I have a love/hate relationship with Andy Cohen and Watch What Happens Live. Like, sometimes I think that Andy Cohen is a mad genius for getting decent celebrities to come on his show, and then he gets them hammered and they answer crazy questions honestly. But Cohen is such a drama-queen and he often annoys me if I watch him for more than a few minutes.

Speaking of love/hate, Ethan Hawke was the guest on an episode of Watch What Happens Live two nights ago. I watched about half off the after-show online, and I think Ethan had definitely had a few drinks. He’s not flat-out drunk, but he’s happy and talkative and gossipy. You guys know that Ethan is one of my shamef—ks. He’s so dirty and ratty but I still LOVE him. He’s not aging well, his career isn’t all that, but I would still hit it hard. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I love his voice. I love how gossipy he is. I love the way he laughs. It’s crazy.

So on the after-show, Andy Cohen took calls and Ethan was asked for his “best onscreen kiss”. Ethan replied, “With all due respect – the woman has been in the press a lot lately – but my best onscreen kiss was with Angelina Jolie… Why is Amadeus, Wolfgang Mozart a genius? Angelina Jolie was born to whittle men, to make them weak. And when she kisses you, you don’t know your name.” Ethan and Angelina worked together on Taking Lives, which is a terrible film but it’s decent to watch because of Angelina and Ethan’s chemistry. They might have had an affair while working together (there were lots of rumors about it), but I always thought Angelina was fooling around with Olivier Martinez around that time. But go back and watch the movie – Ethan and Angelina’s sex scenes (spoiler?) are pretty hot. Here’s the Angelina Jolie part (around 1:30 mark):

At another part of the after-show, Ethan was asked about the hottest actress he’d ever hooked up with off-screen. Ethan basically says that all of the hottest hookups he’s ever had have been non-actresses, saying: “Let me tell you something, if we’re going to be honest. The facts are the more hot, they are the more acclaimed they are for being hot… the less hot they are. So the hottest chick I’ve ever been with on-screen was not anybody anyone has ever heard of. I wish this weren’t true, but let’s face it – I had a good few years. But the most wonderful experiences didn’t happen with anyone you have ever heard of….They would have gone nuts if I’d said ‘Angelina Jolie!’ Instead they are like, ‘What does it mean?’” That’s around the 2:30 mark:

Photos courtesy of Taking Lives, WENN.

Did you know Ethan Hawke has been nominated for an Oscar twice? True story. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2002 for Training Day, and then he was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Before Sunset in 2005. So… Ethan has been around award shows and stuff, and he’s been a working actor for decades (he’s 42 years old right now). Does the fact that he’s been a working actor and an Oscar-nominated actor and writer mean that he gets to criticize the awards shows and the industry? Because he is.

Joaquin Phoenix called the Oscars bulls – - t this year. But “The Master” star isn’t the only actor taking exception to the annual awards.

Ethan Hawke says in the new issue of Gotham magazine, “People want to turn everything in this country into a competition . . . [so] it’s clear who the winner is and who the loser is.”

The two-time nominee adds: “It’s why they like to announce the grosses of movies, because it’s a way of saying, ‘This one is No. 1.’ It’s so asinine . . . if you look at how many forgettable, stupid movies have won Oscars and how many mediocre performers have Oscars above their fireplace. Making a priority of chasing these fake carrots and money and dubious accolades, I think it’s really destructive.”

[From Page Six]

Maybe I’m an Ethan Hawke apologist (true story), but I actually think Ethan’s comments are more nuanced than Joaquin Phoenix’s expletive-filled rant last year, in which Phoenix said: “I think it’s bullsh-t… I don’t want to be a part of it. I don’t believe in it. It’s a carrot, but it’s the worst-tasting carrot I’ve ever tasted in my whole life. I don’t want this carrot. It’s totally subjective. Pitting people against each other . . . It’s the stupidest thing in the whole world.”

Ethan is making it less about the Oscar campaigns in general and more about the (American?) need to declare a winner and a loser, and how the award doesn’t necessarily mean you were “the best”. That being said, it sounds like Ethan has a case of the sore-loser-syndrome. Because you know what’s interesting if you nit-pick what Ethan says? That he’s a judgy bitch who judges when “mediocre actors” get awards, meaning he DOES adhere to some kind of system in which he ranks the quality of actors. Which defeats his point about winners and losers.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I don’t even know how many times I’ve confessed my dirty, uncomfortable crush on Ethan Hawke. I get it – he’s kind of gross. He looks dirty, and not in a good way. He should rethink his facial hair. He should rethink that unconvincing wiglet and the too-dark hair color. He has a rat-face. BUT! I still get hot for him, and these new photos of Ethan are reminding me why. Ethan was walking the red carpet for the Rome Film Festival premiere of Woman In the Fifth, his latest film. I found this little video from TIFF about the film – it looks kind of sad and sexy… and Ethan looks GREAT here.

So, obviously, I’ll be seeing this. Who would have even considered putting Kristin Scott Thomas and Ethan Hawke together as love interests? That’s so strange… and yet, I can kind of see it.

Sigh… back to just staring at Ethan’s dirty rat-face. I love him so much. He’s so neurotic and full of himself and kind of smarmy. But I would still hit it like crazy.

PS… When Giorgio Armani was recently asked who should play him in a potential bio-pic, Armani claimed that Ethan “looks like me.” Weird, right?

Photos courtesy of WENN

As I mentioned before in the Uma Thurman post, Ethan Hawke has a new interview in Details Magazine. Now, I have a shameful crush on Ethan. It’s a relatively new development, as in… he did nothing for me during the period of time when everyone else thought he was ratty-hot, circa Reality Bites. I HATED Reality Bites. And I’ve always known that Ethan is heavy with the douche, but somehow, over the past few years, he’s just suddenly become really hot to me. So this new interview, while self-aggrandizing and eye-roll-inducing, is also kind of hot (to me). Basically, this is how I feel: “Ethan is so full of himself. I love him.”

DETAILS: You’ve acted in about two movies a year since 1985. Do you go nuts when you’re not working?
Ethan Hawke: You’re not even counting the theater! There aren’t many serious actors from my generation who’ve done as much theater as I have, and who have also published a couple of books, and who have also had four kids. I’ve always felt restless. Perennially, chronically unsatisfied. One of the reasons I do other things is so I can keep up the quality of what I do. If I didn’t write and act in plays, I would have been in, like, a hundred movies by now, and probably 97 of them would have sucked.

DETAILS: You appeared in your first feature, a sci-fi movie called Explorers, at 14, alongside River Phoenix. What was it like starting your career that young?
Ethan Hawke: I would actively encourage people not to do that. You’re thinking like a professional before you know yourself as a human being. The real job of an artist is bigger than being successful, and young people can’t see that yet. The road is littered with casualties. Look at River. He was one of the most talented actors of my generation, and then he’s dead on Sunset Boulevard.

DETAILS: You’ve said you envy Philip Seymour Hoffman’s career, the way he didn’t get precipitously famous.
Ethan Hawke: Phil and I came to New York around the same time, and he doesn’t let go of any scene. I think it comes from years of having smaller parts and wanting to maximize your screen time. He carried that into being a leading man. Whereas, when they offered me the lead in White Fang as a teen, I picked two or three scenes where I invested myself, but most of the time I was at craft services, trying to pick up girls or reading a book.

DETAILS: The first leading role you took after Reality Bites, the film that made you a Gen-X icon, was Before Sunrise, a small-budget indie. Did you turn down any bigger offers?
Ethan Hawke: Superhero movies. Batman. This was after Tim Burton’s, before the bad period. I just didn’t want to go to the Knicks game and have everybody go, “Wow, you were a great Batman!” That wasn’t my f–king goal in life. Now I wish I’d done it, because I could have used it to do other things.

DETAILS: Is that why you said yes to Taking Lives, the 2004 Angelina Jolie vehicle you’ve said you regret?
Ethan Hawke: You keep saying no, and they keep offering more money until it feels stupid not to do it. Look, I loved working with Angelina, but it’s a movie about nothing. I should pin it on me, really. Paul McCartney doesn’t write great songs because he’s trying to sell records, he does it because he loves them. Every time I try to sell out, I fall on my ass.

DETAILS: How did you handle the “Gen-X hunk” reputation? Did it make you uncomfortable?
Ethan Hawke: Now I think it’s kind of awesome, but back then I was suicidal. Maybe that’s too strong a word. I was writhing…

DETAILS: Really? You were a sex symbol at 24. Was this the decadent kind of despair, where you wake up wondering where the girl next to you came from?
Ethan Hawke: I wish! Back then, I thought fame was a disease. And I knew I wasn’t good enough yet to warrant it.

DETAILS: You and Uma Thurman divorced in 2004. Were there benefits to marrying another actor?
Ethan Hawke: The upside is that they relate to all your problems. The downside is both partners can put their professional ambition at the forefront. For two people who are used to getting what they want, to being idolized by the opposite sex, you can’t expect them to naturally figure out how to be in this enlightened state and create a home. Uma and I were, like, 26 when we met. We were both, like, little stars of our world. I think we did a damn fine job of trying to love each other and raise our two kids.

DETAILS: What kind of dad are you?
Ethan Hawke: Lots of divorced dads will tell you that one of the biggest enemies is guilty parenting: You only have them a couple days a week, and you want to make sure you have a good time. So you can risk being a pushover. I’ve never had any problems with my kids, though. The hard thing is how to co-parent.

DETAILS: You’ve been married to your wife Ryan for three years now. What does she do?
Ethan Hawke: She was working at the Doe Fund, a men’s shelter, helping people prepare for job interviews and things like that. Right now she has a newborn and a 3-year-old and she’s trying to figure out when she wants to go back to work. And she’s been helping me with my work, too, reading scripts.

DETAILS: Why did you choose to write both of your novels on a typewriter?
Ethan Hawke: I love things that are physical. I don’t like porn, I like naked girls. I like talking with people, I wouldn’t know how to date online. I love theater, the immediacy of it. Every time I see some kid on the subway watching The Godfather on his iPod, I think, “F–k it, I want to do a play.”

DETAILS: You’ve played a lot of pompous, self-absorbed jerks, including a tantrum-prone writer in the upcoming thriller The Woman in the Fifth. Do you need to find something you like in these guys to play them well?
Ethan Hawke: No. My character in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead? Talk about spineless! I wanted to kill him. A person with a problem becomes vastly more exciting to inhabit, because you don’t know what they’re going to do. Over the years, every now and then, I’d play a good guy, and I’d just be miserable.

[From Details]

The thing is that I know what Ethan is trying to do – he’s trying to emphasize how UNCOOL he is, he’s trying to name-drop people that he thinks are better than him (Philip Seymour Hoffman, River Phoenix, etc), and he’s trying to be honest about his own self-loathing and ego-driven urges. But you can tell he has a healthy ego. You know how I know? “Superhero movies. Batman. This was after Tim Burton’s, before the bad period. I just didn’t want to go to the Knicks game and have everybody go, ‘Wow, you were a great Batman!’ That wasn’t my f–king goal in life. Now I wish I’d done it, because I could have used it to do other things.” Who the hell says stuff like that? It’s one thing to mention a specific project that you were offered (that’s enough of a taboo in Hollywood, and seriously, BATMAN?!?), but to end it with the idea that you should have done it because then you would get to do more important work? Rat-boy, please. God, I love him.

Photos courtesy of Fame, WENN.

Ethan Hawke and his nanny-wife Ryan announced her second pregnancy back in April, and now it’s looking like she gave birth… two weeks ago. Some may claim that this isn’t newsworthy or that no one cares about Ethan Hawke. I CARE. Ethan Hawke is, like, white trash beautiful to me. He’s so rodent-like and so hot (to me). And I don’t know how to feel about this nanny-wife, or the fact that they had another baby. Would I still get with Ethan knowing that he was the father of FOUR kids? That’s two with Ryan, two with Uma Thurman. Eh. Yeah, probably.

Ethan Hawke, who has called fatherhood “the greatest pleasure in my life,” and his wife, Ryan Hawke, welcomed their second child together two weeks ago, a girl named Indiana, PEOPLE has confirmed.

She’s the fourth child for Hawke, who also has two kids with ex-wife Uma Thurman. News of this pregnancy was first reported in April.

On Friday, the family had lunch at La Bottega in the Maritime Hotel, in Manhattan. “He was very happy,” an onlooker tells PEOPLE. “Seemed like a proud daddy.”

Ethan, 40, and Ryan married in June 2008. Their daughter, Clementine Jane, is now 3.

Hawke’s children with Thurman are Maya, 13, and Levon, 9.

In 2006, Ethan Hawke said parenting has brought him the greatest joy and was “the only role that, if I fail, I will consider my life a failure.”

[From People]

Thoughts on “Indiana” for a baby name? I don’t really hate it. It reminded me for some reason of the Phoenix clan. Isn’t one of them named Indiana? YES! I just found it – Casey Affleck and his wife Summer Phoenix named their daughter Indiana too. Incidentally, Ethan and the late River Phoenix were really, really close. If you ever saw Ethan’s Inside the Actor’s Studio, he spoke quite honestly about his overwhelming jealousy of River, and later Jude Law. I wonder if Ethan is still tight with the Phoenix siblings?

Here are some recent photos of Ethan looking delectable. Don’t hate on me, y’all. I love him and his dirt lip so much.

Photos courtesy of Fame & WENN.

Remember how Ethan Hawke hooked up with, impregnated and married his kids’ nanny after his divorce from Uma Thurman? Yeah. He knocked her up again. Why do I find him so hot?!? Ethan’s skuzzy hotness is a mystery to me, all I know is that I adore him, physically. It’s not like he has a great body, or is even traditionally attractive. It’s not like he has a great personality. And he comes with baggage – nanny-wife baggage. UGH, I WANT HIM.

Reality certain doesn’t bite for Ethan Hawke these days: He’s going to be a father for the fourth time!

A source close to the Oscar-nominated actor confirms that Hawke’s wife Ryan Shawhughes is pregnant with the couple’s second child.

The couple wed in 2008 and welcomed daughter Clementine in July of that year.

Shawhughes is “five months along, totally showing,” another insider tells Us. “They don’t know the gender, but…Clementine really wants a little brother!”

Hawke, 40, also has two kids — Maya, 12, and Levon, 9 — with ex-wife Uma Thurman, whom he divorced in 2004 after six years of marriage.

Adds the second source of Shawhughes (who once served as nanny to Maya and Levon): “She’s got an adorable little basketball belly!”

Hawke’s rep does not comment on his personal life.

[From Us Weekly]

In my fantasies, we meet and he realizes that I’m The One instantly. I guess that means I would have to be a stepmother to 4 kids? DEALBREAKER. I won’t wreck his home if it means I have to take care of four kids. Small concession, I know. Anyway, congratulations to Ethan, Ryan and soon-to-be big sister Clementine!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I have a confession: Ethan Hawke is my shame-crush. Like, I don’t even want to admit most days, but I find him sexy. It’s not that he’s “attractive” in any conventional sense, either morally or physically. He’s actually kind of gross, what with the permanent dirt-lip and smug-face and the whole screwing around on Uma Thurman thing. I get it – he’s a dirt bag, and a proto-hipster jagoff. So why do I find him so hot?

First of all, I’ve seen him in television interviews, and he’s really, really good in them. He’s funny, he’s self-deprecating, he’s kind of silly and he acknowledges his own pretensions and naked ambition. Also, when he’s talking, he doesn’t seem so… ratty. So gross. Because he actually has a nice voice, and he isn’t one of those strong silent types – he’s a talker, a gossiper, and I imagine he would be a lot of fun in a bar.

My Ethan Hawke shame-crush started after his initial, youthful hotness faded. Remember Dead Poet’s Society? Remember Reality Bites? Remember Gattaca and Great Expectations? Yeah, I didn’t have a crush on him for any of that. It was only when he got really ratty and dirt-lippy that this shameful, disgusting, awkward crush began. I’m even finding it difficult to describe right now because I’m so turned on by Ethan in these new photos, some from his participation in some event for the Empire State Building, and some for an event sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign for gay marriage. So… at least he’s a political liberal? Can I build a life with a dirty rat-face, just as long as he shares my politics? Sigh… I have issues.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Yesterday, we did a little preview of Star Magazine’s cover story this week, all about how Angelina Jolie does voodoo, and Brad cries like a little girl. Actually, I think the tabloids are legally obligated to add “…and Brad cries like a little girl” at the end of every Angelina story. Anyway, Jezebel has a much better preview, and hell, why not? According to Star’s preview/excerpt of Andrew Morton’s biography of Jolie, Morton will reveal several of the men Angelina was fooling around with before (and perhaps during) her relationship with Brad. Ralph Fiennes! We’ve heard that one before, from obscure British tabloid journalist Jenny Paul. According to Jenny Paul, “An insider claims that Angelina and Ralph Fiennes met for regular S&M sex sessions at a hotel in London. ‘They would order room service and watch the news together in bed afterward.’” Sexy, isn’t it? Some handcuffs and whips, then some CNN.

Anyway, the new(-ish) men mentioned by Star/Morton are Lenny Kravitz and Ethan Hawke. Scandal! Here’s a little more:

The claims here are from Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography by Andrew Morton. Angelina told Brad he was the first married man she’d ever slept with, but she actually has a thing for married men, according to this story.

Angie hooked up with Ethan Hawke while he was with Uma Thurman; she hooked up with Lenny Kravitz a bunch, and also did it with Ralph Fiennes.

The mag dug up some old quotes about heroin and threw in some crazy accusations about how she keeps dried powders made from herbs and roots close to her body for protection and does “cutting and voodoo rituals.”

[From Star via Jezebel]

First, Lenny Kravitz has been with a lot of women, hasn’t he? He even dated Nicole Kidman, allegedly. It’s not really scandalous because he’s done everybody. Secondly, Ethan? Really? I remember those rumors – back in 2003, Angelina was working with Ethan and Olivier Martinez on Taking Lives. There were rumors about Angelina with both Olivier (who was with Kylie Minogue at the time) and Ethan (who was about to separate from Uma Thurman). I remember I only believed the Olivier rumors, and that Ethan left Uma and began shacking up with some young waitress. Could Angelina be the secret reason Ethan and Uma split up? Eh. You decide.

Ooh, I just remembered, Kiefer Sutherland was in Taking Lives too! He would be a good theoretical match with Angelina as well.

Additional PR photos from Taking Lives, via Google Images.

The whole Gypsies-as-a-political-issue thing isn’t something I’m terribly familiar with, so I actually had to do a little bit of research on the issue, specifically the Gypsy issue within Romania. I apologize in advance if I’m incorrect, but from what I can see, Gypsies (Roma) seem to be a culturally, politically and socially oppressed minority within Romania. The Roma maintain their own language (Romany), names, music, customs, set of laws, and the overwhelming majority refuse to marry outside of the Roma, although many have begun to become more integrated into non-Roma communities.

It was back in August when Madonna was performing in Bucharest, Romania, and she spoke out on the issue of Gypsies. According to Fanfarazzi, Madonna “explained that no one should be discriminated against and that it made her ‘sad’ that Gypsies, also known as Roma, face this kind of plight. That’s when thousands of Romanian fans, who did not agree, loudly booed the pop star. She didn’t react.” Poor Madge. Entering a country’s internal political debate like a freight train, and she isn’t even thanked for her trouble.

So this Gypsy history and Madge history is the jumping off point for this latest story about Ethan Hawke. Apparently, Ethan is all over the Roma stuff because his mom is president of the Ovidiu Rom charity. According to the website: “The mission of Ovidiu Rom is to empower the poorest members of Romanian society through education, job training, community development and public awareness.” Ethan thinks Madge is amazing for standing up for Gypsies, and he’s even traveled to Romania to see the Gypsies’ conditions first hand:

At an August concert in Bucharest on her “Sticky & Sweet” tour, Madonna called for an end to widespread discrimination against Eastern Europe’s Gypsies – and her stance provoked boos from thousands of fans in Romania. Now ‘Reality Bites’ star Ethan Hawke, visiting Romania to help promote his mother’s charity supporting education for Gypsy children, placed the pop superstar alongside Bob Marley and John Lennon as part of a tradition of artists speaking out against racism.

“She transcended being a pop star,” he told reporters. “She drew international attention and shone the spotlight on a level of racism and the need for greater education,” Hawke said.

“I don’t have an agenda, Madonna doesn’t have an agenda. We aren’t politicians,” Hawke said.

Hawke, 38, was to speak later Saturday at the Ovidiu Rom charity Halloween ball. He and his mother, Leslie Hawke, the charity’s president, were already dressed in costume: the actor in top hat and tails and his mother in a Japanese-style kimono, black wig and geisha-like makeup.

A pair of Madonna’s Christian Dior shoes with autographed skyscraper gold heels are to be raffled off at the ball, which is to be held in the giant palace of the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Among the other prizes is a gold chain provided by actress Vanessa Redgrave.

Hawke has been coming to Romania to support his mother’s work since 2000, he said.

“I feel I can do something,” he told reporters, “instead of being part of the problem.”

Romania has the largest number of Roma in Europe, numbering officially half a million, but whose population is believed to be as high as 2 million. The European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency has said Gypsies face “overt discrimination” in housing, health care and education.

Romania, home to the Dracula legend, may have influenced two-time Academy Award nominee Hawke’s latest movie, ‘Daybreakers,’ in which he plays a researcher in the year 2019 facing a plague that has transformed the world’s population into vampires. The movie comes out in 2010.

Prince Vlad the Impaler, the Romanian warlord whose cruelty inspired Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, ‘Dracula’ has spawned dozens of Hollywood movies about vampires in the Transylvania region.

[From PopEater]

I’m generally pretty “meh” on Ethan, but I’ll give him credit for this. He’s supporting his mom, and he’s being generous with his time and energy, all to bring awareness to a cause that I really didn’t know was such a big deal. Way to go, Ethan. And way to go, Ethan’s mom (who sounds really cool).

Here’s Ethan taking a stroll through New York City with his daughter Clementine along for the ride on October 11th, and with wife Ryan Shawhuges on August 30th. Images thanks to Pacific Coast News.

Some drama was going down at the Country Music Awards on Sunday. It wasn’t country diva drama, either… unless you consider Toby Keith a diva. An argument could be made for that, actually. Anyway, Toby Keith was backstage at the Country Music Awards, talking to the press. Keith got a specific question from a reporter from the Tennessean, who asked Keith about an article Ethan Hawke wrote for Rolling Stone.

Toby lit into the reporter and Ethan Hawke about the article. The article is about music legend Kris Kristofferson, and Toby took offense to particular, unflattering story Ethan told within the article. Ethan claims that he witnessed a backstage incident in 2003 at a Willie Nelson tribute concert for his 70th birthday at the Beacon Theatre in New York, but Ethan doesn’t name Toby Keith specifically.

Ethan writes, in the Rolling Stone article, that “a country singer who had a monster hit about bombing America’s enemies back into the stone age” came up to Kris Kristofferson and told him “None of that lefty sh-t out there tonight, Kris.” Kristofferson’s reaction was, according to Ethan, to confront this country star’s non-existent military record, saying “Have you ever killed another man? Huh? Have you ever taken another man’s life and then cashed the check your country gave you for doing it? No, you have not, so shut the f-ck up. You don’t know what the hell you are talking about.”

So Toby Keith freaked out, basically. He called Ethan Hawke a liar, he called the Rolling Stone article “superficial” and he claimed that Ethan didn’t name him (Toby) because Ethan didn’t want to “deal with the aftermath”. What aftermath? Someone has change Toby’s diaper after his hissy fit?

Ethan Hawke might want to avoid crossing paths with Toby Keith in the near future.

The country star lit into the actor for an article Hawke wrote in the new issue of Rolling Stone about Kris Kristofferson. In it, Hawke refers to a blowup Kristofferson had with an unnamed country star back in 2003 that sounds a lot like Toby Keith.

But a furious Keith, speaking backstage at the Academy of Country Music Awards, said it wasn’t true, and added that Hawke did not name him in the story because he did not want to face him later.

“I don’t know Ethan Hawke. Ethan Hawke wanted to do some kind of superficial Rolling Stone article. And he did everything he could to make his story the greatest story ever in Rolling Stone,” Keith said. “And it was a fictitious (expletive) lie. O.K?”

“He didn’t even call me by my name. … He called Norah Jones, Ray Charles, everybody else by name. Willie (Nelson), Kris (Kristofferson). Why didn’t he call my name? Why didn’t he say Toby Keith walked through and said this (expletive)? Right? You know why. You know why. You know as good as anybody why. He didn’t want to (expletive) deal with the aftermath.”

In the story, Hawke claimed he witnessed the confrontation backstage at Nelson’s tribute concert for his 70th birthday at the Beacon Theatre in New York. The article does not name Keith but says it was a country singer who “had a monster hit about bombing America’s enemies back into the stone age.” In 2002, Keith had the song “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue (The Angry American)” that threatened retribution for the 9/11 attacks.

Hawke said the argument began with the “Star” telling Kristofferson: “None of that lefty (expletive) out there tonight, Kris.”

Hawke said Kristofferson then angrily confronted and asked him if he had ever served in the military.

“Have you ever killed another man? Huh? Have you ever taken another man’s life and then cashed the check your country gave you for doing it? No, you have not, so shut the (expletive) up,” Hawke recounted Kristofferson as saying. “You don’t know what the hell you are talking about.”

A spokeswoman for Hawke did not immediately return a message seeking comment. A Rolling Stone spokeswoman said that the magazine fully stands by the story and Hawke’s reporting.

Keith directed his anger Sunday not only at Hawke but at a reporter from the Tennessean who wrote about the Hawke article and asked Keith about it backstage.

Kristofferson, in a statement, said he did not recall the incident and tried to be diplomatic to all sides.

“I would like to state for the record that I am friends with Ethan Hawke, Toby Keith and Tennessean reporter Peter Cooper. Although I do not remember the events at Willie’s birthday party as reported in Rolling Stone, what does it matter?” he asked. “That was six years ago. I spoke to Ethan before I put out my statement and thanked him for the beautiful story he wrote for Rolling Stone and I also told him I did not recall the incident at Willie’s birthday party. This is the last statement I will put out about this nonsense.”

From The Huffington Post

Kris Kristofferson is so classy. I just love him, and my guess is that Ethan Hawke’s version of events in 2003 is probably pretty close to accurate. But instead of mocking the people in this situation, I’d just like to talk about Kris. Kris was an Army captain, a helicopter pilot and a Ranger. Kris has written or co-written hundreds of songs, and has been honored by several Songwriting Halls of Fame. His most famous song (and my favorite) is “Me and Bobby McGee”… he didn’t write it for his girlfriend Janis Joplin, but her version is probably the most memorable. He was also Janis Joplin’s boyfriend at the time of her death. Kris also had decades-long friendships with Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. He’s a member of Veterans For Peace, and he vocally protested the Iraq War.

Ethan Hawke is shown out in Aukland, New Zealand on 4/5/09 and outside Conan O’Brien on 11/26/08. Toby Keith is shown performing on The Early Show on 6/18/07. Kriss Kistofferson is shown on 2/2/09 at the premiere of He’s Just Not That Into You. Credit: WENN.com