In the latest “news about Sandra Bullock’s love life I wish were true,” the National Enquirer is reporting that her old Speed co-star and good friend Keanu Reeves has been “comforting” her. They don’t even imply that there’s a romance happening between Sandra and Keanu, and unlike the times she was spotted out with Ryan Reynolds a few months ago it doesn’t look like she’s in a friends with benefits relationship with Keanu. That’s a damn shame. We also heard this rumor a year ago, when it was reported that Sandra was “leaning on” her old buddy Keanu in the wake of her then-husband’s cheating scandal.

Sandra had been frantic over the news that her ex husband Jesse James wrote a tell-all book, “American Outlaw,” and only Keanu was able to ease her fears.

“Keanu was her rock,” a close pal of Sandra told The Enquirer.

As we reported, Sandra was consumed with fears that all her secrets would come spilling out under the guise of Jesse’s “memoir.”

“Keanu spoke to her for hours, night after night, listening to her worries, as she poured out her heard over her frustration and pain,” said the pal.

“And in the end Keanu gave Sandra the courage to move on and hold her head high. He basically told her Jesse’s cooked-up stories were just that. He soothingly reminded her that she really had nothing to fear because she was respected by everyone close to her including him. He assured Sandra he’d always be there for her…

“After Jesse’s cheating scandal erupted, Keanu became Sandra’s shoulder to cry on,” said the pal…

They’ve always professed a great mutual respect and affection for each other…

“The first person she turned to was Keanu, and he proved he was a true-blue friend by being there for her.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, May 9, 2011]

That’s a really sweet story and I hope it’s true. You know that Keanu’s gentle voice and kind words would help in a crisis, and it’s all so romantic sounding. (sigh)

I had the chance to read In Touch’s cover story Sandra Betrayed Again! and it’s just a rehash of a recent “poor me” blog entry that James penned that kind of bitterly negates his marriage to Sandra. (He’s since deleted it.) We were anticipating this from his memoir anyway, which is out tomorrow, May 3. I’m debating whether or not I should buy it as I want to report on some of the ridiculous things he says but I don’t want to support him in any way.

In Touch also has a column from James’ nastiest mistress (that we know of), Michelle “Bombshell” McGee. She comments on Jesse’s memoir and how he’s still trying to wound Sandra for dumping him after he slept with every skank in his path who ever worked a pole. According to Michelle Jesse told her he was frustrated having to share the bed with Sandra’s dogs, and claimed he hadn’t slept with Sandra in months. Isn’t that what cheating dudes always say? “My wife doesn’t understand me,” “We’re separated,” “We don’t sleep together.” We know that Jesse is a lying bastard who will use any excuse and I’m sure this memoir won’t be any different. At least Sandra has her millions, her sweet son, and some hot male companions to console herself with. If only she were more than just friends with lovely Keanu.

These photos are of Sandra and Keanu in 2006 promoting The Lake House. I never saw that movie. Credit: WENN.com

Keanu Reeves is currently promoting his new film, Henry’s Crime. I thought it sounded like an artsy-fartsy independent film about, like, the “crime” of an insouciant butterfly named Henry or something. You know the kind of film I mean – bad and pretentious. Although I would love to see Hollywood try to make a movie about an insouciant butterfly named Henry. Anyway, as it turns out, the film actually looks kind of good. Keanu costars with Vera Farmiga and James Caan. It’s part romantic comedy and part heist film, it seems:

Not bad, right? I would rent that. So while Keanu has been promoting the film, he’s obviously given some interviews. When Us Weekly asked Keanu what the “craziest thing” a fan had ever done to him, Keanu answered honestly: “Accuse me of being a father. I had to go to court. It was horrible. I didn’t do it. I’m not the dad.” Keanu is referring to the years-long debacle in which a mentally unstable woman named Karen Sala claimed Keanu had hypnotized her into thinking he was her ex-husband, and then seduced and impregnated her. Keanu really did have to give DNA to prove that he wasn’t the father. It was truly crazy.

Keanu also gave clues to a long-rumored project that he might be making in the next year: the third Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure! It’s been 20 years, but Keanu announced a few days ago that two screenwriters (Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon) are currently working on the script. Keanu even revealed some plot details (SPOILER!!!): “I know a little bit… When we last got together, part of it was that Bill and Ted were supposed to have written the song that saved the world, and it hasn’t happened. […] So they’ve now become kind of possessed by trying to do that. Then there’s an element of time and they have to go back.” I kind of love the idea of Keanu and Alex Winters going back and making another one. It’s so absurd. Dude.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Over the weekend, the Marrakech film festival began. This time Morocco got some heavy hitters to show up for their film festival – including Keanu Reeves, who is a jury member, along with James Caan and Gael Garcia Bernal. Since there are a million photos of Keanu this morning, I thought I’d bring you some. Ever since the “Sad Keanu” meme, Keanu has seemingly been making an effort to look happier or… just less depressed in public outings. He also didn’t really seem to care, in general – after all, he has more money than God, and he’s off doing his own thing. Sad Keanu is busy. Also: I love his scraggly beard. I find it charming. I still get hot for Keanu, I have to admit.

Other pics from the film festival… here’s Gael, looking handsome:

And here’s Marion Cotillard, looking ten kinds of rough. Does she think she’s an old-timey hooker?

And Eva Mendes, looking drunk, as usual:

Photos courtesy of Fame.

Only recently (like, the past two weeks) have I become aware of the “Sad Keanu” meme that has apparently been around for months. I guess it all started when paparazzi took photos of a particularly sad-looking Keanu sitting on a park bench, looking like he might cry because the wind was blowing. Many people Photoshopped the image of “Sad Keanu” into something really special – see some of this stuff here. There’s a “Sad Keanu” Tumblr, and lots of new sites and lists devoted to Sad Keanu. Since then, paparazzi have gotten many, many candid shots of Keanu looking sad or contemplative or thoughtful, or just hungry. He honestly seemed totally unaware that photographers were trying to get another “Sad Keanu” photo – and as it turns out, he really was unaware. He spoke to Vulture, and he took it all in stride:

You’re taking over the Internet. Have you seen all the “Sad Keanu” stuff out there?
My publicist showed me the photo, but no.

There’s not one photo. There are millions. You’re Photoshopped next to kittens and into Pulp Fiction and next to the cast of The Breakfast Club, and in a million different ways. Have you seen those?
Oh, that’s funny! No, no, I haven’t seen them.

There are millions, really. Google “Sad Keanu.” You haven’t?
[Laughs.] No.

Seriously, though, this is one of the reasons I think one of the big appeals of you as an actor is that people are always straining to figure out what’s on your mind, what you’re thinking, why you’re sad … There’s thousands of people doing this.
Wow. So, what, now they’re putting me next to other objects?

Yes! For instance, right now I’m looking at you in some Banksy graffiti, you next to a panda.
That’s so funny.

You with a cheerleader, but you don’t notice her …
Oh, that’s funny. So they like take paparazzi pictures and re-contextualize them? Funny.

Exactly.
Well, it sounds like harmless, good clean fun.

What do you make of how your fandom is changing?
I don’t know, I haven’t seen it. That one, well, I guess, though, when you think of how bad that stuff can go, that sounds like a pretty good clean fun one to have happening.

Given the options …
Yeah, I haven’t seen them. But given the scope and scale of what can happen out there, that sounds like an all right one. It sounds conceptually funny. [Laughs.]

[From NY Mag/Vulture]

God, I love Keanu. He really does seem like an easy-going sweetheart, doesn’t he? And I f-cking love that he asked, “So they like take paparazzi pictures and re-contextualize them?” He’s so smart!

Anyway, the full Vulture interview is nice – Keanu talks about past and present work, and is generally humble and kind and nice. Lovely man!

Thanks to Dlisted for the tip!

Keanu in NYC on Sept. 22, 2010. Credit: Bauer-Griffin.

Oh, this is good rumor! TMZ is trying to make like Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves were all over each other as they exited a restaurant last night. TMZ has video of the two of them kissing goodnight (here) and a photo of Charlize’s arms wrapped around Keanu, under his jacket. Eh. Is that proof that they’re boning? Could be. Charlize is single now, to my knowledge. She and Stuart Townsend split in January, and since then she’s only really been associated with Jeremy Renner as far as romantic gossip goes. So it could be happening.

Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron didn’t just share a romantic dinner at a Beverly Hills restaurant last night — they also shared a really intimate goodbye hug and kiss on the way out.
As the two walked out of Bouchon restaurant, the two locked in a really snug embrace and then tenderly swapped some cheek kisses.

It wasn’t exactly a makeout session — but it wasn’t the way you’d send off your grandmother either.

UPDATE: More evidence — when they hugged each other goodbye, Charlize’s hands are clearly UNDER KEANU’S JACKET!

[From TMZ]

Now, Charlize and Keanu are pretty close friends, by most accounts. They worked together in Sweet November and The Devil’s Advocate, and have always spoken highly of each other. Could love bloom amongst friends? Sure. However, I don’t think Charlize is Keanu’s type. He seems to go for brunettes with an edge, if I’m remembering his dating history correctly. Most likely they’re probably just affectionate friends. But we’ll see.

Here are some photos of Charlize and Keanu. I also threw in one of her and Renner.

It hasn’t even been a week since the news broke about Sandra Bullock’s husband being the biggest douche EVER, and already the tabloids are putting her together with various men. I’m taking these reports with an enormous grain of salt, because we really don’t know where Sandy is, what she’s doing, how she’s coping, or what her general state of mind is. I suspect her heartbreak is totally beyond just the “hand me the ice cream now, bitch” sense of betrayal. I suspect Sandra is nearly comatose from shock and despair. But, let’s think happy thoughts and imagine her drowning her sorrows in vodka-soaked bon-bons being fed to her by lithe, naked costars. Fetch me the Ben & Jerry’s, Keanu!

Yes, Keanu is one of the men that Sandra has been linked to in the past few days. No one is saying they’re hooking up, only that Sandra is “leaning” on him. The Sun reports that Sandra is “seeking advice from Keanu Reeves” and a source says, “ Keanu has always been close to Sandra and good friends with Jesse. He’s been helping both of them.” As for Keanu himself, Us Weekly cornered him at the Toyota event on Saturday:

Sandra Bullock’s longtime pal Keanu Reeves — who costarred with her in 1994′s Speed and 2006′s The Lake House — wishes the best for the Oscar-winning actress, 45, whose husband Jesse James allegedly had an 11-month affair with a tattoo model.

Reeves, 45, attended the 2010 Toyota Pro/Celebrity race training at the Willow Springs International Raceway in Rosemond, Calif., Saturday.

Asked if he has any well wishes for Bullock, 45, he told UsMagazine.com: “Yes, of course, I mean for everyone.”

Asked if he’s reached out to her, he kept his mouth closed and walked off.

Earlier this week’s Bullock’s husband of nearly five years, James, 40, publicly apologized for causing the actress any embarrassment. She has reportedly moved out of the couple’s Southern California home and hasn’t been seen since the affair news broke.

Meanwhile, James has still been wearing his wedding ring.

[From Us Weekly]

I always liked Keanu and Sandra together. They seem to have a very sweet friendship, and many after some time passes, it could develop into something more. Keanu has had a lot of personal problems too – so he might be too much of a wounded bird for a fragile Sandra. Better she let me take him. But I’ll let her borrow him.

Meanwhile, The Mirror’s gossip guy claims that Hugh Grant and Sandra have been talking on the phone, and that Hugh offered to fly out to LA to comfort her. Hmm…

If I had to draw up a list of miserable celebs then Hugh Grant would be my gold-plated, runaway number one. I’ve had the misfortune to meet Mr Huge Grump (geddit?) on a number of occasions and he truly is one bad-tempered man.

So imagine my surprise when I was told that old Grump has a soft, gooey side after all.
For I can reveal that he has been nothing short of a “Godsend” to Oscar-winning pal Sandra Bullock after she discovered her husband Jesse James was cheating on her with an over tattooed “lady” by the name of Michelle McGee.

I hear Sandy has been having long phone conversations with Hugh while she decides what to do about her five-year-long marriage to the biker dude.

My source reveals: “Hugh has been a huge support to her. He’s always thought extremely highly of Sandra and was really upset to hear about her troubles. Sandra’s shell-shocked by what’s happened – especially so soon after everything seemed so perfect after winning an Oscar for The Blind Side.”

“She doesn’t know whether she wants to fight for her marriage or not, but Hugh’s been talking things through with her and he’s been great. Sandy and Hugh have a special connection – always have. And Hugh will do everything he can to help her out – he even offered to fly out.”

The pair became best friends on the set of their 2002 romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice and have remained in touch since. At the time, Hugh was asked if he could ever fall for his co-star and he said: “Oh God yes, definitely. It would be very, very easy.”

[From The Mirror]

Ugh, I hated that movie they did together. Two Weeks Notice - what a turd that was. But they were adorable on the press junket for that film from what I remember, and I could buy that they’re friends in real life. Long term though, I don’t think Hugh is a good bet for Sandra either. He seems to like women who are a bit more “sexpot” than Sandra. But still, it’s good to have a friend. I imagine Sandra’s got a lot of friends in Hollywood that would be more than happy to help her out.

Sandra and Keanu at the UK premiere of ‘The Lake House’ on June 20, 2006, and at the 2006 Oscars. Sandra and Hugh at the ’Two Weeks Notice’ premiere on January 30, 2003. Credit: WENN.

Both People and Us Weekly have put tributes to Patrick Swayze on their covers this week. Sometimes I dislike the media raking over of some celebrities after their deaths, but I’m finding the coverage of Patrick’s passing to be very respectful. Everyone really seemed to love the man. Among the tributes for Patrick is a planned honor on Dancing With The Stars, which, Patrick was a huge fan of, and came and helped out the first season for his friend John O‘Hurley. DWTS executive producer Conrad Green told People, “We have some very fond memories of [the late actor] coming to help us our when we were a tiny little show way back when…He was one of the few people to integrate dance with being an A-list actor,” Green says. “He inspired many people and many of our pros to dance. We want to honor the great moments he’s brought to film by getting our dancers to do their interpretation to some music from his films.”

On yesterday’s The View, Patrick’s Ghost costar Whoopi Goldberg cried when talking about Patrick. She said: “This was a well fought battle. Patrick fought like the Dickens to survive it – or to get through it. He never thought of himself as someone who was dying. His attitude was, ‘Until it kills me I am going to keep doing what I am doing.’ He worked until the last minute … He just was a cat that never gave up.” About their time on the set of Ghost, Whoopi said, “He’d moon me…He was the greatest. Because of Patrick Swayze, I got that movie Ghost and because of Patrick Swayze, I have an Oscar,” Whoopi also talked about Patrick’s relationship with his wife of 34 years, Lisa Niemi: “The two of them were in love. they were also together…I can’t explain it any other way.”

Patrick wrote about his relationship with his wife in a soon-to-be-released memoir The Time of My Life. It was the book he was working on the last year, and it’s co-written by his wife. ABC News (via Us Weekly) has an early excerpt from the book, and it made me tear up:

“How grateful I am that you chose to love me,” he writes, according to ABC’s Good Morning America, which featured an exclusive audio clip of Swayze reading from his memoir. “I know that because of you, I’ve found my spirit. I saw the man I wanted to be. You are my woman, my lover, my mate and my lady. I loved you forever, I love you now and I will love you forever more.”

[From Us Weekly]

Sigh. I don’t even want to talk about it… so sad. Would anyone like a slightly happier piece of information? Here goes… Keanu Reeves is still pretty dumb. Not to mock him or anything, but his statement on Patrick’s passing was slightly incomprehensible. I’m sure Keanu was grieving, and he and Patrick were probably friends and loved working together and everything, but his statement made me chuckle. Keanu said about filming Point Break: “There was some sky diving sequences in this film we did together and as filming was going on it came to be that Patrick was jumping out of airplanes all the time. I think he had over 30 jumps during the course of filming and so the production served him with a cease and desist which he listened to until they got to Hawaii.” So… what’s that again? No, I joke. I get the story he’s trying to tell, I was just trying to lighten the mood. Keanu also called Patrick a “ beautiful person, an artist.” Then Keanu added, “Patrick, he just wanted to experience life and for his work he wanted to take the opportunity of the film and it gave him that sense.” Hm?

Thanks to CoverAwards for these cover photos

Earlier this week, Cameron Diaz was connected to Sex and the City hottie Jason Lewis (the big, strapping blonde who played Samantha’s lover Smith Jared). According to reports, coming mainly out of the British press, claim that Cameron and Jason were “sitting in the corner of Shima totally wrapped up in one another. They couldn’t stop touching each other. And we couldn’t stop looking.” To be fair, Cameron and Jason have allegedly been friends for a while, so it could have totally been a simple, friendly dinner. Or it could never have happened.

In the past month, the British press was also eager to set Cameron up with either/both Leonardo DiCaprio and/or Jude Law (before the Samantha Burke baby-mama news broke). The things with Leo and Jude came mainly out of reports that Diaz was partying with those guys in London. And where the Jason Lewis thing is a long way from being confirmed, People Magazine has a little blurb that will blow your mind – if your mind if blown by People’s “Caught In the Act” column. They claim: “Cameron Diaz and Keanu Reeves, grabbing drinks with a female companion at The Whisper Lounge at West Hollywood outdoor shopping mall The Grove. The two sipped pinot noir during their friendly-looking 45-minute meeting.” That sounds like the perfect little story to launch a British newspaper’s naughty hamburger story:

CAMERON DIAZ has been spotted on a date with Speed star KEANU REEVES – after a quick-fire round of romances with three other Hollywood heart-throbs.

The couple dined together at a secluded restaurant in Los Angeles before heading off to a cinema until the early hours. Playful Cameron entertained Keanu, 44, by trying to stuff an entire HAMBURGER into her mouth.

The star of There’s Something About Mary enjoyed a string of dates with both JUDE LAW and LEONARDO DICAPRIO on a visit to London last month. And earlier this month she had reportedly started dating Sex and the City hunk JASON LEWIS.

An onlooker at low-key eatery the Whisper Lounge in Los Angeles said of Cameron and Keanu: “They looked very cosy. Cameron was stuffing her burger in her mouth and playing up the fact that she has that wide mouth. Keanu was laughing – it was strange to see him giggling like that as he’s regarded as a bit serious.”

The duo washed down their meal with cocktails before heading arm-in-arm to a cinema where they stayed until 1am. Cameron, 36, and Keanu played lovers in 1996 flick Feeling Minnesota.

[From The Sun]

Even though I’m generally kind of “meh” about Cameron (I don’t hate her but I don’t love her), I kind of think she and Keanu would be great together. Cameron and Jason? Not so much. They’re too blonde, too tall. Too matchy-matchy. But Keanu and Cameron would be totally hot together. I’ve been waiting for him to find someone nice, someone who can make him laugh. He’s had so many struggles in his personal life, I just feel for the guy. I want him to be happy – and Cameron would be great for him.

Keanu Reeves is shown out shopping for a cellphone on 8/20/09. Cameron Diaz is shown at the Kids’ Choice Awards on 8/9/09. Credit: WENN.com. Jason Lewis is shown at the GLAAD Awards on 5/9/09. Credit: PRPhotos

Keanu Reeves is one of my favorite actors. I know, I know, he’s not really a very talented actor, but I love him anyway. After multiple viewings of Point Break, I was a total Keanu convert. Even though his acting is lacking, I respect his professionalism, his choices as an actor, and have sympathy for his really tragic personal life.

I suppose it was too much to ask that Keanu make that long-awaited sequel to Point Break. His new film, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, sounds like one of those achingly slow family-drama types that will only be a good rental if Keanu is shirtless. There’s hope for that, actually, because in the film, Keanu sports a large Jesus tattoo on his chest. Amen! Keanu, castmate Robin Wright Penn and writer-director Rebecca Miller (daughter of Arthur Miller, wife of Daniel Day-Lewis) are all in Berlin for the premiere of the film at the festival. Reuters has more about the film, but unfortunately, they don’t describe the Jesus tattoo in any great detail.

Keanu Reeves plays a young, tattooed shop assistant who turns the suburban world of his quiet neighbor upside down in Rebecca Miller’s new film “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.”

Pippa Lee, played by Robin Wright Penn, has just moved to a retirement community with her successful publisher husband Herb, a man 30 years her senior where her life revolves around serving perfectly cooked lamb and decorating her home.

But as she befriends aging neighbors and enrols in a pottery class with women old enough to be her mother, she starts to question her role as respectable mother, wife and hostess.

The arrival of Reeves’ character Chris, an unkempt 35-year-old who drives a beaten-up van and sports a giant Jesus tattoo on his chest, brings her angst into focus.

“Chris is part of her dream,” Reeves told reporters at the Berlin film festival, where the film — which also features Monica Bellucci, Winona Ryder, Julianne Moore and Alan Arkin as Lee’s husband Herb — screened this week.

“In this film, freedom means the possibility to experience yourself… to go find yourself,” said Reeves, who appeared on the red carpet in Berlin with a full beard.

Asked whether he preferred the beard to the Jesus tattoo of the film, he told Reuters, “Probably the beard is going to win.”

Reeves said he had not been able to refuse when Miller, the daughter of playwright Arthur Miller, had asked him to be in the film, based on her novel of the same name.

Wright Penn called the strong female cast “a blessing,” saying, “We waited a year to do this movie because we didn’t have the actors. We just didn’t have anybody that was absolutely right for it, no one would sign on. So patience is the virtue.”

In her film, Miller takes viewers from Lee’s life as a wife to her childhood and adolescence, letting them witness Lee’s own disbelief at the traumas she has hidden inside.

The film is Miller’s follow-up to “The Ballad of Jack and Rose,” which showed in Berlin in 2005 and starred her husband Daniel Day-Lewis. Asked about the similarities between Lewis and Reeves, Miller chuckled and said, “They are both very committed and talented actors. And very different.”

From Reuters UK

I saw The Ballad of Jack and Rose, and I really didn’t care for it, even though I love Catherine Keener. Rebecca Miller’s writing and directing style aren’t really world-class, and sometimes I wonder if she would doing this stuff if she wasn’t Arthur Miller’s daughter and Daniel Day-Lewis’s wife. I’ll probably rent the movie when it comes out though, just to see this alleged Jesus tattoo. Or maybe I’ll just watch Point Break again.

Keanu Reeves is shown at the Berlinale with Blake Lively, Rebecca Miller, Robin Wright Penn, and Zoe Kazan on 2/9/09. Credit: WENN

In the fall, Fox acquired the rights to the 90′s Japanese anime Cowboy Bebop with the intention of turning it into a feature-length live action film. Keanu Reeves has now signed on to play the lead character, Spike Speigel.

One of the big titles in anime, “Bebop” is set in a time where “astral gates” make interstellar travel possible. Humanity, decimated by a lunar explosion resulting from a gate accident, spread out across the solar system, as did crime, which gave rise to the use of bounty hunters.

Reeves would play Spike Spiegel, a bounty hunter and former member of a crime syndicate. Spiegel, along with Jet Black, a fellow bounty hunter and former cop, are the two pilots of the spaceship Bebop…

The show, which first aired on Tokyo TV and satcaster Wowow during the late 1990s, was strongly influenced by American music, even featuring action sequences — both space battles and mano a mano — timed to U.S. melodies.

Reeves’ association with the project leaked in the summer when Fox and 3 Arts Entertainment began the process of acquiring the rights from Sunrise Studios.

[from THR]

There are several problems with the threat of this film. First, a live action version will all but kill a beloved cult classic. Second, for everyone’s sake, will someone please stop casting Keanu Reeves? And finally, why can’t someone in Hollywood come up with a movie idea of their own?

2008 was a terrible year for films, as can be seen by the bland choices for the Globes. The Oscar nominations will be announced on January 22nd, and they can’t be expected to be any better. No one seems to have new ideas anymore – even the indie flicks are carbon copies of each other.

Hopefully this movie won’t turn into a Speed Racer-esque technicolor trip, though I can imagine Keanu will suck the life out of any scene he’s in even if the directors do decide to work with every color of the rainbow. Keanu may be a closeted genius, but it will be sad when moviegoers realize that the cartoon Spike has more charisma than his real-life counterpart.

[Thanks to I Watch Stuff for the story idea]