Julia Roberts was on Oprah for Earth Day yesterday to help promote her friend’s new book “Gorgeously Green.” Julia and author Sophie Uliano recommended ways you can work to preserve the environment by making small changes at home. They said it’s important to choose organic foods if possible for both your family’s health and the environment. Uliano talked about buying organic baby foods and said that other important foods to buy organic are dairy, meat and surprisingly rice, which can be grown with a lot of pesticides.

If you can’t buy organic produce, you can make your own vegetable spray that gets rid of a lot of the pesticides. The ingredients are a cup of water, a cup of white vinegar, a teaspoon of baking soda, and some grapefruit seed extract. You spray it on the vegetables, leave it for 5-10 minutes and then rinse. They also talked about the importance of not buying water in bottles and bringing your own bag to the grocery store instead of using paper or plastic.

When they got to the personal care products that are good for the environment and your health, Sophie talked about the dangers of aluminum in deodorant. Julia felt the need to share the fact that she doesn’t wear deodorant and explained that “it’s never been my thing.” She did say that “sometimes mid day at work I freshen up,” but didn’t explain exactly what that entailed.

The chemicals that you want to avoid in cosmetics are parabens, fragrances, phalates, and aluminum. The brands to buy are Jason’s organics, Burt’s Bees, Aubry Organics, Method, and Tom’s of Maine.

It was all a little scary to hear how my personal care products and food contain a lot of ingredients that are harmful to the environment and my family’s health, but it’s good to know that there are small changes we all can make. And they don’t entail stinking up a room. It’s not like Julia Roberts smells bad like Matthew McConaughey reportedly does. I guess there are alternatives to wearing deodorant, although I’ll stick with mine for a while.

Julia Roberts and Clive Owen are shown below filming Duplicity in NY on 4/14/08, thanks to PRPhotos.

Julia Roberts is trying to get her career back on track and isn’t above sending personal gifts to top stars she wants as costars. She hand knitted sweaters for Johnny Depp’s two children, Lily-Rose, 8, and Jack, 5, and sent them along with a note that read “I would love to work with you.” Maybe she should have written “Have a great holiday,” or something, because when you send a gift like that isn’t it obvious that you’re trying to get in the person’s good graces for some reason? I don’t know, I usually go for the indirect approach, like talking about other stuff and hoping they get the hint.

Julia Roberts is laying it on thick with Johnny Depp in a bid to revive her career. Noted knitter Julia knocked out sweaters for Johnny’s kids… sending them with a note saying “I would love to work with you.” Julia doesn’t like being knocked off her throne by Reese Witherspoon, a source tells Star…

“Julia’s a big fan of Johnny and wants to work with him before she gets too old, so she’s pouring on the charm.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, December 24, 2007]

Johnny Depp and his longterm girlfriend and mother of his children, French singer Vanessa Paradis, are quite protective of their children’s privacy and are likely to relate to Julia’s recent rant at a paparrazo who tried to take pictures outside her kids’ school. (Roberts still remains annoyed at the paparazzi and is shown in a recent video arguing and trying to reason with them as they follow her around NY City as she does errands. Maybe she didn’t want the news of her Christmas presents to get out.)

Johnny Depp recently told Esquire Magazine that “There’s no limit to the possibilities of what I could do to the paparazzi if I catch them photographing my children.” Maybe Roberts should have written him a note relating to how outraged she is by photographers bothering her children instead of asking directly for a job.

Meanwhile there’s a new interview with Vanessa Paradis in The London Times in which she refuses to even give a cute anecdote about her children when asked:

An inquiry about whether her kids have done anything that made her laugh recently leads to a stern rebuke. “This question is way, way too personal,” she declares, her huge round eyes flashing. To us it may seem odd, but then the French expectations of privacy from the media are much higher

[Times.co.uk via Huffington Post]

So it seems unlikely that we’ll ever get confirmation whether this story about Julia making sweaters for the little Paradis-Depps is true.

Julia Roberts is getting some pretty bad press for chewing out one of the paparazzi who had followed her to her kids’ school. Apparently she was so pissed that she got in her car and was following the guy and blaring on her horn. The paparazzi caught the whole thing on tape, and of course sold it as soon as he got home. It seems like a lot of people are criticizing Julia, but she makes some really good points. There is a line between following celebrities – who have chosen to be famous – and following their little kids, who deserve a reasonable amount of privacy, and didn’t choose fame.

Julia Roberts, a mother of three, has made it clear – in her actions and now in words – that she doesn’t like paparazzi staking out schools in order to get photos. Roberts, 40, recently chased down a photographer in her SUV near a school and gave him an earful, in an incident that was caught on video and shown on TMZ. Asked by Access Hollywood for Friday’s show what she said to the man, Roberts replied, “I just told him a school is not a place for a grown man to be crawling around trying to take pictures.”

She added: “If you want to take a picture of a person, then go to an adult place. Go to the coffee shop, go to the grocery store, go to the restaurant. Don’t stake out someone’s children’s church, school or playground environment.”

In the recent incident, Roberts, who did not have her kids with her, pursued a car of photographers and got them to pull over. Telling one man to shut off his camera, she said, “I want to talk to you about the fact that you’re at a school where children go. Turn it off!”

[From People]

Frankly I think Roberts was perfectly right to get mad. Even if her kids weren’t with her, she was at their school, so it had to do with them. There are worse things than overprotective parents. I think it’s totally normal that her natural inclination is to get mad and go after people that she feels are invading her kids’ space. She might have been a bit irrational, but I’m sure it’s not the first time paparazzi have shown up around her kids. It was probably just the straw that broke the camel’s proverbial back. In an article in this month’s Vanity Fair, Julia mentioned that she thinks it’s wrong for the paparazzi to take pictures of kids and/or publish their faces. She’s standing by what she believes, and every parents has the right and duty to look out for their kids’ well-being. Though the paps did catch her parking in a handicap spot last week, so maybe she’s riled up for another reason.

Julia Roberts held a viewing party at her house for the A Mighty Heart DVD, in which Angelina Jolie plays the wife of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, who was killed by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. When the film was over, she promptly told guests that she could have done a better job in the starring role as Marianne Pearl than Angelina did. Maybe she thought she would have looked better as a person of mixed ethnicity, because you know she would have had no ethical issues with wearing dark makeup for that role:

Julia Roberts invited friends to her new Malibu home to watch the recently released DVD of the film - and after sitting through every minute, she gave Angie a resounding two-thumbs-down, reveals a source.

“‘I would rarely say this, but I think I could have done a better job with this film,’ Julia announced to her friends. And they loved her reaction,” says the source. “Angelina isn’t exactly the most loved person in Hollywood.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, December 3, 2007]

The article goes on to say that Julia’s husband Danny Moder worked as a cameraman on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and personally watched Angelina work her magic on the then-married Brad.

“Danny told her it was obvious that Angelina was making a play for Brad,” says the source. “People on the set called her Spider-Woman because she was spinning a web for Brad. Julia said Angelina had no shame. She’s made it pretty clear that she doesn’t hold Angie in high regard. Julia’s definitely on Team Jennifer!”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, December 3, 2007]

If it’s true that Roberts dissed Angelina’s acting like that and that she didn’t like her anyway, it sounds like she had a viewing party of the film just so that she could rip it apart with her friends. That’s nasty! She went out of her way to create an opportunity to talk smack about Angelina.

I’m not a big Angelina fan, but I really think Julia Roberts is full of shit. She talks a good game about how she’s trying to be a super-mom who lives a low-impact lifestyle, but she also drives an SUV and was recently busted parking in a handicapped spot. Add in the fact that she’s bitter about Angelina and I’ll trash her anytime I can. Does that make me a hypocrite because I just ripped on her for doing the same thing to Angelina? Yes, yes it does.

Here’s Julia Roberts showing off her five-month-old son, Henry, on Oprah last week. I know it’s hard to tell in these pictures taken off television, but she really looks like she’s had some recent work done. Look at how her eyes turn up now. Thanks to Splash News for these pictures.

Julia Roberts says she’s trying to save the environment and decrease her family’s impact in the world through sustainable living, but she drives an SUV. Her car is said to be a Mercedes and they don’t make Mercedes SUV hybrids yet from what I could find. She was also busted parking in a handicapped spot.

Julia was out at a Malibu grocery store with her husband, Danny Moder, yesterday, and was seen with her non environmentally-friendly car parked in a clearly marked handicapped spot. Here’s the description from the photo source, Splash News:

Julia Roberts and her cameraman husband Danny Moder pick up some essentials from a local grocery store in Malibu. On the way out Danny helps his wife Julia into their mercedes SUV that was parked in a disabled handicapped zone.

Nice, Julia. You’re busy composting and making your own handcrafts but you’re driving an SUV and parking in handicapped spaces. That just makes you look like a hypocrite.

There is no excuse for parking in a handicapped spot, even for a “moment” to go in and grab something. People who don’t need the spot should walk a few more feet and save the space for someone who really needs it. When celebrities like Julia Roberts, Britney Spears, and Kirsten Dunst take up handicapped places our estimation of them drops considerably. Julia Roberts may have seemed like a sweet caring environmentally-friend mom in her latest interview with Variety, but now that she’s parking in handicapped spots and driving an SUV I’m reminded of the terrible way she treated her husband’s wife when she was trying to get her to divorce him.

There was a story in the National Enquirer a few weeks ago that Salma Hayek, even when heavily pregnant, chose to walk quite a far distance while parking at a studio lot instead of taking up a handicapped space that she technically could have used. Way to go Salma, and shame on you Julia. It looks like you haven’t changed after all.

Julia Roberts has a new interview in the December issue of Variety Magazine in which she reveals a desire to be an organic supermom who grows and makes all her own food and does as many crafts as she can fit into a day with as little impact on the environment as possible. I would rather make an entire website than fold the laundry, so I guess I’m not one to talk, but it sounds like you would need a lot of your kid’s Ritalin to accomplish the goals she’s setting for herself:

NEW YORK, N.Y.–In a joint interview with Vanity Fair features editor Jane Sarkin and V.F. West Coast editor Krista Smith, Julia Roberts says that, at age 40, her dream is to be “a highly fulfilled and productive stay-at-home mom and wife. The highest high would be growing our food that I then make, and then composting and growing more–that kind of circle.”

Roberts says having her own creative outlet is important, “even if it’s just silly needlework and stuff like that. To have that high-functioning fulfillment, and to have that radiate into my children so that I’m there with them, I’m connected with them, and I’m with Danny [Moder, her husband] and we’re all together, and yet my motor is revving.”

[From The Huffington Post]

I understand what she’s saying, because when you’re busy and fulfilled you find more meaning in your everyday activities. She’s richer than sin, so it’s probably important for her to have standards for herself so she doesn’t end up shopping and lazing around all day. What better way to spend time than doing things for your family? And good for Julia for caring about the environment and being conscious of her family’s footprint.

Roberts also calls the media attention on young celebrities “grotesque… like a circus sideshow,” and says that if her children want to go into show business she will try to give them as normal a life as possible, like Natalie Portman managed to have.

Roberts says she wants to mother Britney, because that’s how she seems to solve everything in her house. If only she could supervise all the young celebrities and get them knitting and composting as a viable alternative to partying. That’s a reality show in the making right there.

She spoke candidly about the paparazzi encroaching onto celebrities’ personal space and said there’s no reason for people to want pictures of celebrities’ children except to say that they’re cute. She said that we’re all pretty much the same and seemed to suggest that it’s not fair that celebrities are held under the spotlight and judged:

THE FRENZY SURROUNDING TODAY’S YOUNG CELEBRITIES:
“I think it’s just grotesque. It’s like a circus sideshow. I don’t know why anybody would even want to go into show business these days, with all of the different magazines and shows. It just wouldn’t be worth it. And it’s too fast. Before, you could build a career over years and many movies. Now it’s like you do one good movie and they throw a ton of money at you and a ton of attention at you. You’re being constructed outside of yourself before you even know who you are, and what you are, and how you want to do it, and why you want to do it.”
…
“I see and hear what’s happening to Britney Spears and it’s all I can do not to move her into my guest-house and say, ‘OK, this is how it’s going to be!’ And just take care of her.”

PAPARAZZI TAKING PHOTOS OF CELEBRITIES’ CHILDREN:
“I just feel like it’s so demeaning the way they behave, and I hate the fact that I even put any of my energy into thinking about it or being stressed about it. And really, more than anything, it just has to do with my kids. There’s no reason to take pictures of celebrities’ children other than for people to say, “Oh, they’re cute.” I think magazines shouldn’t run pictures of people’s kids. I have a problem with that. I also have a problem with the whole notion that, if I have Henry in a sling, I’m hiding him. He’s a baby and I’m carrying him around, and so’s the lady across the street. I get pissed off, because I think that it’s inhuman to chase a woman with her children.”

CELEBRITIES ARE JUST NORMAL PEOPLE:
“We’re all the same. Why can’t we get on board with this? That we’re all the same. Some have cooler jobs, some have less cool jobs, some have longer legs, some are nicer people, but we’re all the same. We’re all orbiting the same sun.”

[From The Huffington Post]

Roberts said that she’s done having kids for now, and that three are enough. When she’s working so hard on her family and their well being, you can see how she can get worn out with three little ones in the house. She is mom to twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, who turn three at the end of this month, and little Henry, who is just five months.

I like Julia Roberts’ attitude and she’s certainly managed to stay sane and out of the spotlight for a while. Like Angelina, she’s not exactly innocent when it comes to how she snared her current mate, but she seems to have moved on in her life and to be focused on what’s important, and she reminds us that we should be, too.

Julia Roberts is shown on 10/12/07 at American Cinematheque’s 2007 Award Show, where she was honored for her achievements. Thanks to Splash News.

Brad Pitt and Matt Damon are said to have send their Ocean’s co-star George Clooney a “get well soon” present after his motorcycle mishap in New Jersey late last month. The pair didn’t send a bouquet of flowers or a sappy card, they sent over a gag gift that made fun of his accident. Since neither Clooney or his girlfriend of the moment, Sarah Larson, were seriously injured, it doesn’t sound that tasteless and I could see it happening:

Sympathetic buddies Brad Pitt and Matt Damon sent over a care package [to Clooney] containing a yellow plastic crash helmet topped by a flashing red light - and a beat-up leather jacket festooned with rips and skid marks. Adding insult to injury: His “Ocean’s” co-stars included a card that read “Get Well Soon, Skid Head!”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, Mike Walker’s column, October 22, 2007]

With all the pranks that Clooney likes to pull, and the way these three banter on The Oceans movies, I’m inclined to believe this story. Still, it would require a certain amount of coordination between Damon and Pitt to both sign the card within a short period of time. While Pitt was in NY at the time working on the same movie as Clooney, the last I heard of Damon he was back in Miami. It would be a more likely story if just one of them sent the gift.

Meanwhile Clooney and Pitt weren’t able to attend the American Cinematheque Awards on Friday, where their Oceans costar Julia Roberts was honored, but they did send over a funny video to add to the tribute.

In the clip, Clooney and Pitt run into each other in the bathroom, and Pitt’s foot is shown tapping in Clooney’s stall. This sounds pretty funny and I hope it “leaks” online:

In Clooney’s video, Roberts’ “Ocean’s Twelve” co-star was shown “hiding from fans” in a public bathroom stall. He suddenly feels a foot tapping his, a la Idaho Sen. Larry Craig. When he jumps out to see who’s in the next stall, he finds Pitt, who cries, “I have a wide stance!”

[From NYDailyNews]

Hopefully someone will come up with a better venue for this team than the Oceans movies. They were slick and fun, but they lacked a certain substance and the plots were hard to follow. Still, I would pay to see Clooney, Pitt and Damon read the phone book. They would have to be shirtless, though, with some homo-eroticism thrown in for good measure.

Pictures are of the Oceans 13 photocall and premiere at Cannes back in May. Thanks to INFDaily and Photorazzi.

The National Enquirer yells on this week’s cover “SPLIT! Julia Roberts’ husband walks out!” as if they’ve broken up and it’s a done deal. Once you read the article, you realized they’re hyping a one week surfing trip that he took with his guy friends.

The Enquirer brings up the old story that they reported over two months about how Julia is clashing with Danny’s family after they dropped out of therapy she insisted they go to, but that’s not new. It seems like they’re just trying to make it seem like a bad relationship with Julia is why Danny took a vacation, but it was only for a week and it’s not like he didn’t come back or was seen out partying with women.

With tension between them mounting, Julia Roberts’ husband packed his bags and left town, the Enquirer has learned exclusively…

When Danny broke the news that his family ended therapy, a livid Julia threatened to keep her in-laws away from the couple’s newest child, son Henry.

“Eventually she thawed and everyone made up,” the pal said.

“Julia even took Danny and the kids on a Hawaiian vacation to make amends. It was her way of saying: ‘Let’s make a fresh start.’”

But the couple didn’t even get home before Danny was ready to get away again.

Desperately needing a break from the continual clashing over the juggling of their marriage, careers and parenting, Danny headed to Bali with his buddies for some R & R after his week in Hawaii with Julia…

“After their trip to Hawaii, he needed to get away, so he went to Bali to surf. He was gone for almost a week while Julia watched the kids.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, October 8, 2007]

If he went with friends he probably didn’t just up and leave like the Enquirer is implying. It sounds like a planned vacation with other guys, so what’s the problem?

Danny Moder and Julia Roberts have been married for five years and have three children together, twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, who will be three at the end of November, and newborn Henry, three and a half months. They met on the set of the 2000 film The Mexican, where Moder was working as a cameraman. He was married to another woman at the time and it was rumored that Julia offered her 1/4 million to agree to divorce him.

I wouldn’t be surprised if these two were having problems given the way they got started, but you can really turn a one week trip with guy friends into a breakup. Danny Moder has already been seen back in LA in Venice, California furniture shopping with Julia and the twins.

The cover story in this week’s Enquirer is all about Julia Robert’s long-standing feud with her husband’s family. She is said to have forced them to go to therapy in order to work out what she perceives as their dysfunctional relationships. Her husband Danny Moder’s sister Jyl is an alcoholic and has often gotten into screaming matches with Julia.

Julia put her foot down and said that the whole Moder side of the family had to go to counseling or they wouldn’t get a chance to see their new grandson. She even wanted to go to therapy with them, but that idea was shot down. When she learned that they had discontinued their sessions, Julia freaked out, yelled “get out!” to her husband, and decided once and for all that they weren’t going to see her new baby.

“Julia has long felt that Danny’s family is dysfunctional - especially his sister Jyl, who has battled alcoholism for years now.

“Julia felt the counseling was necessary for the Moders so they could better fit in with HER new family and understand HER needs.”

She screamed :”Get out!” according to the insider, when Danny broke the news of the therapy lapse during a family vacation in Hawaii, just weeks before Julia gave birth to the couple’s third child, Henry Daniel, on June 18.

She’s so livid, says the source, the 39-year-old mom of three has now issued an ultimatum to the Moder family: Get back in counseling or you won’t see the new baby.

[From The National Enquirer print edition, July 16, 2007]

In January there was a story that Julia Roberts pissed off her in-laws by not telling them she was pregnant before she made an official announcement.

The Enquirer story says that some of Danny’s family blame Julia for their mother’s unexpected death from a heart attack. Julia famously snatched him away from his last wife and this was said to have upset his mother. Two years after Danny’s mother-in-law passed, Julia didn’t attend a memorial service for her due to tension with her sister-in-law, Jyl.

Family dynamics are always hard and you never know who did what, but it seems like Julia could at least let Danny’s family spend a few hours with little Henry.

Julia is shown in the header image out on 6/30 with baby Henry in a sling. He was born less than a month ago, on June 18th. Thanks to Splash News for this photo.

Julia Roberts’ inlaws are said to be annoyed that she didn’t tell them she was pregnant again before officially announcing it to the world. They don’t have the best relationship with Roberts after she broke up their son’s first marriage and then ridiculed his wife for not granting a divorce fast enough. It was a big snub to them that she didn’t tell them personally about her pregnancy news before everyone else found out. In fact they didn’t even know she was getting fertility treatments:

Julia Roberts’ pregnancy has caused another war with hubby Danny Moder’s family.

The family feud is back on because Julia released news of her latest pregnancy to the public before informing her in-laws, say sources.

Danny’s brother and sisters are livid because she not only hid the pregnancy news from them, but also kept trips to a nearby Los Angeles fertility specialist under wraps, reveals an insider.

“The Moders are so angry over the sub that they haven’t even called to congratulate Julia.”
They’ve had a rocky relationship with her since 2001, when she started an affair with Danny, who was then married.
“The had come to a truce - especially since the birth of Julia’s twins in 2004 - but it’s become a cold war once again,” said the insider.

[From The National Enquirer print edition, January 22, 2007]

The article goes on to claim that Roberts is hurt that none of her in-laws have congratulated her on the pregnancy, despite the fact that she didn’t tell them about it.

There was a story last week that Julia and Danny were having trouble in their marriage over the fact that Roberts’ career isn’t going well. She was said to be whiny and needy, complaining to Moder that she supported his career while she was taking care of their twins and that it was about time he stepped up to the plate to assist with her comeback.

I don’t know what’s true, but it seems pretty likely that she might be fighting with her in-laws.

Word has it that Roberts is pregnant with a little boy, and that she’s not expecting twins again despite the rumors after she bought two identical cribs.