These are just some extra ladies from the Screen Actors Guild Awards that I wanted to cover. Does it matter that they’re all over 40? Does it matter that they all look kind of Botoxy? Does it matter that they’re all very talented and really hot? Does it matter that they were all up for awards for work they did in television? Television: Where over-40 actresses go to do great work once Hollywood thinks they’re “over.” Let’s start with one of my favorites, Kyra Sedgwick, BRENDA LEIGH (!!) from The Closer. Kyra wore this cut-out Emilio Pucci gown that for whatever reason really works on her. I’m mystified as to why I like her in this revealing, sexy gown, in this odd color (in these photos it looks red, but it was more orange on television), with her hair down and everything. I think it’s because she just looks so sexy, right? It just works on her, and her body looks so, so good. The Bacon looks good too!

Next up: Diane Lane and Josh Brolin. Diane was nominated for her TV movie role in Cinema Verite. Diane wore this beautiful David Meister gown, which was a great color for her. She also did her (too long) hair in a ponytail, which was one of the bigger hair trends last night – so many girls did ponytails, it was weird. For Diane, I’m not a big fan of the ponytail, but overall, I thought she looked really good. Plus, I like it when Josh comes out to support her rather than vice versa.

Now, I’ve grown to love Julianna Margulies. I’ve recently gotten into The Good Wife, and she’s doing really wonderful work on that show. In the first two seasons, Julianna looks great – AND like a woman in her 40s. But nowadays, she looks odd to me. At the Globes, she looked like a Botox-Monster, and she’s still looking “off” to me in these photos too. Her gown was Calvin Klein, by the way – it looked almost identical to Katrina Bowen’s, who was on E! right before Julianna. Rough. Oh, and what was with the earrings?!?! Damn it, Julianna. At least her husband is super-cute.

Photos courtesy of Fame.

One of the things I noticed last night while watching the Globes was just how pulled and frozen everyone looked. It was hard not to see that just about every woman’s face was messed with, some noticeably more than others. So here we have Julianna Margulies, who has natural looking lines but still she looks very Botoxy to me. She’s been that way for a while though. I’m not a fan of her shiny tight purple Naeem Khan gown. I don’t like the very plain, formfitting style of the dress. Coupled with her tightly pulled back hair, it’s too sleek a look. Those green statement earrings are hot, and I do like the open back of the dress.

Jessica Alba wore a lighter shade of purple in studded sequin Gucci. She looks so fresh and glossy in photos, although her spray tan was very obvious looking on camera. I love the style of the dress, especially the bustline, the fitted waist and the slight delicate tail, but something about the pattern is off to me. While the dress was a little strange, overall this look was a win for Jessica.

Laura Linney made me a little sad last night. I love her and I wanted to see her well styled, but her makeup was just so bad. Someone rimmed the membranes of her eyes with dark black liner, making her look squinty, and then slapped some purple eyeshadow on her like a teenager trying out some sparkly Wet and Wild before the Junior prom. It’s so wrong. Her J. Mendel dress was theoretically amazing. I like the modern style and find the slight fold over the asymmetric neckline so clever. Coupled with her styling though, the dress just didn’t pop for her. Those star earrings are from Fragments and they’re cute, but they’re not bold enough for the red carpet. Laura was up for best Actress in a TV Comedy Series, which went to Laura Dern.

I love Andie MacDowell and one of my favorite things about her has been the fact that she looks so naturally beautiful. She’s gorgeous, she seems down-to-earth when I’ve seen her interviewed, and because she seems all natural she’s the perfect spokeswoman for L’oreal. It makes me sad, then, to see her looking all shiny and pulled at the L’oreal Legends Gala last night.

Keep in mind, though, that Andie MacDowell is fifty freaking three years old! I thought she was a hot looking 45, honestly, and I’ve covered her several times here and still had to look up her age. Some of you are going to yell at me and tell me she’s not getting anything done since she has some natural crow’s feet. She looks very waxy and fake to me, and like she’s trying to smile and can only wince. Whatever she’s doing, she hasn’t gone overboard yet and it’s possible the fillers or Botox she’s using will settle. For comparison here are two earlier photos of her. She looks different now, doesn’t she? Also, she’s shown below with her 16 year-old daughter, Sarah Margaret, she’s so pretty!

Oh and in terms of the fashion – both Andie and her daughter’s dresses are lovely. I really like Andie’s full length sparkling v-neck dress. Her daughter’s light blue chiffon gown has a subtle lace panel on the skirt and bow detail at the bodice. It’s very elegant yet sweet and age-appropriate. Sarah is going to be a stunner.

Andie In March, 2011:

In April, 2010:

Speaking of waxy, here’s Julianna Margulies in red. Her dress is ok. I don’t particularly like the way it’s draped but it’s not bad. Those shoes look orthopedic though! From the side they’re prettier with the heel, but from the front they look like sandals you’d wear around the house.

Kerry Washington wore a very ugly loose bronze dress that did nothing for her gorgeous figure. The cut is bizarre and it has some sort of scarf thing trailing down the back. I like her stacked necklaces and matching earrings though.

This woman Aimee Mullins is a double amputee and an accomplished athlete. But I have to point out that she has Wilma Flintstone hair. That dress looks like it could be a Halloween costume too.

Taraji P. Henson was so hot in form fitting blue. The shoes don’t seem to go with that dress, but I’ll overlook it.

Kelly Rutherford really bugs me for some reason. I can’t explain it really. This dress squashes her boobs and she needs to fill in those eyebrows. Looks like she filled in her cheeks pretty well.

Michael Michele is recognizable to me, but I can’t remember where I’ve seen her. IMDB reminds me that she was on “Homicide” and “ER.” She really owned the red carpet in that teal one shoulder dress. Her feet look like they’re hanging out of her shoes though. She’s another one that looks Botoxy to me. They pretty much all do. Maybe Andie MacDowell really is natural-looking – in comparison.

Most photos credit: Diane Cohen/Fame. Some photos credit: WENN.com

I almost always love Julianna Margulies on the red carpet, but not last night. I usually hold her up as an example of a mature, adult woman who knows how to dress appropriately and elegantly in a way that suits her figure and coloring. I’m going to have to rethink that. Julianna wore this completely odd Armani Privé gown for her Emmy win last night. First, the bottom… it looks like a condom. It’s the way the fabric hugs her legs, it looks like it was rolled down her body. As for the bustier top… JESUS. Why did Armani feel the need to hot-glue-gun some tacky-looking pieces of plastic onto the too-hard plane of the faux-bustier? Instead of looking expensive, it looks like someone’s craft project. So tacky.

I also kind of hated Julianna’s hair style. I love her hair too – so dark, so thick, but I wish she would stop parting it down the middle, and I think she usually goes for the “flat against the scalp” look, which is meh. Last night, she decided to fluff it up, and the style didn’t really flatter her either.

I am glad that she won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama for The Good Wife, though. I like that she’s found another television series that she believes in, and that people enjoy her on.

Oh, that’s her hot husband, by the way. He’s adorable.

Photos courtesy of Fame and WENN.

I’m still not watching The Good Wife (original typo spelling: The Goose Wife – which would be an AMAZING pitch meeting). I know, everything I hear about it is awesome, great acting, great writing, totally solid cast, etc. I just don’t get into hour-long dramas until they’re put into syndication. If TNT or USA hasn’t run a marathon of your show, chances are that I’m not watching it. So I’ll be watching The Good Wife then, hopefully.

For now, though, the star of The Good Wife, Julianna Margulies, is being extremely vocal about what she perceives as a sexism amongst the male hierarchy of TV programmers. Yes, programmers. As in, the people who decided what timeslot a TV show should have. Julianna was pissed that ABC put Dana Delany’s new show in the same timeslot as The Good Wife. And Julianna blames the sexism of “a–holes” who program this junk:

Television, in many ways, its a copycat game. Make one successful police procedural, get five more. One single camera comedy set in a workplace begets another. And even in a world of ever-expanding cable dials and an exploding number of niche channels, facsimile still rules the day. And so it was at last week’s television upfronts, where network executives trotted out their fall series hopefuls. While, by and large, the presenters were middle aged men in suits, the products they were presenting had a distinctly feminine feel.

While women dominating television is nothing new — the tradition goes back to Lucille Ball, picked up by Mary Tyler Moore and carried through to the era of police procedural teammates, Carrie Bradshaw and the Desperate (and Real) Housewives, rare has it been that a woman anchors, front and center, an hourlong drama. Especially on network television. Enter Julianna Margulies, an Emmy winner for her ensemble work in “ER,” now breaking boundaries as the solo lead in the Peabody-winning series “The Good Wife.”

The role is notable not just for its leads gender, but the message it sends: the wife of a sex scandal-plagued politician, going back to her job as a lawyer, taking the lead in court and at home. Its impact and significance won the show a 2011 Peabody, and speaking to The Huffington Post, Margulies said that she feels a certain pride in blazing the trail for the new batch of women-led programming.

“If you look this year at the pilots that they picked up, I would say more than not, women are the leads in network television, and I think we were the catalysts for that,” she said. “And that makes me so happy.”

Still, she understands that there’s a lot of work to be done to change the perception and treatment of women stars, even when their shows are so successful. Citing the perceived women-led ratings battle between her show and “Body of Proof,’ Margulies made no secret of her disdain for current scheduling practices.

“I don’t understand executives that pit women against each other, the fact that they brought in ‘Body of Proof,’ Dana Delaney is a friend of mine, and the two of us were just rolling our eyes, it’s like, of course, you finally have two great female leads and you’re going to put us on against each other,” Margulies said. “You’re a–holes. You should have put them on against a different show to see where they go, and then in the end, it was split down the middle. It’s the feeling that you want to celebrate not de-calibrate.”

Perhaps the message had already been received; “The Good Wife” was moved by CBS to Sundays at 9 PM, a change that the star is embracing — and something she thanked CBS chief Les Moonves for making happen.

“I’m thrilled. At first I was taken aback because you always think a move is a bad sign. And then I started thinking about it — this was all in the span of like five minutes — and I was like wait, that was ‘The Sopranos’ spot. That’s like my favorite time to watch television,” she said. “Hold on a minute, this opens a whole door to the kinds of people that we want to attract to our show: a younger audience and an older audience, because a younger audience, young people can stay up at nine, and old people can stay up at nine… what it also does is, you can’t really categorize our show. We’re not a procedural, we’re not a serial, we’re a legal, political, human show, and any given week can be something else, and I think it allows us not to be pigeonholed.”

No matter the time slot, though, Margulies’ feels a great responsibility to keep the show at its height.

“I feel a tremendous responsibility to my crew, to my cast, to every guest star that comes on,” she said. “I feel responsible that everyone has a really wonderful experience and to do the best work possible, and to always know my lines and to always be on time and to bring a level to the show in terms of quality that other people will follow.”

[From The Huffington Post]

Unfortunately for me, this means that I’m still not going to watch it! Nine p.m. Sundays are when Masterpiece Theatre comes on! That’s the go-to timeslot for Miss Marple and Poirot and (RIP) Inspector Lynley. I even enjoyed that South Riding miniseries too! Sigh… I love Masterpiece.

Anyway, regarding Julianna’s comments… I like that she has the balls to say this stuff. I liked when she took NBC to task for pushing out many of their hour-long dramas too. She walks the line of being abrasive and rather unprofessional, but she consistently has a (good) point to make, and she stops short of actually being a balls-out unprofessional. And yeah, they should stop programming two shows, both with strong female leads, in the time slot. Next thing you know, The Goose Wife (starring… Christina Applegate?) will get the 9 p.m. Sunday timeslot at NBC.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I doubt I was the only one who noticed Julianna Margulies’ very attractive husband in the audience at the SAG Awards on Sunday. I’ve seen the guy before in candid photos and was impressed, but he’s just so striking on camera. Plus Julianna gave him a shout out by thanking her in laws for “producing the most spectacular human being who I get to call my husband.” Way to make the rest of us look bad, Julianna.

Julianna is a guest on the Ellen show today, and the Ellen people sent us a transcript. She talks about how she met her husband at a dinner party she decided to go to at the last minute, and adds that she feels bad when people “objectify him” because he’s an educated lawyer and is so much more than just a hot piece. I don’t get that dichotomy because this woman is getting the best of both worlds and should just embrace it.

How she met her husband
I met my husband at a dinner party that I wasn’t going to go to through an agent I didn’t sign with…I remembered his [agent] birthday six months later and just texted him, “Happy birthday” and he said, “I’m actually here in the city, come have dinner with us.” I was like, “I’ll come for a drink.” I just started a Broadway show so I didn’t want to stay out late. Famous last words. I went and there was Keith. And Keith had gone to Dartmouth and this agent was his RA and he just happened to be at this dinner.

On thanking her in laws during her SAG acceptance speech
I really meant it. I really love my in laws. And I’m so proud of how they raised their two sons. My husband and his brother are just remarkable, good human beings. And I really meant it.

On feeling bad when people call her husband hot
I feel bad because people objectify him and they’re like “Oh, you’re husband is so hot.” The truth is, he is unbelievably bright and smart and went to Harvard Law.

On her pick up lines
Well, when he came over to me, I said, “Look, I just think you are so handsome. Are you a model or an actor and are you 12 [years old]?”

I said, “Are you an actor?” Because as much as I love you all, I can’t. I’m done.” And he’s like, “No, I’m a lawyer.” I’m like, “Really? Where do you practice?” And he’s like, “I was a Wall Street litigator for six years.” I was like Really? You’re 12.” He’s like, “No, I’m not.” And I’m like, “What’s your name?” And he said, “Keith Lieberthal” I was like, “You’re JEWISH?!”

[From The Ellen DeGeneres show, received via e-mail]

Oh I see – Julianna first noticed that her husband was hot before she was impressed with his career, but she wants other people to know that he’s much more than that. The lucky bitch. There’s no reason to get defensive about it. If someone told me my husband was hot I would just be like “thank you” and give them the stink eye. I think Julianna just feels bad because people assume she got herself a model or an aspiring actor.

Julianna, 44, and Keith (whose age I can’t find) were married in 2007 and have a son, Kieran, who turned two last month.
Photo Credit: WENN.com

I kind of love that Julianna Margulies still makes the big fashion magazine covers. She’s over 40 years old, and she’s a television star, not a movie star. By most Hollywood standards, she should only get the odd TV Guide cover, but I think mags keep putting Julianna on because women love her, and because she’s a great interview. Anyway, she’s the cover girl for the January issue of Harper’s Bazaar. The cover story was written by Julianna’s The Good Wife costar and friend, Alan Cumming (full piece here). Here are the highlights:

ALAN CUMMING: What do you think is sexy?
JULIANNA MARGULIES: Two scoops of double-chocolate-chip ice cream in a bowl with some chocolate syrup.

AC: When do you feel sexy?
JM: It depends what mood I’m in. When I’m tired, I don’t feel very sexy. I feel sexy when I’m happy. If I’m going out on a date with my husband, I want to feel sexy. I want him to see me that way. So I think you have to make an effort. When you’re in love, you feel sexy. It’s an endorphin that comes out, but in a different way than endorphins after you’ve worked out. I never feel that sexy after I work out [laughs]. Well, maybe after the shower.

AC: Speaking of the gym, didn’t you come back to work after the summer with a ridiculously pert booty?
JM: I became obsessed with this step machine. Apparently they’ve been around forever. I can now do it backwards without hands. Within five minutes, you’re sweating and you can literally see your bum lift up. I’m one of those strange people: I really love going to the gym.

AC: How are you resisting all the goodies from the craft-service table on set at 3:00 A.M.?
JM: When you’re tired, you grab for crappy food. Most of the time I have willpower and grab almonds or healthy food, but every now and then you just say, F-ck it, I need chocolate. And that’s okay, I think. Everything in moderation.

AC: Including moderation! And you have a fantastic body, Julianna.
JM [laughs]: You’d have to ask my husband that.

AC: Speaking of the husband [lawyer Keith Lieberthal], you said you always thought you wouldn’t get married.
JM: It’s not that I didn’t want to get married as much as I didn’t feel like I was the marrying type. I saw myself as someone who would always have a partner, but I never liked the feeling of what marriage said. Looking back, I think I was just mostly scared of it. Strangely, when the time was right, it all seemed to make sense. There’s a big difference in what you think you’re supposed to be and what you suddenly realize you are.

AC: You certainly lucked out with Keith. How did you meet him?
JM: Funny, he and I would never travel the same circles. One night, I went to a birthday party at [New York restaurant] Raoul’s. I walked in, and there was Keith, my husband. I thought because he was so good looking that he was an actor or model or something. He started chatting me up, and I said, “Listen, I think you’re lovely, but, please, what do you do? Because I’ve been there, done that, and it’s nothing against actors, but I’m not interested.” And he said, “Well, that’s good, because I’m a lawyer.” And that was it.

AC: Interesting you say that about not wanting to be with an actor. ?
JM: I think that there’s a few who could do it right. Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon. I think it’s a very tough thing to be successful at. Someone’s always going to feel left out or “less than.” All I ever knew before was dating actors, because that’s who I met. And I remember turning 35 and being like, “I’m done. I’d rather be alone than be miserable in a relationship.”

AC: I suppose we are always judged, and so you judge yourself next to your partner.
JM: Well, actors, sadly, define themselves by what work they’re doing.

AC: Oh, I hate when you ask how they are doing and they reply with what they’ve been doing.
JM: I remember–and it was such a sad moment for me–bumping into two actor friends I hadn’t seen in so long on the street on Broadway, and I was six months pregnant with Kieran, waddling down the street, and they both looked to me so glamorous and gorgeous Hollywood. They both listed right away everything they had just done. All I could think of was this little thing inside of me and “I hope I never sound like that to you.” I remember feeling “less than.” I walked away, like, “I’m just kind of fat and pregnant.”

AC: That aside, did you feel all sexy when you were pregnant?
JM: Yeah, till the very end, when it just became uncomfortable. I mean, I got married pregnant. Narciso Rodriguez made my gown. I’ve known him forever, and I remember standing there on top of these stairs, and he had made me the most beautiful dress. I remember looking at him–it was just him and me, and it was finally quiet for a minute–and I said it shouldn’t be any other way. It just felt so right having the baby there. I loved it.

AC: Did you have a clock-ticking thing? Were you craving to be pregnant?
JM: I got pregnant at 40 by surprise. It’s funny, because when we found out we were pregnant, I said, Okay, let’s experience that. You just have to just go with it because it’s rare.

AC: You seem to have a really good handle on how to balance your work, your marriage, and your child.
JM: It’s tricky being a working mom. You feel guilt all the way around. You want to be there for your husband, be there for your kids, be great at your job, all that stuff. But at the end of the day, if you put everyone in front of you, what happens to you? I think all these 1950s Leave It to Beaver housewives suddenly woke up and went, “What about me? F-ck you all. You know how hard this is? I’ve had dinner on the table, I’ve figured this out, and now you’re sleeping with your secretary?” I do believe the balance lies in yourself. I can’t say I can do it all, because I can’t.

AC: Your character, Alicia, obviously chooses to stay with her politician husband despite his cheating. How would you bounce back from that as a woman, sexually?
JM: Personally, I don’t know how you could. It’s not just hearing about your husband cheating or being with hookers. She’s seen it on YouTube, on the news. She’s seen the women. How do you close your eyes and feel love for this person in an intimate moment? Good lord, I couldn’t do it.

AC: You couldn’t?
JM: I have never been in that situation. And where I am now with my husband and child, I can’t imagine it happening. But maybe if it happened to me and the forgiveness was real and truthful and I believed it, I’d always give it a shot. I don’t think you throw the baby out with the bathwater. Everyone messes up, and we’re all allowed mistakes.

AC: You seem to be in such a great place in your life right now, Jules.
JM: Honestly, I feel so overwhelmed with how lucky I am right now. I gave this graduation speech at Sarah Lawrence, my alma mater, in May. One of the things I wanted to convey to these students is to live your life truthfully, do what’s right for you–not what others think is right for you. Nothing good happens out of fear. Do what you love doing. It might be scary because you’re taking a risk, but at the end of the day you can say you tried.

AC: Like Polonius said in Hamlet, “To thine own self be true.”
JM: It’s like the Buddhist saying: “Walk down the street and smile at a stranger. He’ll smile at the next stranger passing by, and then the whole street is smiling. And no one knows why.”

[From Harper’s Bazaar]

If it’s possible, I love her even more. You know what I think it is? Julianna is real. Yes, she’s beautiful and happy and she has a charmed life, but she’s not putting herself out there as “better than” or “the most”. In interviews, she just comes across like a working wife and mother who genuinely struggles to fit everything in. As I was reading this, I ended up comparing her in my mind to Sarah Jessica Parker, and how SJP wants to come across as super-eccentric and brilliant and “special” in interviews. Julianna is just herself. Love.

Here’s the Bazaar video:

Photos courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar. Cover courtesy of I‘m Not Obsessed.

Julianna Margulies is the September cover girl for Redbook, to promote her hit CBS show, The Good Wife. I love the way they styled her for the cover! On someone else, it might a somewhat trashy look, what with the tube-top/bustier and what appears to be mall hair, but Julianna is so rarely styled in such a clean, normal way, so this is exceptional. Much better than the overworked corpsey styling that W Magazine used earlier this year.

Anyway, Julianna continues to give great interviews – she’s a really cool woman, in my opinion, and she rides the line between being sassy and just being bluntly honest. It’s a great combo. The Redbook slideshow is here, and here are some excerpts from the interview:

On why we don’t see more women in the news as cheaters: “The answer is simple: We are tired! With all of the things we do in our lives, what woman has the time to fit in an affair?”

On cheating: “I think that when you have gotten things out of your system, you are less tempted by distractions. My only temptations now are chocolate and martinis. I think the hardest thing about cheating would not be the physical act; it would be the trust you break. If you decide to take that person back, you have to make a deal to trust again. I’m very happy with where my life is, but for someone like Alicia, whose husband has jumped in bed with a sexpot, the temptation of being sexually desirable is huge.”

On the time when she felt like a great wife: “There was one perfect day recently when I got up at 5:30 with the baby, went to work at 6:30 for 12 hours, grocery shopped, cooked dinner, and then later, my husband and I made love. We both looked at each other that night and said, “This day will never happen again!”

On how her TV career began: “ER was my breakout role. I auditioned on a whim. When I got that part, my character was originally supposed to die. At one point George Clooney called me and said, “I think you are going to live.” And I was on the show for six seasons.”

What’s worse: Knowing that you’ve been cheated on or not knowing?
“Knowing. I’m a believer in “Ignorance is bliss.”

What’s worse: Not sleeping for a day or not talking for a day?
“Not sleeping for a day. I think the whole world should try not talking for a day.”

[From Redbook]

I think they asked so many questions about infidelity because she’s on a show that deals with that issue, plus Redbook seems to be working on some kind of theme. Eh. Whatever. I love her. And I don’t even watch her show! I should start, right? Who watches it? Is it any good? Does Chris Noth appear on every episode?

Also: damn, her husband is cute!

Redbook cover courtesy of Redbook Mag.

I’ve never really cared about Julianna Margulies one way or the other. I’ve always thought she was very pretty, but I never watched ER, so I don’t really have the girl-love for her that so many women have. But I’m starting to feel the love after reading her interview in W Mag’s May issue. She’s the cover girl – and what a weird cover it is. She’s so pretty, why do this to her? Why the too-red lips and the big hair? Why can’t fashion magazines aim for elegant? Anyway, Julianna won me over by talking about how much she loves to work in television, acknowledging that she’s “not above auditioning,” and that even though she’s very happy being a mom to her 2-year-old son, she admits, “I was never­ much of a kid person. I mean, I thought they were cute to look at, but I didn’t want them in my house.” That’s me too. The full W Magazine piece is here, and here are some of the highlights:

On keeping up with a busy schedule: “I’m tired. I drink too much coffee. I’ve learned what a red eye is: a cup of coffee with a shot of espresso in it. Then the other day I was complaining about how I needed to wake up, and someone said, ‘Do you know what a black eye is?’” Margulies giggles conspiratorially, as if she’s talking about an illicit substance. “Two shots of espresso in a cup of coffee. I thought, I don’t want to cross that threshold just yet.”

On aging: Comfortingly, though, when Margulies emotes, fine lines befitting her 43 years do appear around her eyes and across her forehead, extinguishing the suspicion that she must rely heavily on needles to look so good on high-definition television. “I think the whole under-eye-bag thing is hereditary, and I just got lucky,” she says. Goodness knows it’s not the result of pampering: “Someone recently asked me the last time I had a facial. What am I going to say to my child? ‘I know you don’t see me all week long, so Mommy’s going to go get a facial on Saturday?’”

She looks good because she loves her life: “I know this is going to sound corny, but I love my life,” she says. “I love my baby, so I love getting to wake up with him. And I have the most amazing job, with writing that any actor would love and costars who I can’t wait to see on Monday mornings. And I love coming home to my husband. If I had a job I hated or a husband who I was always fighting with, then I would look tired.”

On not ending up where she thought she would: “I was never­ much of a kid person,” she says matter-of-factly. “I mean, I thought they were cute to look at, but I didn’t want them in my house. She spent a decade in a relationship with actor Ron Eldard without any desire to tie the knot (the two split in 2003), and says she was contentedly single when she met Lieberthal. They were at the nearby SoHo restaurant Raoul’s celebrating the birthday of a mutual friend and just clicked. “But I said, ‘If you’re looking for the marrying type, it’s not gonna be me,’” she recalls. Cut to a year and a half later, when he proposed during a romantic jaunt to Paris. By this point Margulies had abandoned her skepticism about marriage, and happily agreed—and then six days later the couple learned she was pregnant. “It was a total surprise,” she confesses. “But I said, ‘Okay, I guess we’ll roll with it.’”

On her husband, and her son Kieran: “We figured we’d celebrate his father’s Irish side, since the last name is quite Jewish,” she explains, adding, “Yes, my husband’s an Irish Jew. He can think and drink.”

On her character in The Good Wife: “She has this way of looking at both sides of the coin before reacting,” she says. “I don’t have that—for me, it’s black or white; there’s no gray area. And I’m an actress, so emotions are much more on my sleeve.” She relays an anecdote from earlier that day, when she and her friend were attempting to hail a cab. A free, on-duty driver slowed but then saw the two women were with toddlers and sped away, likely turned off by the sight of little ones. “I said, ‘Is this because we have children?’ And then I just yelled ‘You’re a f—ing a–hole!’ Out loud! I gasped—I couldn’t believe I did that in front of my kid and my girlfriend’s kid. I just got so angry. Alicia Florrick would never do that. She would be like, Okay, let me take down the license plate number and file a report.”

On being typecast as “ethnic”: “It’s funny, people always thought I was Greek or Italian—in fact, I’m Jewish,” she says, noting that early on, her looks presented a problem with casting directors who wanted stereotypical American beauty. “But as I’ve gotten older, the less ethnic my roles have become. I don’t know—maybe it’s because I’ve learned to pluck my eyebrows? They used to be really big and bushy.”

On playing a mother of a 20-year-old on a new film: “I know a lot of actresses who turned down Joyce Rizzo because she was the mother­ of a 20-year-old. Why would I turn down a great role? I mean, talk to me in five years and maybe I’ll be whining that no one will hire me. Maybe now I can only play ‘the mother of,’ never ‘the girlfriend of.’ But I think you have to go with a role because it’s good, not because of what it says about your age.”

On not being too good for television: “When I left ER, people asked me if I’d still do television,” she says. “I’ll always do television—television celebrates women. It’s where the best, richest roles for women are, period.”

On living in New York: “I need four seasons. My family is here, my roots are here. I love sharing my kid with my family because I know no one else is going to care the way I do except them,” she says. “And babies have a way of making people live longer.”

On political wives and sex scandals: “The one that hit me the most was Silda [Spitzer],” she says. “Two months before the whole thing blew up, she looked incredible. And then you saw her standing beside him at that podium, and it looked like she had aged 10 years. And then a year after that, she was in this Vogue article and she looked like a brand-new woman. There was a light in her eyes.”

On how her husband handles her fame: “We met when I was a guest on The Sopranos and doing an Off Broadway play,” she says. “I was off the radar. And now, four years later, he’s like, ‘Whoa!’” Margulies is truly bewildered by stars who draw even further attention to themselves by tweeting: “Why would you want someone to follow you on Twitter? I guess it might feel like a way of existing, if you have insecurity about your existence.”

On auditioning: “When a job ends for an actor, you do wonder when the next job will come,” she says. “I’m not above auditioning.”

On The Good Wife‘s timeslot: “I’m most thrilled that drama is succeeding at 10 o’clock,” she says, before launching into a critique of NBC’s failed decision to put Jay Leno on every weeknight at that hour. “It took away jobs from actors, writers, directors, producers, crew members…. It was a devastating move, and I’m so thrilled it didn’t work out.”

[From W Magazine]

See? She sounds really cool. I’m her fangirl now. I love that she’s become the spokeswoman for 10 p.m. dramas doing well, and that she stuck it to her old ER home, NBC. NBC should still be getting criticism for the Jay Leno debacle. And I still can’t figure out when the new Law & Orders are coming on now that Leno is no longer on at 10 p.m. I think they’re running the repeats at 9, and then the new ones at 10? I can never tell.

W cover and additional photos courtesy of W’s slideshow.

In the hey-day of ER, Anthony Edwards, Noah Wyle, Julianna Margulies and George Clooney were the stars of the show. In this, it’s final season, the 15-year running TV show is working hard to bring back that ground breaking original cast. Anthony Edwards was first, Noah Wyle is scheduled, and even George Clooney, who has since become a mega-movie star, is said to have finally agreed to come back for an appearance. Julianna Margulies, whose Nurse Hathaway character was supposed to have been living happily ever after with Clooney’s Dr. Ross, has turned them down however.

The final “ER” season is bringing back some of its original stars for guest shots, but Julianna Margulies won’t be among them. She was invited but says she declined.

Margulies says she feels she left Hathaway “in the best scenario possible” and can’t imagine a better ending for the character.

[From Breitbart]

George Clooney, the Italian villa-dwelling, blockbuster movie-making, and Cary Grant status-approaching George Clooney, can find time in his mega-watt life to come back to the show that made him a household name, but Julianna Margulies has declined? Margulies’ last gig was as the title character on Canterbury’s Law, a show about a lawyer, that was cancelled about as soon as it started. She has one project in post production according to IMDB, and nothing more than guest appearances since that masterpiece of cinema, Snakes On A Plane.

I think the ER writers handled the Anthony Edwards return very well. While Margulies shouldn’t think she’s above a one-episode return to the only reason we know who she is, she really should have just taken the responsibility for believing she’s better than the show rather than half suggesting that the writers would somehow sully the character. I’ve officially decided I’m no longer indifferent to the woman, I just plain don’t like her.

Update by Celebitchy: According to People, Julianna Margulies will return for the season finale of ER to appear opposite former on-screen love George Clooney despite her earlier reservations.

Julianna Margulies is shown in the header on 10/23/08 at Fashion Group International Night of the Stars awards in NY. She is shown below with her husband Keith Lieberthal at the season opening of the Metropolitan Opera on 9/22/08. Credit: WENN