Julia Roberts tried to work a fitted, possibly polyester blend suit at the Larry Crowne premiere in LA yesterday. I like the tailored suit trend, but this outfit is just wrong on Julia, especially with the matching shell under the jacket. All she needed to complete this look was a silky top in a color that popped. Instead it’s all kind of monochrome except for the jade necklace, which looks like a set piece from Eat, Pray Love. Plus those pants need to be hemmed for her a little. Her hair and makeup are polished yet effortless though. I love the loose bun she’s wearing in her hair.

Also at last night’s premiere was Taraji P. Hensen in a crimson dress. It looks like Leger and I’m over that too-tight dress trend. She looks hot though. IMDB has her listed in the movie although I didn’t spot her in the trailer.

Model Selita Ebanks, not in this movie, had on a ridiculous v-neck fuschia mini dress with gemstone detail at the sides. She paired it with leopard peep toe ankle booties and gold bangle bracelets. She’s a knockout, but what a wreck that outfit is. Plus check out her rooster hair.

Jenna Elfman, another non-costar, was there in a breezy purple dress, gold kitten heels and a canary clutch. She’s cray to the z but I like her look here. My hairdresser would have something to say about her very chunky highlights, although he’d praise the cut.

Tom Hanks, Julia’s costar, wore his best freshly washed jeans with a navy dress shirt and plain jacket. His wife, Rita Wilson, tried a little harder in a sequin cocktail dress and tuxedo jacket. You would think that these two would work to coordinate more considering that they’ve been married for 22 years, but maybe Rita lets Tom do his own thing. If Tom were my man I would try to dress him better.

Tom seems to have arrived by scooter, at least part of the way. His character rides a scooter in the film and it’s doubtful that he took that thing more than a few blocks. Otherwise it might explain why he was dressed like a deliveryman.

Bonus pic – a freshly shorn Bryan Cranston with his wife Robin Dearden. This is how a couple coordinates, and apparently they’ve been together about as long as Tom and Rita.

Here’s the trailer. It looks cute but I’ll probably wait to see it on DVD. Larry Crowne is out this Friday in the US, on July 1.

Photo credit: Fame Pictures

There were some celebrities at the “Church” of Scientology’s 41st anniversary party in Hollywood over the weekend. Most notably a glowing and pregnant Kelly Preston was there along with her husband, John Travolta. Former DWTS contestant, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and his wife were in attendance, as were Jenna Elfman and Nancy Cartwright, best known as the voice of Bart Simpson. Parenthood star Erika Christensen was also at the event, which disappoints me because I love that show and really like her character. She’s a great actress. I remember seeing a photo of her at the 2002 Scientology anniversary with Tom Cruise and Jason Lee. I was hoping she was “out” of the cult now but I guess not.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were conspicuously absent, though. Tom has been doing promotion for Knight & Day overseas while Katie has been filming in Canada. Cruise owns a private jet (or three) and could easily have flown in. I wonder what kept him away and if there’s more than just busy schedules behind the fact that he didn’t attend. I’m hoping it has to do with a falling out he might have with the church, or maybe some kind of deliberate distancing. Scientology’s reputation has never been poorer. We’ve heard so much recently from defectors about the horrific conditions they suffered along with the abuses committed by head David Miscavige. The last time the Holmes-Cruises were spotted at a Scientology event was in October of last year. Are they going to make sure they’re no longer the defacto cult spokespeople?

I’ll say something nice – Kelly and John Travolta look really happy and I’m so happy for them that they’re expecting. Their daughter is a cutie, too. I hope she’s getting a secular education, but I doubt it.

Committed cult member Jenna Elfman sure knows how to parrot Scientology’s “poor us” talking points. She said she ignores criticism of her religion because people who haven’t bothered to pay and get harassed in order to study it aren’t capable of telling her it’s a scam and a fraud. She also compares criticism of Scientology to the Roman’s persecution of Christianity.

“If someone starts talking to me negatively about something they’ve never actually studied that actual text of, I don’t really admire them very much because it shows they don’t have much integrity, so I just kind of ignore them,” Elfman told AAP in Sydney.

“I’m not going to listen to gossip and hearsay about something that’s affected my life so tremendously in such a tremendously positive way.”

Founded by American science-fiction author L Ron Hubbard in the 1950s, Scientology has received much criticism and been the butt of many jokes for its stance against modern psychiatry and belief in alien cosmologies.

Elfman compared its treatment to the way other religions had been persecuted through the ages.

“It’s a new religion. Historically every new religion has been [dismissed],” she said.

“People were hanged, fed to the lions for their beliefs so this is just a modern day evolution of what happens when something new comes into our culture.

“It is not fully understood yet.”

[From ABC.Net.au via Fark]

And in a line that mimic’s Tom Cruise’s famous rant about how Scientologists are the authorities on everything and how they’re the only ones who can help in an emergency, she went on to basically call it a cure all:

“I’ve seen drug addicts completely rehabilitated, I’ve seen the illiterate become literate, I’ve seen people that were so depressed and hopeless completely rehabilitate their goals in life, become happier, find partners,” she said.

“It’s beautiful.”

[From ABC.Net.au]

Jenna’s partner Bodhi Elfman is the guy who introduced brave ex Scientologist Jason Beghe to Scientology. Actor Beghe recorded a series of interviews earlier this year in which he detailed the way he was deceived, brainwashed and robbed by the cult. He described how you’re told that you can achieve a state of clear, in which Scientologists claim you’ll never get sick and “no longer have a reactive mind.” Beghe said that all the courses, auditing, and programs he took through Scientology damaged him psychologically and cost him over a million dollars and years of his life.

I wonder if Jenna Elfman would accept criticism of her beloved religion from Beghe, who achieved a high status in the cult, has personal experience with it, and was even friends with her husband. It’s not gossip or hearsay coming from him. Beghe lived through it and is lucky to have survived without “committing suicide” with some exhaust pipes stuck in his bedroom window.

Our friends at Deceiver remind us that Elfman called AIDS “a state of mind, not a disease.”

Jenna Elfman is shown in Australia with her husband on 10/29/08. Credit: Bauergriffinonline