Isn’t this surprising? Out of all of the younger actresses currently working today, Michelle Williams is the one I’d least expect to see in her panties on the cover of GQ. She just doesn’t seem like that kind of actress, does she? Meaning, she seems to actively avoid putting herself out there as “sexy”. Sure, she’s selling My Week With Marilyn, in which she plays one of the most iconic sex symbols ever. But it just doesn’t feel like Michelle, does it? Go and look at GQ’s slideshow – it’s very sexy and… it makes me uncomfortable. She always so fragile, it feels like this was done against her will? Unless that fragile thing is just an act, I guess.

As for the interview – it’s pretty in-depth, and this is one of the few times where an interviewer has really plowed right into the Heath Ledger questions, especially regarding the fact that they had been separated for nearly a year before his death. The interviewer also notes at the beginning of the piece that Michelle cried a lot – so she’s still selling fragile. Fragile and “sexy”. You can read the whole GQ piece here, and here are some highlights:

It seemed crazy at first. Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe? We all knew the two-time Oscar nominee could act—but could she make us drool? America, we have our answer. And what Williams gives GQ in drop-dead gorgeous photos, she equals in insights regarding her incredibly emotional journey thus far. Correspondent Chris Heath meets with Williams in two different cities over three days, and the pair discuss everything from living on her own at age 15 to avoiding playing sexy characters (“I mean, sexuality has been a part of my work, obviously…but it’s never been sexy, it hasn’t been beautiful”) to her imagining she would end up with Heath Ledger (“It’s actually one of my favorite places to visit”).

She‘s not drawn to the darkness: “Maybe when I was in my early twenties and my late teens, I was more prone to sitting in it or lacerating myself with it,” she says. “Now I want to move out of it. I have a daughter. I want a happy life.”

On her education, and how she ended up being home-schooled (a better fit with her acting work):
Her last formal school was Santa Fe Christian in San Diego; later its principal would denounce Williams after she appeared in Brokeback Mountain. (“Michelle doesn’t represent the values of this institution,” he said. “She made the kinds of choices of which we wouldn’t approve.”) “It didn’t really bother me,” she says, when I allude to this. No twinge, I ask, when you suddenly found out that you’d been living a sinful, artistic career? “It wasn’t any surprise to me,” she says. “I knew. I remember my mother saying to me at one point, ‘Just don’t make anything your grandmother couldn’t see.’ And at that point I knew I was living a sinful artistic career, because I had done, and I knew I would do.”

Being legally emancipated at 15: When Williams legally emancipated herself from her parents at 15, she didn’t do so because of any family schism, but for the independence and the practical advantages—she says she no longer needed a tutor and could work adult hours. When I suggest that it was pretty ambitious and self-contained to think she could handle it, she agrees. “It was just stupid. I didn’t know what I was taking on,” she says. “I don’t think things through very often—I don’t project into the future about how a situation will turn out. Even the simplest things, I’m guilty of making really bad decisions a lot of the time. In my work it’s a capacity that’s served me well, but in my life it can be a problem.”

On playing a bad girl on Dawson’s Creek: “I wouldn’t say that that would be one of my first qualities as a human being—being sexy,” Williams reasons. “And I think because my character on Dawson’s Creek was sexy…sexualized…sexual…I saw all the negative attention and connotations that can come along with that. And that those things can keep people from seeing you clearly.”

On Brokeback Mountain: “I didn’t know what to make of it,” she says. “Maybe when you see something different for the first time, you don’t know how to categorize it. It doesn’t really fit with anything else. Like the first time you listen to Björk. The first time you eat sashimi.” She hasn’t seen it since. But she does know what she thinks of it now. “I think it’s a great film. And…it’s probably obvious but…” She pauses for a long time, and when she picks up the thought her voice is quieter and higher: “…well, he’s really quite astounding in it. Heath.”

How she and Heath Ledger were drawn to each other: “There’s an answer that I know,” she says, “but I don’t want to say.” She talks around this not-saying for a while, then says, “Our initial meeting, the circumstances of how we first met, were cosmic or something.” They were together through the shoot, and soon she was pregnant. “Yeah, a lot of things happened at once,” she says. “It’s a bit like: We had a lot of things to do, because we didn’t have a lot of time, or something.”

Dating after Heath’s death: She explains that a year or two ago, she was putting herself under a lot of pressure to find someone new to spend her life with, for a particular reason. “Because I really wanted, and I really expected or imagined, that Matilda would have siblings that were close to her age. I wanted that for her. But I couldn’t make that happen. And now that she’s 6 that isn’t even a possibility anymore. So something that was making me feel impatient, that’s been removed. For whatever reason, that’s not our luck, or our path.” A further thought. “You know, as hard as certain things have been for me, it’s been harder thinking about how things will be for her. I have a lot of things that she doesn’t, and some of what I have I can give to her—the memories that I have, the objects that I have, the physical reminders that I have, the stories. But she won’t really have any that are solely…” And that is where that sentence ends.

Was there a part of her that imagined she and Ledger would have somehow ended up together? “That would make me way too sad to answer,” she says quickly, and I hurriedly begin another question, about something completely different, hoping that if I say it fast enough these new words will chase the old words away from where they are hanging in the air between us, and maybe she will let me pretend that it was something I never said. “No, no,” she says, and I can see the tears forming, and I think she means that she doesn’t want to answer any more questions about anything. I mutter some kind of apology under my breath. But, even now, I’m wrong about everything. Mostly she is just trying to stop my new question. She has something to tell me. “No,” she says. “I said it would make me too sad to answer but it’s also…”—and she nods even as her voice breaks once more with tears—“…one of my favorite things to imagine.” And through the tears, a beaming, almost beatific smile stretches room-wide across her face. “It’s actually one of my favorite places to visit.”

[From GQ]

There’s a lot of other stuff in the article in which Michelle’s hipster passport is stamped repeatedly but I found that stuff boring. But, several things struck me about the way Michelle deftly handled the questions about Heath: first, she’s re-imagined him, and she’s still in love with the memory she’s conjured of him, which may or may not be the reality of who he really was. Secondly, she doesn’t want to discuss the idea that both of them had moved on to other partners (in Heath’s case, multiple partners) after their split in 2007. She’s claimed ownership of Heath’s last years that way, for better or for worse.

Photos courtesy of Michael Thompson/GQ, GQ’s slideshow.

Heath Ledger’s death in 2008 was a tragedy. It was a tragedy because the world lost a brilliant, talented, amazing actor who still had decades of performances left. It was a tragedy because a young girl lost her father, because Heath’s parents lost their son, because Heath lived a big life with a lot of friends, and his absence is still felt in their lives too.

Heath’s death was also a tragedy because now every random chick that he had a one night stand with thinks that she was his last great love. Let’s take Lindsay Lohan – LL has forced this postmortem connection to Heath for several years now. Evidence suggests that Heath and Lindsay did know each other in the months before his death. I will even guess that they had a sexual or romantic relationship, however brief. What I will not EVER believe is that LL and Heath had some great love affair, or that he wasn’t spending time with several different women before his death. But in Linnocent’s mind, Heath was her Joe DiMaggio (because she’s Marilyn Monroe).

Many mysteries still surround Heath Ledger’s 2008 death but a personal diary that Lindsay Lohan kept holds deep-rooted secrets, Star magazine is exclusively reporting via RadarOnline.com.

In a world exclusive, Star has obtained the private memoir of the 25-year-old actress penned at the time of the Brokeback Mountain star’s death in which she professed her love for the actor.

“Today Heath died,” Lindsay wrote with a pink pen on January 22, 2008. “I’m in love with him…. He was the love of my life. He taught me so much, and he was everything I’ve ever wanted and more.

“I want to hear him laugh and hold me. I crave his touch and care.”

The couple were so close that the Mean Girls star was even planning to visit Ledger in New York City just days after he died from an overdose of prescription drugs, Star exclusively reveals in the new issue.

Lindsay, who has famously battled her own demons with drugs and drink, broke down in tears when she heard the news that Heath had died. “When a person dies the world stops. I’m numb,” she wrote.

In a 2008 phone conversation obtained by RadarOnline.com, Lohan’s mom, Dina, told dad Michael that their daughter was “dating Heath when he died.”

[From Radar]

Yes, in taped conversations between Michael and Dina Lohan – in which they were both battling for Worst Parent of the Century – Dina did claim that LL was “dating” Heath before he died. But that’s second-hand information from a crackhead to another crackhead. There’s also the matter of how Radar/Star got their hands on “Lindsay’s Diary”. Is the crackie selling off her diaries now? Or is Dina selling off LL’s stuff in a cracked-out “fire sale”?

Photos courtesy of WENN.

These are some new photos of Naomi Watts last night at the opening of that new ballet – the one Paul McCartney wrote the music for. I really, really love Naomi’s “suit”. All too often, when women do the white-suit thing, I think they look a bit Tom Wolfe-ish. But this is just the right balance – great white pants, and this awesome little vest. It’s sexy, it’s sophisticated, it’s smart, it’s appropriate. Lovely. The only thing I dislike is how buddy-buddy she seems with Jessica Seinfeld. WTF?

In other Naomi news, she covers the new issue of More Magazine, and in the interview, she discusses her relationship with Heath Ledger. They dated for several years, circa 2002-2004. Then he got with Michelle Williams right after Naomi. Naomi has discussed Heath before – notably, in a Parade interview in 2009 – but she’s not trotting out his corpse for every interview, which I appreciate.

Naomi Watts has opened up about her ex Heath Ledger saying the late actor was a ‘very special soul’ who ‘made a great impact on my life.’ The 43-year-old actress – who is currently promoting her movies Dream House and J Edgar – dated the Australian star for nearly two years. Their relationship ended in 2004 and he died four years later at the age of 28. Although they were dating different people at the time of his death Watts has fond memories of the Brokeback Mountain star.

‘Good times,’ Watts tells America’s More magazine when asked about Ledger. ‘We had a beautiful relationship, only a couple of years, but he was a man who was completely full of joy, and there was a lot of laughing and affection. He was really a very special soul and made a great impact on my life. And a great actor, but I know there was so much more to come. And it’s such a tragedy for his little daughter.’

Ledger went on to date actress Michelle Williams, with whom he had a child, Matilda who turns six in October. Ironically, Watts – who has two sons with her boyfriend Liev Schreiber – lost her father when she was just seven.

Peter Watts was a sound engineer and road manager for rock group Pink Floyd. He died when she was a little girl and seven years later the actress moved from the UK where she was born to live in Australia with her mum, stepfather and brother.

Asked how the death of her father impacted her life, Watts is at first cagey, saying: ‘I don’t talk about him.’

According to the reporter she later says in an e-mail: ‘It’s too personal. Forgive me…’

But Watts eventually comments in another e-mail sent two weeks after the original interview.

She wrote: ‘Not knowing my father always made me feel like a piece of myself was missing or unknown. Not reachable. And growing up, there was this wondering what he would think of me or what I would think of him.’

Now the mother of two sons – Alexander, four, and Samuel, two – Watts is very clear about the legacy she wants to leave her children.

‘I want them to feel connected to me and me to them,’ she says. ‘Always. I want them, above all, to feel sure of who they are. That they are safe in the world and confident and happy people. And of course, connected – to their parents, their friends, their family, the world and themselves. This is the most important goal/dream in my life. Everything else is gravy.’

Aside from talking about her personal life, Watts also reveals that she has a ‘bawdy’ sense of humour.

‘Bawdy’ is apparently the word that actress Nicole Kidman used to describe her friend’s sense of fun.

Watts agrees, saying: ‘I do, I do. And it’s definitely heightened when I’m in the company of Australian women and a drink.’

[From The Mail]

I think Naomi was as classy as she could be. It would have been too hyper-dramatic for her to act all, “OH, I cannot discuss my great love Heath Ledger.” At the time of his death, they had both moved on and started families with other people, but for a time there, they were a surprisingly strong couple. I think she discussed Heath with a lot of maturity, and… I have to just say it and just get yelled at… I think Michelle Williams should take note of the way Naomi handled it. I get tired of how Michelle has actively allowed Heath’s death to define her. She (STILL) acts like they were still together when he died, and like she’s The Widow Ledger. Maybe that just bugs me, and I’m a raging bitch. But at the time of Heath’s death, he was spending his nights with Lohans and Olsens, and Michelle was rumored to have other lovers too.

Photos courtesy of Fame.

Last week, Nightline aired an interview with Michelle Williams in which she shared the very personal information about how she coped when her daughter’s father, Heath Ledger, passed away from a drug interaction in early 2008. She explained that she kept thinking she’d see him again, and that she was sad once reality set in and she realized the finality of his death.

“In a strange way, I miss that year, because all those possibilities that existed then are gone. It didn’t seem unlikely to me that he could walk through a door or could appear behind a bush. It was a year of very magical thinking, and in some ways I’m sad to be moving further and further away from it.”

Only Williams isn’t happy with Nightline for excerpting those comments and using them to promote her interview. In an interview with The Daily Beast she explained that her comments were taken out of context:

Just recently I felt as if I did cross a line about all this. Yet if I’m going to do interviews and be in this world, I don’t want to seem as if I’m just taking a party line. I want to say something that is representative of who I am and what I’m thinking about and what matters to me in the same ways that I want to do that in my work because my work and my life do feed off each other. The two do go together. But when it comes to interviews, it all becomes rather tricky because I don’t want to say something without resonance but then I don’t want to go too far. I just had an experience with Nightline that got edited in such a way that seemed as if I did go too far. It was a three-hour interview that was edited in such a way that was devastating to me. I mean, I am still such the-good-girl. I want everybody to like me. I want everybody to be happy. I want to please people. So that desire in the moment overrode that “me” that is on top of myself, that “me” that is on top of a situation. Then they used those few quotes and the way they edited the piece to sell the interview, and it appeared as if I were breaking some kind of silence and sitting down with the express purpose to discuss something that is very private to me. So then I withdraw and I say, “OK, this subject is off limits if it is going to be convoluted and re-contextualized. I will close myself off as a torn paper might seal up its side or a streak of water stitch itself to silk.*” But then I sit down with you and feel compelled to talk about it. So it is a struggle.

[From The Daily Beast via Huffington Post]

There’s a very predictable formula to reporting celebrity interviews, and it involves taking the most sensational or revealing quotes and making them the center of the story. I’m not saying it’s fair at all, just that I’ve seen and done it for years and it seems like common knowledge to me. People don’t want to read or watch long interviews, they want to get the bullet points and move on.

When Yahoo’s OMG reported this story, they suggested that anyone would go “with the most compelling stuff first,” but their commenters took offense at that. I don’t know how Nightline promoted this interview, like whether they made it seem so sad or ominous, but the fact is that she did say those things. Michelle is a gentle, sensitive soul and she reveals in that Daily Beast interview that she loves to read and has found solace in poetry. If there are parts of her life or her grief that she doesn’t want to be sensationalized, she should try to keep them to herself in interviews. Agree or disagree, this is way the media works and an actress can learn to censor herself, even when she’s talking to someone for a few hours.

*The references Michelle makes to torn paper and streaks of water are from a poem about grief that she read at the beginning of the interview. It was from a book of poems that the journalist gave her called “The Pruned Tree” by Robert Moss.

Photos are from 12/13 and 12/7/10, credit: WENN.com and Fame Pictures

When CB and I first saw the thumbnail of Jake Gyllenhaal’s May GQ cover, we were sort of overcome by how orange he looked. Now that we’ve seen the cover a bit closer, he only looks severely man-tanned, but not as orange as from a distance. Anyway, Jake is gearing up to promote the hell out of The Prince of Persia, the film in which he has a distractingly bad English (?) accent. The full interview hasn’t come online, but here are some highlights:

Jake Gyllenhaal has already proven his versatility by starring in films such as Brokeback Mountain and Jarhead. Now he stars in the upcoming Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, taking on his first action role and solidifying his status as a superstar. In an interview with GQ correspondent Chris Heath, Gyllenhaal opens up about his relationship with Heath Ledger, his parents’ recent divorce (“I think it takes a lot of courage for my parents to make the decision that they made”), and his love for his family. As for his own life, Gyllenhaal explains, “I’m trying not to keep things so neat. I think I’m realizing my strengths and my faults. I think I’m trying to see what is me…and what is not me.”

Jake Gyllenhaal on working with Heath Ledger: “He was very sensitive. He didn’t always have a sense of performance in his everyday life. He knew who he was. I think actors very often, they know how to present something, and that’s part of their job. I think he was just really sensitive. We often used to do a lot of things together, because people were very interested in him and I think we felt safe together.”

…on how Ledger’s death affected him:“Even when we did Brokeback and stuff, it was like my work was the only thing that mattered to me. It was like I could only understand or define myself through doing that. Life, I didn’t totally understand. And I think I was afraid of life. And I had success in my work, enough success that you could keep going back there. But after that happened…I think I recognized that it was work. And I recognized that this is for real.”

[From GQ Magazine]

Poor Jake. He still gets asked constantly about Heath, which is so weird to me. I get that they were friends and Jake was devastated and heartbroken, but it’s not like Jake doesn’t have a ton of other sh-t going on, you know? He’s made a ton of movies, he’s one of the best actors of his generation, he dates high-profile celebrity women… you’d think interviewers would stop bringing up Heath. Or Jake would find a better way to answer those questions without dragging Heath’s death into every interview.

Anyway… here are a few more photos from the shoot. I think the concept behind it was “dude with a man-tan hangs out in New York”. Fascinating.

GQ photos courtesy of GQ online.

In what now seems like a daily occurrence, Michael Lohan has released yet another tape of Dina Lohan talking about how screwed up their daughter is. Previously, we heard Dina telling Michael that Lindsay needed to go to rehab, and that Lindsay was drinking and taking Adderall. Today’s release is in the same vein – but Dina releases some information that had only been hinted out previously. According to Dina (who, for the record, was most likely being taped by Michael without her knowledge), Lindsay was dating Heath Ledger at the time of Heath’s accidental overdose. This, according to Dina, “f-cked her up” and Dina is afraid that Lindsay will overdose much in the same way Heath did. You can hear the tape at Radar here, and here’s Radar’s report:

In a shocking revelation, Dina Lohan drops the bombshell that her daughter Lindsay was secretly dating Heath Ledger when he died and his death devastated her. In the explosive recorded audio tape of a phone conversation between Dina and Michael Lohan, Dina says that Ledger and Lindsay had been dating at the time of his tragic death in January of 2008.

“And she was dating Heath when he died,” Dina reveals to Michael. “I don’t know if you know that, but I know cause I would drop her off and they were friends very, very close, ok?”

Dina told Michael about the relationship because she was afraid for Lindsay’s life too: “Because when she’s drunk or takes an Adderall with it she will do something like Heath Ledger did in a second without thinking.”

She said that the actor’s death was a terrible shock to Lindsay. “That f—-d her up,” Dina says.

In the 2008 call, Dina discusses how desperate the situation was for her daughter. “She cannot be alone,” Dina tells Michael. “When she sleeps here she sleeps with me… she has fears from being little and what you did to us.”

Dina and Michael’s nasty divorce has been something Lindsay has said had a negative affect on her life. Dina defends Lindsay’s assistant Jenni Muro, telling Michael that Muro was going to save Lindsay.

In the calm but passionate conversation Dina told Michael that Lindsay needed someone with her at all times to control her, and her assistant Muro provided that help as did another assistant named Laurie.

Lindsay’s mother was also worried about her relationship with Samantha Ronson, telling Michael that she thought Lindsay should walk away but it wasn’t that easy of a decision for her daughter. “It’s very easy for a rational person to say. But for an irrational person who has a problem with her DNA and alcohol and Adderall and asthma and every other things she’s got wrong with her.”

[From Radar]

The Heath and Lindsay rumors have been around since before his death, honestly. I remember hearing about Heath and Lindsay partying together shortly before his death, I remember Lindsay talking about Heath in cryptic terms immediately after his death. Michael has even said that he fears Lindsay will die “like her close friend Heath Ledger.” So, would it be a huge surprise to learn that Heath and Lindsay were probably sleeping together? Not really. Although I think at that point in his life, Heath had several girlfriends, you know? Honestly, the quote I found more interesting was this one: “When she sleeps here she sleeps with me… she has fears from being little and what you did to us.” Uh… Dina, if Michael is such an abusive son of a bitch (which I’ll buy), then why are you spilling all to him over the phone?

Here’s Lindsay Lohan at Katsuya restaurant in West Hollywood, California on November 9, 2009 “with what seems to be mixed emotions about the shutterbugs… Lindsay after a few steps gave in and smiled for the cameras.” Credit: FAME.

Winona Ryder finds herself in a strange position in Hollywood. Once one of the most in-demand actresses, the 38-year-old finds herself taking what amounts to odd jobs in independent films and the occasional studio picture. She’s not a lead actress anymore, but I’m not sure she even wants to be. My full disclosure is that I once loved Winona with a passion. At one point in my teenage years, Winona was my favorite actress, the woman whose pixie-like beauty and killer body I wished was mine. I grew out of it – but I still have problems seeing Winona as the screwed up person she most likely was and is.

To promote her supporting role in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (also starring Robin Wright Penn, Alan Arkin and Blake Lively), Winona sat down for a cover interview with Blackbook Magazine (full interview here). I don’t think the cover shot or the rest of the photo shoot are anything spectacular, honestly. Her shag haircut is cute, but she looks a little like a deflated Robert Smith (from The Cure) in some of these pictures. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Winona on whether she‘s an icon: “What makes someone an icon? Is Nelson Mandela an icon? Is Václav Havel an icon? Is the alien from Alien: Resurrection an icon? I don’t know what the requirements are… I would never consider myself anything like that.”

Winona on rarely giving interviews: “It’s weird, the whole concept of an interview. To hold someone accountable for what they’ve said or done when they were younger is bizarre. We evolve, we change—at least I hope we do.”

Winona on her rare forays to public events: “I hosted a benefit for this theater company one night with Courtney Love. We got photographed on the way in. It was kind of a nightmare.”

Winona‘s TMI on her Aunt Flo: “I’ve just been told that news will break next week that I’m pregnant,” she says laughing, “which is impossible.” And just to make sure she has been understood, Ryder adds, “Because, you know, I’m on my… ” Her left hand circles the air just south of her phantom baby bump.

On Heath Ledger’s death: When discussing the death of her friend, actor Heath Ledger, she wonders, “What happens to you when you die? Does your energy dissipate? Is there something whole about your soul that keeps going?”

On separating art from the artist: “I was once published under a different name for a short story I’d written,” she says, so shy that it becomes difficult to hear her. “I wanted to know what it felt like to have people enjoy something and not know it had anything to do with me.” But wouldn’t the recognition validate the work? “Well, I can’t listen to Wagner because he hated Jews. I can’t read Émile Zola—I mean, I love Émile Zola, but he had some scandals that were kind of scary—and I worship Woody Allen, but he had his thing, too. I struggle with the age-old question of how to separate the art from the artist.”

On her 4-year relationship with Johnny Depp: “Things changed for me when I met Johnny… This weird thing happens when you’re written about in magazines, where you start to think, This is who I am. This is how I have to be. I felt restricted and pressured into being the way people perceived me. It was hard for me to find my footing. The Johnny thing made me really afraid of the press because, even though it was about him, I was beside him the entire time.”

On getting along with her exes, Johnny and Matt Damon: “Matt Damon couldn’t be a greater, nicer guy. I’m really lucky that I’m on good terms with him. With Johnny, it’s like we’re good, but we lead very different lives. I was out at a bar with a friend who said, ‘Do you realize that in America you’re never going to be able to meet a guy who knows nothing about you? Everyone will have preconceived ideas about who you are.’ I got so bummed out. I’d never really thought about it that way.”

On her 1990 stay at a psychiatric facility: “I remember waking up one morning,” she says of her breaking point. “I looked in the mirror and thought, Am I going crazy? So I checked myself into a hospital where I stayed for a few days. I was surrounded by people who had been molested and abused. I felt like they hated me, didn’t know what the f-ck I was doing there and wanted me to get the hell out because what the f-ck did I have to complain about?” A smile builds across her face when she adds, “When it was my turn to talk in group therapy sessions, I was like, I’m just really tired because it’s hard to be famous.”

On Angelina Jolie winning an Oscar for Girl, Interrupted: “I never had any bad feelings about Angelina. And I was hurt that people thought that. Everyone assumed I was really jealous because I thought this would be my vehicle. We said from the very beginning that the actress who played Lisa would probably win an Oscar, because it was the big, great, showy part. But I always related to Susanna.” In a way, Ryder was responsible for jump-starting Jolie’s career. “I fought very hard for her to have that part, and I never really felt like I got the chance to know her.” Did Jolie ever personally thank her? “I feel like it won’t read in print very nicely if I say that wasn’t really her style,” she says. “But she seems to be a completely different person now.”

Winona on her career prospects: “One of the worst things you can be is mediocre,” she says. “I get offered a lot of studio things—you wouldn’t believe some of the stuff I turn down that then gets packaged with two movie stars. I’m getting a lot of horror movie offers, too, but I just don’t like the ones where you have to cut off your own arm to escape the killer. Or,” and here she imitates the nicotine-soaked baritone that plays over trailers for budget slashers, “What if people did horrific things to your daughter and then they were trapped inside your house?”

[From Blackbook Magazine]

Winona talks quite a bit about The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, but I found that part of the interview rather boring. Winona refuses to talk about her 2001 shoplifting arrest and all of that drama, but she doesn’t do it a nasty way, so I give her credit for being able to keep her junk together and still be relatively classy about the incident. All in all, I found myself liking Winona again… well, maybe I just find her interesting. I love how she has no problems talking about her exes in interviews, when they never talk about her. Oh, Winona… you’re crazy, but I’ll still watch your old movies and love you. Heathers 4 Eva.

Blackbook images via CoverAwards

Michael Lohan has taken his “Lindsay Lohan is an addict, now pay attention to me” tour to the British press. In a new interview in Grazia (story via NYDN), Michael says that Lindsay could be “dead in a year…It could be a year, a month, a week – who knows? She has a plethora of medicine you can’t mix and can’t drink with.” Michael goes on: “She needs long-term rehab. I fear the worst. Look at Elvis, Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger – who was a close friend of hers.” Ah, yes. Because he cares about his daughter’s health so much, he still wants to make sure that her “death” is mentioned in the same breath as Heath Ledger’s. Because that’s not cheap, disgusting or tawdry at all. This family is so gross.

Meanwhile, Monday night Lindsay gave Radar an interview about her plans for the future. Of course, they’re not long-term plans, because we know Lindsay and her “allergies” don’t make long-term plans. Lindsay’s plan is for the next few weeks – she’s going to visit India. As part of a BBC documentary team making a film about child trafficking. Maybe the BBC is just going to see if Lindsay is going to bring 15-year-old Ali and accidentally “traffic” her for some “allergy medicine”:

Lindsay Lohan is committed to turning over a new leaf. The actress recently revealed that she will be headed to India on a charity trip.

“I’m going to India. Actually before Thanksgiving hopefully,” Lohan said at the Rock the Kasbah event in Los Angeles on Monday night. Though her mother Dina is nervous about the international jaunt, Lohan is set on going: “I think it’s important to have a voice when you have one.” She also revealed that she will be part of a BBC documentary about child trafficking in India.

Lindsay is going on the trip with Interface which is an organization that aims to leverage the power of business and celebrity for the benefit of high-impact charities.

“Lindsay has been a great supporter of Interface,” founder Scott Lazerson told RadarOnline.com exclusively. “Next week we’re working on the launch of the My Bag Equals campaign. Lindsay’s donation of a Chanel bag equals feeding 1, 000 families.”

[From Radar]

Poor India. Seriously, those Indians aren’t going to know what hit them when Hurricane Crackhead comes to town. They’ll be wishing Jessica Simpson and her BFF Ken Paves were still around. And what in God’s name is happening at the BBC? What cracked-out producer thought it would be a good idea to have Lindsay be a part of a project about such a serious subject?

Lindsay is shown leaving the Staples Center after watching the LA Lakers play the Clippers 10/27/09. Credit: WENN.com

The New York Times had to run a correction about Sienna Miller’s sexual history! They ran a profile of Sienna last week as part of her promotion of After Miss Julie (the Broadway play costarring hottie Jonny Lee Miller) in which some poor journalist was trying to list all of Sienna’s real or tabloid-fictionalized lovers. The NYT originally listed Heath Ledger and Sean Combs in the article, after which the NYT offered a formal correction, and the names were then taken out of in the digital record of the article. Here’s the Huffington Post’s summary:

Sienna Miller is the subject of a profile in the New York Times this weekend, but the paper initially reported that Miller was more promiscuous than the reality.

Miller, who is currently appearing in “After Miss Julie” on Broadway, has had a high-profile love life, first gaining massive tabloid attention when then-fiance Jude Law cheated on her with his children’s nanny.

The Times profile now begins with these two sentences: “”SERIAL MILLER” is what the London tabloids like to call the 27-year-old actress Sienna Miller, in honor of her long and well-documented romantic history. Her flings have included Jude Law, Daniel Craig, James Franco and most recently the married oil heir Balthazar Getty, with whom she was photographed topless and in a sailor hat.”

And this is the correction running at the end of the article: “Correction: October 17, 2009. An article on Page 4 this weekend about Sienna Miller misstates the nature of the relationships that she had with Heath Ledger and Sean Combs. She was friends with both of them; she did not have romantic flings with either of them.”

She costarred with Ledger in 2005′s “Casanova,” and yes, the Times called her engagement to Jude Law a fling.

[From the Huffington Post]

Here’s the thing – I don’t think Sienna hooked with Ledger or Combs, but I also don’t think she hooked up with Daniel Craig (who had a girlfriend – the same one he has now – when those hookup rumors were going around in 2005) or with James Franco. Sienna’s rep even denied the James Franco rumor when it first started in 2006. I think Sienna’s rep must have demanded a correction for Heath and Puffy, but they didn’t demand a correction on Daniel or James. Probably because those guys are hot, and it helps Sienna to be mentioned with a hot unmarried guy. I guess the NYT (and Sienna’s publicity team) didn’t want to note that Sienna has actually had romances with Rhys Ifans, “Slinky Wizard” and Rupert Friend, probably because those aren’t names that can help her career.

Regardless of the hookup mix up, the NYT piece has a couple of interesting quotes from Sienna, although she sounds like the same self-absorbed girl with the same ridiculous excuses for carrying on a nearly two-year public affair with a very married Balthazar Getty: “I think I underestimated the way people bracket you…I thought I could wear what I wanted and be an actress and live my life in a certain way, and it would all be all right.” Sienna also thinks that she doesn‘t have very good media skills: “I feel we live in the kind of culture now where you have to be very smart to navigate the right way, and I just don’t have those smarts. I think with age and time it will change, but I can’t obsess about it.” Yeah, that was the problem, Sienna. “Navigating” the media. But don’t “obsess” about it. Don’t bother learning anything from the experience, okay?

Sienna Miller is shown outside the Late Show on 10/13/09. Credit: Diane Cohen/Fame Pictures

Late actor and posthumous Academy Award-winner Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose while filming “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,” a dark sci-fi fantasy directed by Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam. The film was in limbo after Ledger’s death; Gilliam wasn’t even sure if he wanted to continue the shoot with Ledger gone. But Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell stepped into the project out of respect for their friend, and the film was completed. At long last, “The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus” is now out in limited release, with a premiere party held in London last night.

TRAGIC actor HEATH LEDGER’s last film performance premiered in London tonight.

Ledger died one-third of the way through filming fantasy epic The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus from an accidental overdose.

The movie was saved after JUDE LAW, JOHNNY DEPP and COLIN FARRELL stepped in to play various incarnations of his character.

However, the replacement Hollywood actors were noticably absent from the red carpet allowing the film’s other stars including LILY COLE, VERNE TROYER, and TOM WAITS to enjoy the limelight.

Celeb guests PALOMA FAITH, LA TOYA JACKSON and JOANNA PAGE enjoyed the VIP viewing of the film in Leicester Square.

[From The Sun]

So far, the reviews are mixed, with some praising the movie’s “weird, pulled-from-a-dream art design,” while others found it to be “a huge disappointment for any fan of Terry Gilliam’s work. One reviewer pointed out that for better or worse, the final screen performance by Ledger shouldn’t go unnoticed.

The latest film from Terry Gilliam came close to being shut down outright after Ledger’s untimely death from an accidental overdose. But with some clever script changes, and with the help of Ledger’s peers, production on the film proceeded.

Eighteen months later, we’re finally able to see the final performance from the brilliant young Ledger.

As with The Dark Knight, in which Ledger created a chilling Joker, his performance in Imaginarium original and convincing. He seems at ease in the role of Tony, a charming and charmed charlatan on the run.

[From CinemaSpy.com]

You can see the trailer below. I thought it looked intriguing, but I’m also a big fan of most of Gilliam’s previous films, especially “Brazil,” “12 Monkeys” and “The Fisher King.” His wild visuals and non-linear plots aren’t for everyone – and that’s probably what drew Heath Ledger to the film in the first place. It will be interesting to see if the public checks the movie out based on his draw alone.

Photos are stills thanks to AllMoviePhoto, and of Lilly Cole, Verne Troyer and Terry Gilliam at the UK premiere on 10/6/09. Credit: WENN.com