We’re getting a lot of photos from Paris Fashion Week, and while none of these people are “OMG, I have to write about them now,” I did want to discuss some of these pics. First of all, does it surprise you that Kirsten Dunst and Garrett Hedlund are still together? I’m kind in awe of Kiki sometimes – she always has a boyfriend, and she seems to have very strict rules for “the coolness” of the boyfriends. Garrett is very “cool” and he seems to really be into her. He’s so into her that he came to Paris to go to the Yves Saint Laurent show with her. Is that weird? Or awesome?

Jessica Chastain at the YSL show – I’m assuming the dress is YSL. The color doesn’t suit her, and the design looks like old-school Issa (the label Kate Middleton always wore before she got the ring).

More photos from Paris Fashion Week – here are Jessica Alba and Nicole Richie at the Stella McCartney show. I’m assuming they’re both wearing Stella’s designs, and while both of them look pretty good, I cannot even begin to tell you how terrible Stella’s collection is this season.

Here’s Alba at the Studio Africa party last night – terrible pants.

TILDA. The Swinton!! She’s in Paris too!!!!!!! Must. Get. To. Paris.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.

I don’t know much about Garrett Hedlund. I know he’s cute in a dirt-lipped artiste way, like a young Ethan Hawke (circa 1994). I know Gwyneth Paltrow compared him to Brad Pitt. I know he rebooted his fragile career with his performance in On the Road, which has gotten him widespread critical acclaim (but few award nominations). I know he’s dating Kiki Dunst. And now that I’ve read his Details interview (he’s the February cover boy), I know that he’s kind of a sweetheart, and he’s also sort of a throwback to the goatee’d, Patchouli-wearing proto-hipsters of the mid to late 1990s. Like, I sent this interview to CB and Bedhead and we started reminiscing immediately about the dudes we knew, loved and hated in the ‘90s. Some highlights from the Details piece:

GH’s drink: “Grey Goose and water.”

How he grew up: “It’s funny… The school I went to was a little farm school in Wannaska, student body 61 or something.” This was in northern Minnesota, about 25 miles from the Canadian border, where Hedlund lived with his father, a wrestling coach and farmer, after his parents divorced when he was a toddler. “There was a kid, the only black kid in our county, Dustin Byfuglien. He won the Stanley Cup a couple years back with the Blackhawks. Out of a class of 21 kids, he and I always had to be on opposite teams on everything because we were the most athletic. We could never be on the same f–king team. But it’s just . . . funny. Two kids from an elementary school in Wannaska, Minnesota. Now he’s won the Stanley Cup and I’m in New York getting interviewed for On the Road.”

How he stood out at the age of 17 while he was auditioning: “I decided to try to be smarter than everyone else.”

After he read On the Road, he started writing: He funneled all that residual On the Road energy into what became a lifelong writing habit, in freewheeling Kerouac fashion. “I spill it out as fast as I can,” he says. “I don’t really edit.” Just about everything that’s happened to him as an adult, from the “uninteresting” to the “wonderful,” has found its way onto paper—in stories, in poems, in journal entries. “In Brazil, recently, I wrote 70 pages,” he ticks off. “In London, 80 pages.”

He got the part when he dropped his pants: In the script, as in the novel and as Neal Cassady was in real life, Dean Moriarty is frequently nude (Kerouac wrote of Moriarty, “He came to the door stark naked and it might have been the President knocking for all he cared. He received the world in the raw”). For a scene in which Sal Paradise tells Moriarty that he’s heading south to Mexico and Moriarty responds slyly, “Hey, Sal, you know, I habla español as well,” the idea occurred to Hedlund: “Maybe I should just whip it out of the pants and say, ‘You know, I habla español as well.’” He went with it, dropping trou on stage during the audition. Afterward, according to Salles, Hedlund read some pages he’d written about “his journey from Minnesota to California—gas stations, strip bars, the solitude of the road. The text was at the same time sharp and personal and had the same jazz-infused quality that you find in Neal Cassady’s letters. He got the character’s essence. The writing was impressive, more so than dropping the pants, although the girls in the room may have argued otherwise.”

He refers to Kirsten Dunst as “my gal” and: They met on the set of On the Road, in which Dunst plays one of Moriarty’s wives, and sometime later struck up a romance after Hedlund took her out on a 3 A.M. canoe ride. “It was not a stable canoe,” he says. “We fell out and had to swim back in mucky, sh–ty water, like golf-pond water.”

GH recites some of his own poetry for Details: “Everything you ever knew seems to slowly be forgotten,” he quotes from a poem of his, an assault against the resignation of maturity that he wrote years ago in Mexico. “All the good nights are just nights, all the good mornings are just mornings, all the dots in the sky are the same dots you’ve been looking at all your life . . .”

Kristen Stewart’s Garrett story: Separating the Beat character from the Beat-inspired actor wasn’t always easy. “Every time I’d see him,” Stewart says of the years-long interim between casting and filming, when financing stalled production, “I’d be like, ‘Are you already doing it?’ He just never let up.” That “free spirit” cited by Salles manifested itself after filming, when Hedlund would “just take off walking,” Stewart says. Once, after Stewart let him lead her on an aimless 4 a.m. exploration of Montreal, she finally protested, “Dude, you don’t know where you’re going!” “But he just kept on walking,” she recalls.

[From Details]

Basically, the point of the story is that no one knows where Garrett Hedlund ends and Dean Moriarty begins. Is that because Garrett is so very Method, or is it because Garrett has adopted his free spirit attitude for his life nowadays? I think he’s a free spirit in real life, but I also think it’s probably a phase. A lot of dudes (and ladies) go through that phase. It’s called being young. It’s called your late teens and early 20s. Garrett is 28, which is kind of old for this kind of stuff, but he has a baby face, so maybe he’s pulling it off. As for his poetry… he’s not a total Franco, but it might happen. More likely, he’s more like Ethan Hawke, who is a published novelist, remember?

Photos courtesy of Details.

Garrett Hedlund covers the December/January issue of Interview magazine to promote the upcoming release of On the Road. Overall, I think Garrett is pretty hot and a fine actor who also managed to somehow star alongside Goop in Country Strong and go on to do much better things — such as this long-gestating Walter Salle’s project that will finally bring Jack Kerouac’s most revered book to the big screen and which stars Garrett as Dean Moriarty (a.k.a. Neal Cassady). If his presence in this cover article on the cusp of awards season is any indication, Garrett might ever-so-slightly be positioning himself (like co-star Kristen Stewart) “for your consideration.” Does he have what it takes? We’ll find out soon enough.

This photoshoot, however, is a mixed bag. For one thing I’m struck by the close resemblance of this shoot to Michael Fassbender’s own Interview magazine spread nearly a year ago. I mean, Garrett’s not beckoning us with only a sheet to hide his modesty, but some of the other shots have a very similar feel. However, Garrett is also looking a bit too grubby here, and I really don’t understand what’s going on in this particular photo where Garrett appears to have barbed wire shoved up his nose.

The interview itself, which was conducted by Jeff Bridges (he and Garrett lovingly refer to each other as “dad” and “son”) isn’t as captivating as the images at hand, but here are some excerpts:

Troy was his first acting gig: “Well, back in Minnesota, one of the only ways you could leave the farm was through sport. That’s why everybody in the Midwest–or at least where I grew up–is a triathlete. We all just wanted to get out. But for me, the way to get out was acting. I remember, when we moved to Arizona, I worked at a restaurant and paid a coach $60 a week to do monologues with me. I actually almost ran away from home about a year before I came to L.A. I was living in Arizona and I didn’t want to spend that last year in high school. So I ended up doubling up on credits so I could graduate a semester early in December, and then went to L.A., and then by the time the rest of my class actually graduated, I was already on set filming. So I was lucky to have followed that instinct.”

The long road to On the Road: “I remember, at first, looking it up and seeing that Francis Ford Coppola was attached to the film, and I was like, ‘Sh-t. I’ll never get a chance at this.’ But then, like, eight years later, I was on set doing it. I remember all of us kind of pinching each other and saying, ‘Man, we’re filming On the Road.’ But I think there were a number of different incarnations of what the movie was gonna be, from Jean-Luc Godard filming it, to Gus Van Sant doing it, to all these other directors who were rumored to be involved–I think Roman Coppola was even going to direct it at one point. But I think it was after Sundance, the year that Walter [Salles] was there with The Motorcycle Diaries [2004], that he was approached about possibly doing the film. So it was a long time in the making. I also think that since Walter is Brazilian, he maybe didn’t feel like he was the right person to make this movie unless he’d really absorbed it all. I mean, he’d read the book at a young age himself and was very inspired by it.”

He loved the book: “I’d read it in high school. It’s funny that I got to do On the Road because the thing that had the biggest impact on me growing up was reading books. I was very inspired by the book and this spirit of Dean Moriarty and how envious we all are of somebody who can be that carefree. I also always thought of myself as more like the Sal Paradise character–you know, being a listener and writing about a conversation more than being the one that others listened to. So it was interesting that I got to play Dean. I actually signed on to do On the Road before we started on Tron, but we were in flux for a while, just sort of playing the waiting game, trying to get the right budget and the right cast. I think I first met with Walter in March of 2007. But I told Walter that I wouldn’t do another film until we did On the Road, so I had a lot of time to do my own research–to go up to San Francisco to City Lights bookstore, to watch video interviews of Neal Cassady with Allen Ginsberg, to sit in Vesuvio [Cafe] and visit Jack Kerouac Alley, to go to the Beat Museum and things. We had time, so Walter and I also did road trips and talked to people, be it family members of some of the people who were around the Beats or other writers. But it was really just about finding something that we could add to the story beyond what was on the page, even if only from life experience. I mean, I grew up around country roads, but this was a different route that these guys took. Eventually, though, it all came to fruition.”

[From Interview Magazine]

Ultimately, you really have to like On the Road as a book to get into this interview, and I’m sort of there. I liked the book well enough, but I didn’t really grab onto it as a thing. Back when my peers were enjoying the hell out of it, I was really getting into Anne Rice novels. Hey, that was my vampire phase, and at least those weren’t sparkly vamps.

However, I am still struck by this Interview spread. It’s positively Fassbender-esque, right?

Photos courtesy of Interview magazine

These are some photos from last night’s On the Road premiere in at the AFI Fest. I guess it was a “screening” more than a premiere, but whatever. On the Road doesn’t come out for wide release until December, and I guess the studio kind of wants to build the buzz for a possible Oscar nomination for Garrett Hedlund. But who can pay attention to Hedlund when Kristen Stewart is around? Ugh. I have to say… Kristen looked like ten kinds of hell at this screening. Almost always, I have to give Kristen credit for always rocking some great makeup – usually, her makeup artist knows what they’re doing, and Kristen can pull off some very strong makeup “looks”. But this was way, way too much. She looks ghoulish and corpsey. The lipstick is too dark, the eyes are much too heavy. As for the hair… eh. Kristen’s hair stylist is hit or miss, and I think this is a miss. Maybe her Glam Squad is pissed at her?

Kristen’s outfit is Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière. The pants are… not great. I don’t get why pleated pants are making such a comeback – they weren’t flattering the first time around, and this time around it’s not “retro,” it’s just fug. And that top looks like “Wonderbra by Balenciaga”.

I’m also including some photos of Hedlund, who was remarkably clean-shaven and that’s kind of killing any biscuit-tingle on my part. Also there: Amy Adams in a too-prom-y Dolce & Gabbana. CB likes Amy’s hair, though.

Photos courtesy of Nikki Nelson/WENN.com.

Here’s some photos of Kirsten Dunst and boyfriend Garrett Hedlund strolling around while eating watermelon in New York City. They look pretty satisfied together, right? Not to mention much more believable than Kiki and Jake Gyllenhall, who dated forever ago.

Garrett’s career is heating up pretty fast these days, and he’s been floated as a possibility to fill the role of Finnick Odair in Catching Fire. To me, this possibility isn’t quite as interesting as the rumor for which Robert Pattinson fell and then was very sad about when Sparkles learned he was certainly not a possibility for the job. I’ve been wanting producers to cast Taylor Kitsch as Finnick — even though Kitsch might be considered box-office poison after the twin commercial failures of John Carter and Battleship, his presence wouldn’t impact the virtual certainty of another Hunger Games hit. Then Twilight author Stephenie Meyer seconded the motion for Kitsch in the role, but MTV reported that he wasn’t interested at all. Armie Hammer’s name has also circulated in the mix, but now the rumors are coming back to Garrett Hedlund. Lainey has the scoop on this story:

I’m told that Hedlund auditioned for the part of Finnick in Catching Fire for director Francis Lawrence about 10 days ago. It went very well. No final decisions yet but interest in Armie Hammer seems to have waned since Hammer wasn’t as enthusiastic about it as Lawrence was about him. Am told they’re still seeing people. But their priority right now isn’t so much casting as it is about getting the script in better shape.

Is that the right move for Hedlund anyway? He’s supposed to start shooting a movie called Lullaby in New York this month with Richard Jenkins and Amy Adams. Jenkins plays Hedlund’s dying father. It’s a family drama and sounds like an actor’s showcase which would likely do more for him artistically than a supporting role in The Hunger Games franchise.

[From Lainey Gossip]

So would Hedlund be great in this role, or is he just another pretty face? Whomever plays Finnick must not only be devastatingly handsome but also be able to pull off the sexiness and vulnerability of the District 4 victor. Hedlund certainly has the looks to pull it off, and this fact is fairly evident from these press photos from Cannes. He’s kind of dreamy for sure.

Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News and WENN

There are dozens of new stories about Kirsten Dunst and her new boyfriend/boy-toy, Garrett Hedlund this morning. The rumors have been around for a few months – I think Kirsten and Garrett were photographed together a few months ago, and people began assuming that they were now a couple. I wasn’t sure though – mostly because I thought Kiki was still dating Rilo Kiley’s Jason Boesel. Did we ever hear about Jason and Kiki officially breaking up? In any case, Kiki and Garrett are now a thing, everyone agrees. They’ve been spotted in Sundance, getting all loved up. Page Six refers to their “open canoodling at a packed party after the Sundance premiere of Dunst’s raunchy, dark comedy, ‘Bachelorette.’” And Kiki and Garrett were also “canoodling” at a CAA party earlier this week too. Here’s the official version from People:

They’re going public!

Kirsten Dunst wasn’t shy with the PDA with new beau Garrett Hedlund at the Sundance Film Festival. The two were kissing and hugging at a dinner for Dunst’s new movie, The Bachelorette, hosted by Joico and Simple House. The couple danced the night away with friends and fellow attendees, including Will Ferrell, who is one of the comedy’s producers, Justin Long and Rashida Jones.

According to a partygoer at the WireImage tent, where the intimate dinner for 40 guests took place, Hedlund didn’t really leave his girlfriend’s side after the two made their late arrival. They also toasted to the film together.

Adds a source: “Kirsten and Garrett have been spending time together since the holidays. They were friends on the set of On the Road, and now they’ve grown closer. They spent Christmas together and he feels very strongly about her.”

[From People]

Radar also has a story (and video) about Kiki and Garrett. Radar’s source claims that on Monday night, “They were making out all night long. They were attached at the hip the whole night and it was obvious to everyone that they were an item.” You can see Radar’s video here – the video doesn’t include any making out, but they are standing close to each other in a couple-y way.

So, what do you think of this new(ish) couple? Kiki is 29 years old and in the midst of a career resurgence after a difficult few years that involved bad career decisions and lots of alcohol (and drugs too, probably). Garrett is 27 years old, and his career is basically just starting – he’s only become an “It Boy” in the past year or two. I don’t really think they make that much sense as a couple, just because they’re in such different places in their lives. But I kind of like that Kiki isn’t dating yet another dude in a band.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame.

I’ve been calling this for a little while now: something is going on between Kristen Stewart and her On the Road costar Garrett Hedlund. Granted, I don’t know if they’re hooking up right now, but I guarantee that one or both of them wants the hookup to happen, and that the hookup WILL happen at some point. Maybe they’re just “friends” who “respect” each other and it’s not about sex. But isn’t this how Kristen played it when she was technically dating Michael Angarano, yet “hanging out, friend-style” with Robert Pattinson? Sidenote: This is why I have never bought Kristen’s “I’m just so shy and awkward” excuse for her unprofessionalism – because no girl who is truly shy and awkward plays men the way K-Stew does. The way she plays the game – that takes a ballsy, self-assured woman. K-Stew’s awkward act is just a crutch, a public persona, an excuse to be disengaged and “different.” Anyway…

Star Magazine has an interesting story about K-Stew deciding to get “revenge” on Sparkles because he’s been flirting and partying while filming in Toronto. If he has, I haven’t heard about it. But this is all the excuse K-Stew needed to spend lots of time with Garrett Hedlund:

Two can play at that game: Kristen Stewart has spent weeks worrying because her beau, Robert Pattinson, has been partying like a single guy while he’s off shooting Cosmopolis in Toronto, as Star has revealed. So she’s been making a point of having a wild time too. On June 9, she and her On the Road costar Garrett Hedlund carried on until 3 a.m. with Sienna Miller and Tom Sturridge at London’s trendy cabaret venue The Box.

Kristen was caught leaving The Roxy in Hollywood with Garrett, just days later.

“Kristen has been hanging out very publicly because she wants word to get back to Rob to make him jealous,” a source close to them tells Star. “It worked. He’s been calling a lot and asking why she’s with Garrett so much.”

Kristen and Rob even got into a big fight over her hunky new BFF, the source says.

“But she’s just happy to be sure again that Rob loves her.”

[From Star, print edition]

Who else thinks this is less about making Sparkles jealous and more about K-Stew either getting some on the side, or arranging her jumpoff, post-Sparkles? I do think Garrett and Kristen are a sexier couple, and I would love if Kristen and Sparkles broke up in the midst of this kind of scandal. But I would worry about poor Sparkles – he is “the one who loves too much” in this relationship, and he would be devastated.

Photos courtesy of WENN and Pacific Coast News.

Kristen Stewart went out last night and supported a friend and colleague, which surprised me. Director Chris Weitz (who directed Kristen in New Moon) has a new film out called A Better Life, and it premiered last night at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Kristen isn’t in the film, she didn’t produce it and it seems like she just came out to support Weitz. Nice. I’m not really sure what to make of her outfit, though. I actually think she looks very pretty – her hair color is gorgeous, and she looks great in navy, but the whole skinny-jeans-rolled-up, with high heels…? Eh. Still, I guess I should give her credit for putting in some effort and not going overboard, considering it wasn’t her premiere.

Anyway, you know that there’s a scandal! It looks like K-Stew’s beloved, Robert Pattinson, was not in attendance. He’s working on a film in Toronto, and those are the breaks. If it was just two people being in different cities, it would be a meh story. The scandalous part is who else was at the LA premiere – Kristen’s On The Road costar and friend Garrett Hedlund.

Now, Garrett has no affiliation with Chris Weitz or A Better Life. He came out merely, I think, to hang out with his “friend” Kristen. They also hung out together in London just a few weeks ago, when Kristen was separated from her beloved Sparkles. At that London event, they even posed (as much as K-Stew “poses” given her terrible posture) together:

So… the Twihards want to know: is Kristen boning Garrett behind Sparkles’ back? Or perhaps Kristen and Garrett are just friendly colleagues who like to hang out and get high together? I’d like to think Kristen and Garrett have something going on. Just because it’s more fun that way.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Oh, Swifty. Will you ever get it right? At least we can give Taylor Swift credit for trying, I suppose. Us Weekly reports this morning that Swifty and Tron: Legacy star Garrett Hedlund went on a date. Apparently, it was a “low-key dinner.” If you remember the Jake Gyllenhaal debacle, you’ll know that Swifty’s favorite weekly magazine is Us Weekly, and that she and her friends/publicity team do strategic leaks to Us Weekly fairly often. After Jake and Swifty split, Jake visited Nashville and spent the night with Swifty, all of which was excessively documented by the magazine through lots of quotes and theories about Jake’s qualities as a man. What I’m saying is that Garrett Hedlund was somehow roped into going to dinner with Swifty, and she and her team leaked this story:

Down-home date night! Taylor Swift had a low-key dinner wtih Garrett Hedlund in Nashville April 1.

“It was their first time going out,” a source tells Us Weekly of Swift’s evening with the Tron: Legacy and Country Strong star, 26, who has been in Nashville recording a CD.
“They’ve been emailing for a while, and she hinted they should get together.”

Hedlund joined his date at 8 p.m. and was back at his hotel by 12:30 a.m. Swift, 21 — who won Entertainer of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards April 3 and will continue her Speak Now tour May 27 — is taking things slowly after her fast-track romance and breakup with Jake Gyllenhaal last fall. (Back in February, she went on an L.A. date with Glee hunk Chord Overstreet.)

“She has actually spent time getting to know Garrett,” says the insider. “He’s cute — and he’s into country music! [She] likes that he’s a normal guy.”

[From Us Weekly]

I’ve read a few interviews with Garrett and I’ve noted how he presents himself publicly, and… I really hope he’s not into this. He comes across as a nice kid, but not really all that bright. Surprisingly “un-Hollywood” – he’s not out there pimping every single detail about himself and his projects, and I get the feeling he’s still got a lot to learn about the industry and how to present himself. I doubt he’s ready to start dating high-profile girls just to get in the tabloids.

Swifty, however, is completely ready to promote a new relationship. The last guy that she “dated” was that Chord dude, from Glee. So… Garrett is totally a step up from a dude named Chord. Ugh. Swifty is so predatory. Mark my words. It doesn’t matter, though. Garrett will be dumping Swifty over the phone soon enough, and then she’ll have even more material for her next album, Jakey & Garrett: Two Princess Ponies I Shall Never Ride Again.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Leighton Meester and Garrett Hedlund, both starring in critical and commercial flop Country Strong, are probably boning. So say eyewitnesses who saw Leighton and Garrett all up on each other during the Globes after-parties. Damn, I really wanted her with Anthony Mackie. Garrett just seems so… I don’t know. He doesn’t know Hollywood yet. He seems like a sweet kid, but he’s bugging me for some reason.

Country cuties! Country Strong costars Leighton Meester and Garrett Hedlund may be making their onscreen romance a reality.

Whooping it up after the Golden Globes at HBO’s party held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel’s Circa 55 eatery, Meester, 24, and Hedlund, 26, were “inseparable the entire night,” a partygoer tells UsMagazine.com exclusively.

As the duo chatted, “Garret wrapped his arm around her,” the observer says. “She wraps her arm completely around his neck and pulls him for a quick peck on the lips.”

When the pair called it a night, Hedlund was “massaging her shoulders” as they exited together.

Meester split with Gossip Girl costar Sebastian Stan last year and told Allure she wasn’t a fan of playing the field.

“I don’t see the point in dating,” the star said. “I hate it. It’s wonderful to be in love. And it’s definitely wonderful to cuddle and have sex and get to experience life with somebody. But it’s OK if you don’t find him and you’re 24. You can find it someday.”

[From Us Weekly]

Since there really isn’t anything scandalous about this, what is there to say? Two pretty, young, single actors are dating. Maybe that’s what’s bothering me – there’s a “meh” factor to this coupling.

I will say this though – if they’re boning, I bet it’s really, really hot. Okay, now I’m not feeling so “meh” about them.

Photos courtesy of WENN.