Christina Ricci was on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night to promote Speed Racer and it was a fun interview. Yesterday I said that she seemed nervous on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Tuesday night and a lot of you pointed out that she seemed fine and that she’s one of your favorite actresses. Commenter Bros mentioned something that I didn’t consider – Jay Leno isn’t a great interviewer and wasn’t doing his job if she wasn’t at ease. It wasn’t noticeable to everyone anyway.

I definitely have a more positive opinion of her after seeing her recent interviews. She’s fun, upbeat and seems like a genuine person.

On how her brother stabbed her as a child when he wanted to change the channel
Christina told Jimmy Kimmel a funny story about how her brother accidentally stabbed her as a child when they were fighting over their makeshift remote control:

“It was 1984, we had a TV with a button missing and somebody had decided to use a a fondue skewer to change the channel, and my oldest brother Rafeal was in charge… I grabbed the fondue skewer from him to change the channel and he grabbed it back from me, stabbed me in the chest and then changed the channel. And then he kind of realized what he had done and looked at me and at this point I had two little pools of blood forming on my sleeper suit. After that I had two little holes on my chest for like a couple months.”

Kimmel quipped “A relic from the 70s to change a TV from the 80s, winds up in your heart practically.”

Christina’s brother issues statement about fondue skewer stabbing incident over Smurfs episode
The best part was the written statement issued by Christina’s brother about the incident, which was practically an entire page long.

“In order to watch the Smurfs, my brother and sister would send Christina, who was four, to run to the TV and push the button… There was very little damage. The bleeding stopped very quickly. I fully understand that her recollection differed from mine and I humbly submit mine here in the spirit of reconciliation and familial peace making.”

Ricci seemed genuinely surprised that her brother wrote the letter and said “A family of smart asses.”

Then they talked about Ricci’s Speed Racer character and her haircut, and Kimmel said “Did you know that… the woman who did the voice of Trixie in the cartoon was also Snuggles the fabric softener bear? Google it if you want to.”

On being a clean freak
Kimmel said he heard Ricci was a clean freak and she said “I am, I had to cut down my housekeeper from three times a week to once a week.” She said she wants to get a roomba to clean up after her dogs and that she’s getting one delivered overnight. She said she realized how much her dogs shed.

Kimmel said “Don’t expect miracles from the Roomba.” He also recommended that she shave her dogs.

On dressing her dogs as little thugs and not buying them clothing herself
Kimmel showed photos of Ricci’s dogs. One was in a little hoodie and she said “That’s Ramone Aule (sp) he likes wear his hoodie and intimidate the neighbors… that one was a gift, I refuse to buy them [clothes]”

Kimmel showed another cute photo of one of her dogs in a white waffle-knit sweater and she said “that’s a pair of socks and a leg warmer I cut up.”

One dog was wearing what looked like a little shirt with lipstick on the collar and the dog looked pissed and Ricci said “he looks like a dorky surburban dad who went to Vegas and bought that shirt and the kids are making fun of him… it’s hilarious.” Kimmel said that there was a hooker involved. He is definitely better at interviews than Leno.

Christina Ricci is shown on 5/3/06 at the Speed Racer premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, thanks to PRPhotos.

Ryan Phillippe was on the Jimmy Kimmel show last night to promote his movie Stop Loss and the interview was pretty interesting. The more I see Phillippe the more respect I have for the guy, because he really seems down to earth. The best part of Phillippe’s segment on Kimmel was the spoof night vision sex video at the end, and you can skip to the bottom to see it now, but I wanted to include a little of his interview too

Ryan’s son Deacon was named after baseball player ancestor
Jimmy asked Ryan about his kids and he said they were doing great. He said that Ava, 8, was named after Ava Gardner, the woman who broke Frank Sinatra, because he’s a big Sinatra fan.

As for his son Deacon, 4^1/2, “I had an ancestor who pitched and won the first game of the first world series ever. He beat Cy Young… He was recently voted the best right handed pitcher in Pittsburgh Pirates history.”

Jimmy said: “Name was Deacon Phillippe of the Pittsburgh nationals.”

About soldiers’ response to “Stop Loss”
Ryan said “The film is really about the soliders… and what it’s like for them to come back home… the response we’ve gotten from the military has been incredible. They’ve all said thank you because it truly tells the soliders’ story. The sacrifice they make for us is far beyond anything any of us will ever really have to experience.”

He said the film is less about a political agenda and is more a human, heartfelt story.

That night vision faux sex tape video
And here comes the hysterical part. Kimmel said he had a video of Ryan that’s been on the Internet, and Ryan claimed it wasn’t him. The audience was roaring with laughter when they saw who Ryan was in bed with.

It was Kimmel’s older female security guard, Veatrice. These outrageous couplings are about to jump the shark, but not quite yet.

Here’s the whole interview:

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert joked about the major story of the day and at first said it was John Gibson leaving Fox New’s “The Big Story” and then Tucker Carlson’s MSNBC cancellation, but then finally talked about Spitzer. He covered how the media followed the governor’s SUV through traffic for 20 minutes hoping he would stop and pick up a prostitute. They showed a close up of the car and it had a bumper sticker that said “My other ride is a hooker.”

Colbert pointed out to much applause that Spitzer appeared on his show on the night after he arranged for the hooker to come meet him, which was one day before he committed the deed that led to his resignation. He said he was “The meat in the Spitzer sandwich” and that “a lot of people consider an interview on my show a form of foreplay.”

Jimmy Kimmel monologue

Kimmel’s monologue wasn’t that great. He said that if you do the math of $80,000 spent on hookers over the last ten years, that’s only $22 a day. He also said that Spitzer didn’t seem contrite in his speech, then they showed a fake clip of the end of Spitzer’s speech that had a hooker getting up from underneath the podium afterwards.

Kimmel showed the picture of Spitzer’s hooker in a bikini and said that he should have held it up and said “Look at her. What are you going to do?” Then he brought on his security team as the “worst political team on tv” to talk about the scandal.

David Letterman’s monologue

Letterman said Spitzer left his resignation on the nightstand with a $300 tip. He also said it’s a somber mood in NY and the hookers in Times Square were wearing black armbands. Letterman quipped that Spitzer will now have to pay women to call him Governor. He said Spitzer was on Hillary Clinton’s shortlist for a possible Vice President and “boy she can pick ‘em can’t she?”

The Daily Show

Stewart’s was easily the funniest commentary on the scandal.

“The answer: ‘A day and a half.’ The question: ‘What is the amount of extra time you get to stay in power after the revelation of a sex scandal if you are a non-gay governor.’”

“And so, Elliot Spitzer headed to his midtown office to make the announcement while receiving what the networks now refer to as ‘The Full OJ’” [cameras following his SUV]

“As you can see, the trip gave commentators ample time for analysis.” [Cut to boring comments by news reporters about traffic.]

“If you’re in the car with your wife, on the way to resign from the state’s highest office after facing prostitution charges. I’d run that light…”

As for the fact that the Governor’s wife accompanied him to the second press conference, Stewart said “Calgon take her away! There’s got to be a chaise lounge in Bermuda with that lady’s name on it…”

Stewart pointed out the irony in Spitzer’s remarks that “From those to whom much is given much is expected.”

He answered: “Which is why I gave over $80,000 to hookers. I expected a lot from them. And then of course the big news.”

Stewart jokes that the day Spitzer has chosen for the “orderly transition is St. Patrick’s Day” and shows a picture of a shirtless guy drinking a beer wearing giant green sunglasses and a green top hat. “I’m beginning to wonder about this guy’s judgment.”

Naomi Watts was on Jimmy Kimmel last night and she told a cute story about how when she was flying first class on a 14 hour flight her seven month-old son, Alexander, was screaming for a full 40 minutes. She said people were standing up glaring at her, and that they were probably pissed because they spent 30-40 grand on a flight and had to listen to her baby crying. Watts she solved it by putting him “on the boob,” and Kimmel quipped that the boob would calm any guy down.

Kimmel asked Watts to name all the places that little Alexander has been so far and she listed off the countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, Lithuania, Germany and Italy, but said she wasn’t proud that she had to travel so much. Watts then said that she has a great nanny, Carmen, and wanted to say hi to her on the air. I thought that was really nice of her to acknowledge that she has help. Then she joked that Carmen told her she has a big ass:

She’s very helpful and she’s very good, but she calls it like it is and today she told me I had a big ass…
Do you think that’s too much, do you think I should fire her?
She just said you had a big ass? She said it in English or maybe there was a translation thing? Why would she say that to you?
Because I do have a big ass. She’s got no ass. So she always just says things like that.
You know what I’d do? Just cut a dollar per hour off her pay. It’s not drastic, but you let her know that’s not acceptable.
Do you think I’ve got a big ass? [Gets up and shows Kimmel her ass, shakes it]
No I don’t think you’ve got a big ass… you’ve got almost no ass. Is your nanny anorexic by any chance?
No, she’s got a big gut.
She’s not at home with the baby right now? [Naomi laughs]

[Transcribed from video of Naomi Watts' appearance on Jimmy Kimmel, 3/11/08]

Watts was on to promote her new film, Funny Games, which is an English-language remake of a German film about a family on vacation who get taken hostage and tortured by two sadistic sociopaths. She told Kimmel that the film was a commentary on violence on screen, which the director strives to make the audience conscious of. It been called “an intellectual study of the horror genre,” and “forceful, unforgettable, and thought-provoking.” Critic Eric Snider says that “The purpose of Funny Games is to provoke and disturb the audience. It does this so well that you may not be able to watch it.” The film is out in limited released in the US on March 14.

Naomi Watts is shown on Bondi Beach on February 18th, and I would bet that’s her nanny Carmen with her. It sounds like she was joking with the big ass comment. Thanks to Splash News for these pictures.

Here are the videos of Watts on Jimmy Kimmel

Naomi Watts on Jimmy Kimmel Part 1

Naomi Watts on Jimmy Kimmel Part 2

Heidi Klum was on the Jimmy Kimmel show last night to promote Project Runway, and they had a big trampoline on the stage. Heidi and Seal have one at home, so Kimmel brought one on to add some variety to the show. It’s pretty amusing watching them jump up and down and try and talk.

Klum took off her shoes and urged Kimmel to remove his socks, and he said “no” at first but then gave in. When he removed his socks he had polish on his right foot, and said “I have something embarrassing. Ben Affleck painted my toenails the other day, and there’s still some of it on there.”

Yesterday Klum was on Ellen, and there was a cute kind of flirty exchange between the two. Ellen gave Klum a t-shirt to cover up her legs because her dress was too short. The t-shirt featured Ellen’s face, and Ellen said “Hopefully we have an overhead shot of that, because that’s fantastic” Heidi looked down at it said “You have the bluest eyes.” Ellen said “Thank you” and looked a little embarrassed and laughed, saying “that’s ridiculous.” Heidi said “I’ll wear pants next time,” and Ellen answered “No you look great.”

Klum sure knows how to promote her shows, and she comes across as genuine along with being a lot of fun.

Never let it be said that all big stars have big egos. Okay maybe they do, but a couple of the biggest were more than willing to lend their famous faces to Jimmy Kimmel’s revenge video, “F’ing Ben Affleck.” The video was (not surprisingly) an instant internet sensation – really, you can’t get a better time slot for that type of thing than right after the Oscars. Ben Affleck says he was all too willing to don a shiny lame top and blow dry (what’s left of) Jimmy Kimmel’s hair – if it helped best BFF Matt Damon’s video with Kimmel’s girlfriend Sarah Silverman, “I’m F’ing Matt Damon.” Sounds like Kimmel and Silverman have a very mature, deep, and profound relationship. Screw that, it sounds like they have fun, and isn’t that more important? Affleck gave a great interview to Entertainment Weekly where he talked about the process of making the video, and how they got such big stars to agree to it.

What was the backstory on scoring Harrison Ford? Didn’t you hear that he was a fan of the ”I’m F—ing Matt Damon” video?
He either said that to my brother or to Jennifer [Garner, Affleck's wife]. So that kind of stuck in my mind when Jill [Leiderman, exec producer of Kimmel] called me and we were trying to get people. The first name that came to me — because I’m such a huge fan — was Harrison Ford. Jill called me back 10 minutes later: ”We got Harrison Ford!” And I was like, ”What??? Harrison Ford said yes???” He was awesome. I think people were naturally a little bit intimidated by him, and didn’t want to push him at all. He saw his wardrobe looked kind of normal and was like, ”Don’t we have anything here that’s mesh?” That beat gets the biggest laugh in the whole video, where he’s got his chain and he’s in the convertible and he blows a kiss. It’s the most incongruous moment in the thing because he’s the most rugged, masculine guy in the world, and there he is in his West Hollywood outfit blowing kisses.

Were you surprised that all of these celebrities wound up participating?
Brad [Pitt] said yes, and that was really cool. And then Don [Cheadle], Cameron [Diaz], I mean, Huey Lewis, all the musicians who populated the ”We Are the World” aspect of it… In some ways, my favorite part of it is Josh Groban. I mean, he’s just hollering. The way he sings just full-throated cheese at the piano and the shaft of light, I mean, it’s spectacular. Every time we got one of those people, I felt like, This is either really great or it’s really terrible for me, because I’m gonna have to be living with this ”I’m F—ing Ben Affleck” anthem for the rest of my life!… I hope it virals out by the time my daughter is using the Internet.

[From Entertainment Weekly]

Ben also says that he’s fairly sure there will be some kind of retaliation. He said maybe he and Sarah would hook up, there might be a three-way, but he worries it might sink into something with animals. “It will have to be taken to another level — a horrible, horrible level that will stop being funny and then stop being passed around on video.” I think he’s missed the most obvious form of payback: using his wife, Jennifer Garner. While I can’t for a minute imagine her being involved in something tawdry; a week ago I would have said that about Josh Groban too, and how very wrong I would have been.

Here’s the video again. Thanks to Splash News for the screenshots.

Jimmy Kimmel somehow managed to outdo the hilarious video created by his wife girlfriend, comedian Sarah Silverman, “I’m F’cking Matt Damon.”

In a star-studded video called “I’m F’ing Ben Affleck,” Affleck and Kimmel play gay lovers while a chorus of celebrities sings “Jimmy Kimmel is f’ing Ben Affleck” in “We are the world” style. There’s even a cameo from Bad Pitt as a delivery guy, although I was disappointed that there were no homosexual undertones to Pitts appearance. Harrison Ford blows a kiss and smiles at the camera suggestively, and Cameron Diaz makes the finger in the hole sign. The celebrities sing an uplifting chorus of Kimmel and Affleck’s newfound love as the two stars walk off into the sunset, Kimmel shirtless with moobs and Affleck in a shiny tight lamé top.

Thanks to Redlasso for sending this to us, and they also note the cameos by Brad Pitt, Robin Williams, Don Cheadle, Pete Wentz, Perry Farrell, Macy Gray, The Madden Twins, Lance Bass, Huey Lewis, Josh Groban, Dominic Mognahan, McLovin from Superbad, Harrison Ford, and Cameron Diaz.

Here’s Silverman’s video “I’m f’ing Matt Damon” if you missed it

Shes Screwing Matt Damon – Watch more free videos

Just like the strikes in the olden days, the WGA strike is leaving people scrambling for guests. Wait, no. The strikes in olden days left people scrambling for food, not actors. It’s close, though, and certainly every bit as frightening. Human beings can live for months without food, but can only live for a maximum of seven days without Brad Pitt. Around day 5 your kidneys shut down, and the liver tends to go around day 6. The hosts of late night television, back on the air but without any actor guests, have been scrambling to fill their vacant spots in a desperate attempt to save keep us alive. The Screen Actors Guild has cruelly forbade any of its members from appearing on any non-WGA sanctioned shows. That effectively means they can only show up for David Letterman and Craig Ferguson, whose production company Worldwide Pants has come to its own agreement with the WGA. So what’s a late night host to do? Bring in other late night hosts as guests of course!

The talk-show hosts, who both returned to the airwaves last Wednesday without their respective writing teams and with picketers outside their respective studios, are turning into unlikely allies in the late-night race, with both agreeing to appear as guests on each other’s shows next Thursday, in the wake of a writers’ strike-induced guest drought.

“If Jay and I can come together and guest on each other’s shows, surely there is hope for peace in the Middle East,” Kimmel said in a joint statement released by ABC and NBC Sunday morning.

“There are only a few people in the world who know how tough this job is,” Leno said. “Jimmy is one of them. It will be fun to discuss who’s a good guest, who’s a difficult guest and everything else that comes with sitting behind these desks.” The mutual back scratching will help fill not only headlines but what’s proving to be hard-to-populate guest slots for the late-night shows since their return to air.

[From E! News]

I’m no expert, but it seems to me that writers and actors are incredibly loyal to their unions. And something tells me they have long memories. Jimmy Kimmel seems to have done himself quite the disservice recently by voicing his opposition to the writer’s strike.

And while Leno has teetered on the brink of violating guild rules since returning to the air, penning his own monologue jokes, despite supposedly standing in solidarity as a striking writer, Kimmel himself has voiced disapproval of the strict code and unwavering solidarity he’s meant to display with his unemployed wordsmiths.

“I don’t want to depart too much from the party line, but I think it’s ridiculous,” he said on his first night back of the strike and SAG’s insistence that members avoid the late-night shows that did not score a WGA-sanctioned agreement. “Jay Leno, he paid his staff while they were out. Conan did the same thing. I don’t know. I just think at a certain point you back off a little bit.”

Later, he stripped his opinions of all party-line vestiges, saying flat out, “I’m pissed off, I’ll be honest with you.”

[From E! News]

I’m pretty sure Jimmy Kimmel is going to find concrete in his shoes within the next three days. Wait, these are writers… so he’s probably going to find ink in his shoes. Maybe a few random letters stripped off his computer’s keyboard. Nothing teaches you to shut up like some blue ink stains and your favorite S and A keys smashed to pieces.

Last week we briefly mentioned that there was a possibility that the late night talk show hosts would return to work in the next few months. It’s looking like that will definitely happen, and all five of the hosts are trying to coordinate their return so they all come back on the same night. Their hope is to avoid some of the ire of the WGA and skirt the criticism that Ellen DeGeneres and Carson Daly received when they returned to work. Ellen hardly stopped work at all – a week at the most – and Carson returned a few weeks ago. Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel and Craig Ferguson are all talking with each other behind closed doors, trying to agree on a date when they’ll all go back to work.

If the late-night shows go back into production before the strike is settled, at least some members of the Writers Guild will understand – the late-night comedy writers themselves. “We will never be able to repay [Letterman] for what he did for us,” says “Late Show” writer Bill Sheft, who also serves as the show’s union rep for the Writers Guild. “Dave Letterman on the air without writers and pissed off about it would be as powerful as anything we [union members] can do. He will rail nightly at the greedy pinheads that put him in this position.

“He made the right decision, and when and if he decides to come back, it will be the right decision,” Sheft said. Letterman was the first late-night host who said he would continue to pay his staff out of his own pocket while the strike was on. The other late-show hosts soon followed when the networks began informing the idled late-night staffs that they would be laid off. “We understand the ‘Late Show,’ ” Sheft says. “The fact that other shows fell in line after him is enormous . . . We can march in a circle all day and blog all we want, but, to me, he’s been an off-air supporter. Maybe his greatest potential is as an on-air provocateur.”

“Believe me, all these guys are going crazy,” says one late-night talk show executive. “They’ve had to sit on the sidelines for the last six weeks and watch the world go by without having their soapboxes. It’s hard for them, and it’s getting harder “The fact is they’re talking, but no one wants to be first or the only one, for that matter,” says a knowledgeable network executive. “But I think their power will come in their solidarity. It’s a hot potato.”

[From the New York Post]

It actually does make a lot of sense that the late night hosts could be very vocal advocates for their writers if they choose to come back on the air. It seems like they’ve done the best job they could, and will have stayed off the air for several months in a show of support. A lot of crew and staff members lost their jobs, and most of the late night hosts covered their salaries themselves. If they’re on the air and able to plug their writers every night, that could actually be a good thing. And considering how supportive all the hosts have been so far, I think that’s a reasonable expectation.

In more lighthearted news, both Conan O’Brien and David Letterman have been showing off their “Strike Beards.” Conan even made a YouTube video plugging the strike beard. That’s really not fair, as a woman I can’t show my solidarity by growing a strike beard. I’m trying to figure out what I could do instead… strike hairy legs? Yeah, I’m going with that. “No I’m not lazy, I’m supporting writers!” I will be so extra-dateable now.