. How cool would it be if Eric Bana started talking about purses in an interview? How much would you love it?

Here’s Eric Bana outside the Ed Sullivan Theatre for the ‘Late Show With David Letterman’ in New York on July 27th. Images thanks to WENN.com .

Last night was the New York premiere of The Time-Traveler’s Wife. It seems like it was a half-decent red carpet, with several A-listers showing up. There was Brad Pitt, who produced the film, who looked like a reject from Saturday Night Fever. There was Ron Livingston, who is actually one of my favorite actors, and a cutie to boot – if you want to hear me wax on about the beauty of these Irish boys with pale skin and jet black hair, just go to the Seth MacFarlane post. Then there was always gorgeous Eric Bana, looking hot in a good suit. He was with his wife, Rebecca Gleeson, who seemed to be wearing some kind of tie-dyed toga? She’s really pretty, though. She looks too young to have a 10-year-old and a 7-year-old. And she gets to go home to Eric Bana, so I might have some nasty feelings about her.

The person most people will be talking about from this red carpet is none other than newly-single Little Miss Dimples Rachel McAdams. The reason Rachel will be poured over? Because she wore a really weird dress to the premiere. Now, I’m actually a fan of Rachel (don’t kill me) though I think she’s a little bland. I find her to be adorable, in spirit and in physical cuteness. She’s thirty years old – which is a good age for Hollywood. Her style could go either way – she could dress younger, and totally pull it off, or she could dress her age or older and be recognized as an adult actress for adult roles. Unfortunately, Rachel veered too far into the “dressing older” range. She looks like she pulled something out of Madonna’s cougar closet.

That being said, I do like the dress. It would be gorgeous on a darker, curvier, slightly older woman. Maybe on Eva Mendes, it could be amazing. But on Rachel? All I can see is her flat-as-a-board chest. It does nothing for her petite, athletic figure. And the color’s wrong too. The white just washes her out. Yuck. Someone get this girl a better stylist.

Photo credit: RAM/Fame Pictures

Eric Bana has been promoting his supporting role in Funny People, and doing some early promotion for his lead role in The Time Traveler’s Wife, which will be out next week in America. He only did a couple of interviews before Funny People release, but many critics and reviewers singled Bana out as the best, funniest part of the film. Funny People’s director, Judd Apatow always claimed he hired Bana for the role because he was such a fan of Bana’s work in Munich (which really is an amazing film, one of Steven Spielberg’s best), and Apatow also claims it came as a complete surprise that Bana was so good at comedy. Bana actually got his start in comedy and stand-up, back in his home country, Australia.

Anyway, Bana went on The View to promote his two films, and it turns out Barbara Walters had gotten her hands on an early screening of The Time Traveler’s Wife. Barbara was beside herself at being so close to her latest girl-crush, and she even asked Bana to strip down live on the show:

American news queen Barbara Walters asked Eric Bana to strip naked on live US television – but he declined. The Australian actor was a guest on Walters’ talk show The View to promote his new romance-drama based on the bestselling novel The Time Traveller’s Wife.

In the film, Bana’s character involuntarily time travels and when he lands in a new time he is completely naked. Walters, 79, watched the movie before today’s interview and was obviously impressed with 40-year-old Bana’s buff body.

“We see more of your backside,” an excited Walters told Bana, stopping mid-sentence to compose herself.

When she regained her breath she simply said: “I had a wonderful time.”

The studio audience burst out in laughter. Then Walters came up with her naked proposal.

“So, I thought maybe you would like to show us now how it is done,” she propositioned Bana. The Melbourne-born and bred actor kept his clothes on.

He went on to admit he was surprised he was naked so often in The Time Traveller’s Wife, which co-stars actress Rachel McAdams and opens in Australian cinemas in November.

“I read all of those scenes and I read the book and I’m like ‘Yeah, he’s butt naked quite a bit but it is PG13 so I’ll never have to take my clothes off’,” Bana said. “Well, I was wrong. Every third or fourth day it was ‘Eric, drop your pants’.”

While Walters was purring on the right side of The View couch about Bana’s naked body, on the left co-host Joy Behar was purring about another of Bana’s traits.

“I love your accent,” Behar told Bana.

“Don’t you love it? It’s Australian.”

For Bana the biggest plus about appearing on the talk show was the knowledge that his mother, Eleanor, could watch back in Melbourne.

“I got big brownie points today because this is her favourite show and she watches it every day,” he said.

[From ABC]

Aw, Eric Bana is so cute when he talks about his mom. Alas, ladies (and a few gentlemen), Bana is taken. He’s been happily married to wife Rebecca Gleeson since 1997. They have two children together: son Klaus (10 years old) and daughter Sophia (7 years old).

In one other piece of Bana news, I mentioned yesterday that the screenwriter of Time Traveler’s adaptation to the screen recently gave an interview that I thought was slightly disrespectful to Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams (who plays “the wife”). Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin claimed that he wanted Brad Pitt (who is one of the producers of the film) to star with Jennifer Aniston as the wife originally. Regardless of the Bermuda Triangle stuff, I found this extremely insulting to Bana and McAdams – they are both gifted actors who should not be anyone’s second choice. My guess is that Brad Pitt bought the rights to the book with an idea that he might star, but ended up giving the part to his Troy buddy Eric, because Brad genuinely thought Eric would do a better job with the material.

Eric Bana is shown shirtless in Troy, thanks to Squarehippies.com, and at events on 4/29, 4/30, 7/20, and 7/22/09. Credit: WENN.com

Eric Bana is a sexy bad boy. He’s so bad, all of his friends are either dead or in jail. He’s so bad, he had to repeat a year in high school. He’s so bad, he sets panties on fire. He’s so bad, he had his tongue insured for a million dollars. Okay, only three of those are true.

Bana is the May cover boy for Details, which is weird because I didn’t think Details put real, manly-men on the cover. Usually they just pluck some pretty boy out of the air, put some makeup on him and tell him to pose like a gay porn star, and bippity-boppity, a Details cover is born! Anyhoo, Bana’s cover interview is okay. He’s not known as a really great interview, but who cares when you could just look at pictures of him? Sigh. So pretty.

So Bana is trying to convince us that he’s a “bad boy”. I’ll believe it when I taste him- whoops, I mean, I’ll believe it when I see it. He talks about drinking, school, et cetera:

Eric Bana may star as the ultimate evil arch nemesis in this summer’s Star Trek, but the brooding heartthrob admits he had a streak of a bad boy quality in him growing up.

“I went through a little phase,” the Australian actor tells Details in it’s May cover story, in which he reveals that he showed up drunk to school prompting his mom to ground him for six months. “But I did a lot better than some of the guys I hung with, who have ended up dead or in jail.”

For Bana, 40, getting into mischief during his teen years affected his grades at school, causing him to repeat a year of high school. “It wasn’t like I was busting to get into NASA or anything,” says the Hulk and Black Hawk Down star.

But now as a husband and a dad with two kids, Klaus, 9, and Sophie,7, Bana confesses that he still is prone to dark moods like everybody else with the daily grind of life.

“I do get incredibly frustrated,” says Bana. “I tend to dwell on the negative.” But he looks to his wife Rebecca for reassurance. “[She] is great at talking me off the ledge.”

[From People Magazine]

I loved Bana in Black Hawk Down - he’s such a badass in that film. He’s one of the Rangers that comes in and saves the day when all of those Marines are scattered over Mogadishu. I wish he would do more films like Black Hawk, but the fact that he’s playing the villain in Star Trek will most likely bring him a new class of fanboy fame. Fanboy fame cannot be discounted, either. Look at the career William Shatner still has thanks to the fanboys.

Here’s Eric Bana at the ‘Star Trek’ photocall in Paris yesterday. Images thanks to WENN.com .