Jeff Bridges has been married to his wife Susan Geston for 34 years. They have three daughters: Isabelle, 30, Jessica, 28, and Hayley, 25, and just welcomed their first granddaughter earlier this year. So when Jeff Bridges gives marital advice he knows what he’s talking about and he lives it every day. This is a faithful man who has only been married once to the same good woman and who also happens to be a Hollywood legend.

Last year I covered a really nice piece on Jeff in which he compared working through marital problems to exercising. (That story has more background on how he met his wife and proposed too.) In a new interview with Life Goes Strong, Bridges gives some more advice for having a healthy relationship for the long haul. I imagine him saying this in that awesome voice of his and my heart just melts a little. He also reveals that all the clothes he wore in the Big Lebowski were his and that he still has some of them!

On his low-key attitude
“I think my casual style came from being with my father Lloyd Bridges. I’m a second-generation actor. I saw my father go through all the fame.

“My Dad loved show biz and all the different aspects of it, but he wasn’t a Hollywood type of guy dressing up and going to all the parties.”

“I take my cue from him when it comes to running my life,” he says. “I don’t go around all dressed up with a bunch of bodyguards going, ‘Look at me. I’m a movie star!’”

“I’m just Jeff,” he says.

What he’s kept from his films
“I did this animated movie called ‘Surf’s Up’ and they gave me a stuffed penguin with a remote control. I push the buttons and the penguin farts,” Bridges says. “That’s in my office. A farting penguin! I also have the helmet from ‘Tron’ and all those clothes from ‘The Big Lebowski.’”

OK, here’s the big style reveal.

“They were mine in the first place,” he says, laughing. “I think they’re somewhere in the laundry hamper in my house right now.”

You can call him “The Dude” anytime
“Hey, I never get tired of being called The Dude because it reminds me of one of my favorite films of all time and working with the great Coen brothers,” he says. “They make it look so easy like you’re just there and falling off a log. But it’s really their mastery that’s behind the art.”

He loves to surf
“I’m really into surfing,” he says. “I surfed all the time when I was young and then I went through 25 years where I didn’t do it at all.

“It’s never too late,” he says. “You can start something again at any age. Five years ago, I picked up a board and headed for the ocean.

“It’s just the greatest thing on earth,” he says. “All I can say about surfing is you get out there in the ocean and it’s the most relaxing moments. It doesn’t even matter if you do it well. Just being out there makes the rest of the world just melt away.”

Jeff’s marital advice
“You just have to be in love. He’s your guy. You’re his girl. You need to be best friends and really think of each other as the other half and take advantage of that fact,” he says. “You need to love each other and share your feelings.”

“Give each other what you want to be given including space to be with your own person. Also, don’t try to mold each other into someone else,” he says. “That goes for the men, too. Don’t try to change the ladies.”

“Oh, I have one more bit of marital advice,” he says, chuckling. “Lots and lots of good love making.”

[From Life Goes Strong]

Jeff Bridges is just a great guy and he’s naturally cool as hell, he’s not trying to be something he’s not and he’s not all flash and talk. He has a new album out, Be Here Soon, which has a kind of country style, similar to his character in Crazy Heart.

Oh I should talk about the sex thing. I’m not naming names, but I know a couple that has been together longer than that and has sex more than I would have imagined. Like my mouth was hanging open when I heard how much. It’s surprising to me how much some older married couples are still hot for each other, I find that really heartening.

These photos are from 2009, 2010 and 2011. Credit: WENN.com

I love these pictures so much. Over the weekend I went to my 20th high school reunion and it was a blast. It was just so much fun that I want to go to reunions for just about everything I was ever involved with. Even the people I barely remembered were awesome after 20 years. So that’s what these photos of some of the castmembers of one of the ultimate guy movies (for my generation), 1998′s Big Lebowski, remind me of.

I was so enthralled by the awesome camaraderie of the cast members that were there that I almost overlooked Julianne Moore’s giant bow dress. That Jason Wu dress is ridiculous and reminds me of a clown bow tie, but like the beaming child in this novelty tie, Julianne is just so thrilled that I almost didn’t notice how ridiculous she looked.

As far as the other castmembers, I’m so happy to see The Dude Jeff Bridges, who currently has an album out, his first called Be Here Soon, with which he collaborated with T. Bone Burnett! Bridges says that people who say the album is of “Bad Blake” songs (his character in Crazy Heart), are “50% correct” and that some of the songs were meant for Crazy Heart but couldn’t make it into the movie. T-Bone Burnett also oversaw music for Big Lebowski, and he’s the tall guy in some of the group photos here. You can watch Jeff perform on the Today Show here. He’s so awesome.

Noticeably absent were Steve Buscemi and (maybe) Tara Reid, although Reid was in it for a hot second, am I wrong?

This picture of John Goodman hugging Jeff Bridges is amazing.

I don’t know how I feel about Moore’s shoes.

Update: Steve Buscemi was there, yay! We just don’t have a photo of him there, but Lainey does.

photo credit: WENN.com

This story comes from Mike Walker in the National Enquirer. Walker regularly runs celebrity hero stories that seem implausible and too good to be true. I know this and I’ve read his column for years, but I still got choked up hearing this story about how Jeff Bridges allegedly collected food after the Golden Globes and handed it out to homeless people afterwards. Somehow only Walker has this story, which again could be fan fiction. It’s still really touching and sounds like something Bridges would do.

After attending the Golden Globes, Jeff raised eyebrows when he raided tables and the kitchen area for food, stuffing several bags with cold cuts, bread, cookies, cakes, cheeses, crackers and an array of leftover gourmet meals. Jeff’s assistants humped the mini-deli of yummies out to his limo while he exited via the red carpet and signed autographs for clamoring fans. Said my source “When Jeff finally got into the limo, he directed his chauffeur to a freeway underpass on the outskirts of L.A. When they pulled up, Jeff hopped out, waved a band of about a dozen homeless people over to the car – then started handing out the bags of food. After chatting a while, the star – who’s actually made several trips to the same underpass, passing out warm bedding and clothing as well as food – got back in his limo and took off as the homeless people applauded and cheered!”

[From National Enquirer, print edition, Mike Walker's column, March 28, 2011]

I like to think that Bridges has a soft spot for the homeless, that he took time out on the night of the Globes to deliver food, and that he’s been quietly doing charity work without telling anyone for years. That would be the Bridges we know and love, the nice guy who doesn’t seek publicity for his good deeds.

Jeff Bridges is shown at a True Grit photocall on 2/10/11. Credit: Fame Pictures

Over the weekend, CB and I actually met up (in the flesh!) and went to see True Grit. She’s a Matt Damon-aholic, and I’m a big fan of the Coen Brothers, so it seemed like an obvious pick. We both enjoyed the film – although I’m not sure how it fits into the pantheon of Coen Brothers films. Does it out-rate The Big Lebowski? Fargo? No Country For Old Men? Raising Arizona? Not really. It had a surprising amount of dark humor, and the acting and story were first-class… but I’m slightly unconvinced that this one will be considered one of their best. It seems more like the Coen Brothers wanting to make an old-fashioned western with Jeff Bridges, and they just accidentally made a good, crowd-pleasing movie.

The basic story (with no spoilers): Hailee Steinfeld’s character (Mattie Ross) hires US Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to track down her father’s murderer. Matt Damon plays the Texas Ranger who is hunting the same murderer, but for a different crime. Hailee and Jeff are the two leads of the film – Matt’s character is a true supporting player, and Josh Brolin plays the killer, and I was surprised with how small Brolin’s part was. Anyway, the story is basically about the journey of Rooster and Mattie to find the killer. Mattie is all of 14 years old – and she’s smart, sassy, tough and precocious as all hell. To be honest, she stole nearly every scene she was in, which is remarkable considering both Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges were basically playing hilariously cartoonish buffoons to varying degrees. Mattie is the emotional heart of the film, and she has wonderful chemistry with both of her leading men.

Things I loved about the film: Hailee Steinfeld’s film debut performance is a total knockout – she deserves every nomination she’s getting. I loved that they got an actual kid to play the kid, and I love that she doesn’t come across like she’s 14-going-on-40. I also loved Matt Damon, who is a great and confident enough actor to play second-fiddle to Hailee and Jeff Bridges. Late in the film, there’s a brief scene between Hailee and Matt where they are just speaking to each other and… it was my favorite scene of the film. Sigh… I would never take Matt away from CB, but I do love him too.

Things that I wasn’t crazy about: I love some Jeff Bridges, but I lost chunks of his dialogue because of the crazy voice he was doing. Maybe Jeff decided to do his voice like that so that people would come and see the movie for a second and third time just to understand what the hell he was saying. I also thought Josh Brolin was underutilized – but that’s probably because I really like him as an actor, and I always want to see more of him. Barry Pepper also had a small part in the film, and he too was underutilized. Also – and I’m really not saying this as a spoiler, but: I wanted a different resolution. I wanted a different ending. I didn’t hate the ending, I just thought it was going to end differently.

So… would I recommend True Grit? Of course. My favorite film of the year is still The King’s Speech, but don’t go into True Grit thinking that it’s just a boy movie, or a straight western. There’s a thick strain of feminism and one of the best female performances of the year. It’s also really, really funny and completely solid.

Promotional images courtesy of All Movie Photo.

I read a few days ago that Tara Reid said that a Big Lebowski sequel was coming out and that she was attached. (She had a minor role in the original 1998 movie.) I told my husband about it as he’s a huge fan of The Dude, and he was happy to hear that it was in the works. Alas, the film’s creators, the infamous Coen brothers, said they don’t have any plans to make a sequel but they’ll “Watch it when it comes out. Especially if Tara’s in it.” It’s enough to make you feel sorry for Tara, whose rep tried to explain that she heard Jeff Bridges say another Lebowski film was coming – only Bridges never said that.

In the mid-to-late-90′s, Tara Reid made her name playing dumb blondes. If she has any complaints about type casting, this may not help.

Speaking at a Comedy Club benefit show, Reid gave an interviewer some updates about her career, including one very curious coming attraction:

“I have a movie coming out called ‘The Fields,’” she said. “I have another one coming out that I produced with my brother, called ‘The Irishman.’ And we’ll be doing ‘American Pie 4′ this year and ‘Big Lebowski 2′ this year.”

‘Lebowski’ writers and directors Joel and Ethan Coen sometimes work in mysterious ways, but there had never been any mention about definitely doing a follow up to their 1998 cult hit with Jeff Bridges, even as they promoted their new, Oscar-nominated film with The Dude himself, ‘True Grit.’ So what did they have to say when they heard Tara’s news?

“I’m glad she’s working on it,” Ethan laughed in an interview with Austin360.com. But do he and his brother have plans to work on it? “Well, we don’t but we’ll watch it when it comes out,” he said. Joel added, “Especially if Tara’s in it.”

For her part, Reid’s reps wrote to Entertainment Weekly, saying, “She heard Jeff Bridges say that he wanted to make ‘Big Lebowski 2′ and have all the original cast members in it, so she may have misspoke, thinking that included her based on what Jeff said.”

Perhaps she was referring to a July interview in which Bridges said that he and the Coens had spoken about it, but nothing was planned.

[From Huffington Post]

American Pie 4. I thought that franchise died with that American Wedding threequel in 2003, but I guess that was wishful thinking. (There’s also the even worse Band Camp spinoffs, with four direct-to-DVD movies with a new cast.) Given Tara’s record of thinking every successful film she had a bit part in is coming back, she could be incorrect. Sadly, IMDB does have a listing for this trainwreck, due out in 2012 and also starring Alyson Hannigan (she can do better!) and Chris Owen, that evil-looking kid who was in the other American Pie movies. Jason Biggs isn’t listed on IMDB for the film, which surprises me because it’s not like he’s doing anything else. Wikipedia has him starring in it, though.

The next time Tara has to inflate her project schedule she should just come up with random movies no one has heard about. It must have been a tough few years for her. IMDB has no credits for her in 2008 or 2009 and the last film she did was something in 2008 called Vipers. Check out the DVD cover.

Here’s Tara out at Paris Fashion week with her boyfriend, Michael Lillelund, on 1/26/11 and at a Golden Globe viewing party on 1/17/11. She was invited to fashion week? Also, does her boyfriend look straight to you? Maybe he’s just very pretty. Credit: WENN and Fame Pictures

I love interviewer Josh Horowitz at MTV. He’s asks celebrities hilariously personal and gossip-worthy questions, like having Angelina Jolie explain her tattoos and asking Kate Hudson whether there really was a painting of a centaur over A-Rod’s bed. One of Horowitz’s latest interviews, with Jeff Bridges, had him asking Bridges whether he was high as a kite when he accepted his Oscar this year. (Best actor for Crazy Heart.) Watch as Bridges denies that he was toasted and is so good natured and funny about it. (Video above)

If you want to see Jeff Bridges’ speech again, it’s on this “official” video from the Academy, (which has of course disabled embedding) and Jeff comes in at 8:15. I forgot what an awesome speech it was. Jeff told a great story about how his parents got him started in the business, and then thanked his director and fellow castmembers. He was very coherent and calm and didn’t seem high to me. I think that’s just his personality, like he seems like a stoner because he’s so mellow and happy. (Here’s a link to a quote where he admits smoking pot, but he’s vague about it.) He did say “man” at the Oscars a lot though. It was a delight to watch his Oscar speech again. Remember how he thanked his wife of 33 years at the end? He said “I’d especially like to thank my gorgeous wife, Sue. We’ve been married 33 years, we have a beautiful family, three girls… thank you guys I wouldn’t be up here without you.” What a great guy and talented actor Jeff Bridges is. I’m going to have to see True Grit soon. Tron can wait a few months, though.

[Story lead via Huffington Post]

As we saw yesterday, the time has come for the end-of-the-year lists and fake awards naming people The Most or The Best of Year. GQ named Scarlett Johansson the “Babe of the Year” and now they’ve released their other People of the Year. Jeff Bridges got Man of the Year, for his Oscar win and his upcoming roles in Tron and True Grit. Plus, you know, Jeff is just awesome and everyone loves and respects him.

My favorite was Stephen Colbert, who GQ named as “Patriot of the Year”. I just love this photo of Colbert bleeding red, white and blue. It’s a great shot. I wish he was wearing his glasses though!

Drake was named “Breakout of the Year” because you can’t turn on a radio these days without hearing him, and hey, it’s well-deserved.

And James Franco was named “Leading Actor of the Year” probably because everyone thinks he’s going to at the very least be nominated for Best Actor for his role in 127 Hours. It’s interesting seeing him clean-shaven, and I almost didn’t recognize him.

All in all, not a bad list.

Photos courtesy of GQ.

The trailer for the Coen Brothers’ remake of True Grit has come out. The original True Grit won John Wayne his one and only Oscar, beating out Richard Burton in Anne of a Thousand Days. This remake stars Jeff Bridges, fresh from his Oscar win, in the John Wayne role, with Matt Damon as his side-burned and mustached sidekick. Now… don’t be alarmed, but when I first saw the trailer, I didn’t recognize Matt Damon, and I thought he was David Spade. For real.

Right? Josh Brolin looks deliciously dirty, of course. As for Bridges and Damon… well, okay. It’s interesting seeing Matt Damon do this kind of part, I guess. I always hoped that when Bridges and the Coen brothers reunited, they would do another oddball comedy, like The Big Lebowski. And Hailee Steinfeld is the girl/narrator. Is it just me, or is she totally miscast? Her voice has very modern inflections, like they dropped a mini-Ellen Page into a Western. I like Ellen Page, but she’s not the kind of actress who can do period convincingly, and neither is this little girl.

As for the plot – Gawker says it’s reminiscent of No Country for Old Men, but I’m getting an Unforgiven vibe. Remember that Clint Eastwood movie? Bridges is playing the Clint role and the little girl is playing the role of “the hookers.”

Okay. I’m done bitching.

Jeff Bridges is on the cover of the May issue of Costco magazine, and it has probably been out for a while but I haven’t seen these quotes online yet. Jeff, 60, says some really thoughtful things about his marriage of 33 years, to former waitress Susan Geston, with whom he has three daughters: Isabelle, 29, Jessica, 27, and Hayley, 25.

Jeff and Susan met in 1974 when she was working at a ranch in Montana where he was filming at the time. In a piece he wrote for Readers Digest in 2006, he explained how he met Sue and asked her to marry him. Bridges said that within a week of meeting his future wife he knew he was in love and explained that she gave him “a feeling of being at home.” Three years later they were living together, but Bridges hadn’t yet proposed as he had a fear of marriage. Sue wasn’t going to stick around without a proposal and planned to leave him to go back to Montana for a job offer. Jeff realized he would regret it for the rest of his life if he let her get away. He explained “I thought, If I let this girl go, I will always know she was the one. So I got down on my knees and asked Sue to marry me.”

In an exclusive interview with Costco, Jeff describes how his marriage works after 33 years, and I found his comments so heart warming.

“We’re in love… And then we practice love. We’ve been married 33 years. Life can be a challenge. You come up against things where some people say ‘I’ve had it; that’s too tough.’ But if you stay with those feelings and try to understand the other person’s position and really be there for the other person, your love gets to expand. I guess it’s almost like working out. You work out and it becomes easier and you start to enjoy it.”

[From The Costco Connection, print edition, May 2010]

That’s a really apt way to describe it. Marriage takes work just like everything else that’s worthwhile, but it doesn’t have to be drudgery and if you avoid it the problems will start to pile up. If only we had more leading men in Hollywood like Jeff Bridges. It seems like the conniving cheaters are getting all the press lately, but I hope they’re the exception. Popeater recently did a piece on faithful Hollywood men and Bridges was right up there with other loyal husbands like Matt Damon, Kevin Bacon and Tom Hanks.

All hail the conquering Dude! Jeff Bridges has been crowned the new King of Hollywood! Receiving what must be his millionth standing ovation in two months, Bridges received his first Oscar for his turn as a down-on-his-luck, mostly-in-the-bag country singer in Crazy Heart. This was Bridges’ fifth career Oscar nomination, and at the age of 60 year old, it’s come just in time for his late-life career resurgence.

Bridges was lovely, as always, as he remembered to kiss his lovely wife (of 33 years) and stepped up to accept his Oscar from last year’s Best Actress winner Kate Winslet (sidenote to Hollywood producers: Kate and Jeff would be magical in a film together). But Jeff began by looking up and thanking his parents, saying, “Yeah, Mom and Dad! Groovy profession, they loved showbiz so much… this is honoring them as much as me.” He thanked Scott Cooper, the first-time director of Crazy Heart, he thanks Maggie, Colin, and Bob Duvall, and everyone involved in Crazy Heart. He thanked his team, “my gorgeous wife Sue, we’ve been married 33 years” and his three daughters. Sue looks beautiful and overwhelmed, and so, so proud. Lovely.

Congratulations, Jeff! The Dude will abide with an Oscar it seems.

Promotional images of Jeff Bridges in ’Crazy Heart’, courtesy of WENN.