Here’s a story that makes me want to give Melanie Griffith a hug. Melanie was asked about how she looks so great while at an event to benefit the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. FYI – Melanie and her husband, Antonio Banderas, donated over $100,000 to the Children’s Hospital of LA earlier this year, in addition to gifting them with medical equipment. They did this rather quietly and without much fanfare. Anyway, at this event, Melanie told US Weekly that “Most people are telling me I look horrible” and that “The tweets I get are really nasty.” Noooo! Twitter has a lot of positive aspects, but it can really be a haven for trolls. Here’s more of what she told US Weekly:

Posing for photographs at the Oct. 20 Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles Gala: Noche de Ninos, the Oscar-nominated star looked slim and sexy in a strapless, curve-hugging floral gown by Dolce & Gabbana, with Miu Miu platform sandals, red lips, and a tousled up-do.

But it seems not everyone thinks the 55-year-old blonde is aging well. Us Weekly caught up with Griffith on the red carpet, where she revealed that folks on Twitter have had some not-so-nice things to say about her appearance of late.

“Most people are telling me I look horrible,” the Working Girl actress told Us. “The tweets I get are really nasty.”

Still, the star — whose daughter Dakota Johnson stars in the new Fox sitcom Ben & Kate — appeared to be in good spirits all night. She worked the room like a pro, smiling and laughing as she chatted with husband Antonio Banderas, pal Jamie Lee Curtis, and supermodel Heidi Klum, who received a “Courage to Care” award from the hospital.

So what’s the secret to Griffith’s composure in the face of criticism? Modesty. And exercise.

“I don’t know if I look that great,” she demurred. “[But] I work out a lot. I have a trainer that I [work with] four times a week, and I do hot yoga.”

[From US Weekly]

That’s awful! Melanie is in great shape, she’s been looking very thin and toned lately. She has gone a little too far with the plastic surgery, but it’s settling for her and she looks good. I find her really pretty. It makes me feel for her to hear her say most people say she looks horrible. It’s like she can’t take a compliment and it sounds like she’s taking the criticism to heart. There are so many nasty people on Twitter. I wish she wouldn’t pay it any mind.

Getting back to Melanie and her husband of 16 years, Antonio Banderas, I’m so glad to see them together at this event! We’ve heard that they’re having problems, maybe related to Banderas’ rumored cheating, and it’s nice to see them on the red carpet together. They also posed with Heidi Klum and Jamie Lee Curtis. I love these pics of Jamie Lee kissing Melanie. As for Melanie’s tight busy dress, the print looks like 80s curtains and it’s not a good look on her. The skirt part around the bottom is particularly fug. Maybe that’s why she was feeling insecure that night.

Photo credit: News Pictures/WENN.com

We’ve heard several recent stories about Antonio Banderas cheating on his longterm wife, Melanie Griffith. Tabloids have speculated that their divorce is imminent, and in a recent interview Melanie barely mentioned Antonio. When Melanie stepped out last week without her wedding ring, people assumed that she was sending a strong signal that she was over the marriage and ready to kick Antonio’s ass to the curb. Only Antonio is said to be trying to make it up to her with romantic gestures and promises. Melanie supposedly isn’t swayed, and is trying to stay away from him, for now. Here’s more:

Antonio Banderas is going to all lengths to keep his marriage to Melanie Griffith from ending up in divorce court– and his tactics are working!

After several reports that the Spanish hunk had cheated on his wife of fifteen years, and the disappearance of her wedding rings last week, a source tells RadarOnline.com that Banderas has gone into crisis control to save their relationship and that Griffith is finally responding to his lovey-dovey tactics.

“Antonio has been desperately trying to win Melanie’s trust back,” a source tells RadarOnline.com.

“He has been doing everything in his power to revive the romance — flowers, sweet-talking on the phone, and extravagant gifts — because he realizes that she is close to her breaking point.”

Griffith, who was photographed last week without her wedding ring on, knows that she has the upper hand in the situation though and isn’t going to give in easily.

“She is playing hard to get,” the source revealed. “She has always known how to keep him on his toes and it wasn’t a coincidence that the cameras caught her with her wedding ring off! Ultimately she will probably stay with him but not before making him squirm.”

Though Griffith’s wedding bling in back on her finger, the Working Girl actress is keeping her distance, spending time vacationing with their children in Aspen and Hawaii, while Banderas is busy jet-setting around the world for work.

“The day Antonio flew into Los Angeles for a work gig, Melanie left with the kids for Aspen. She isn’t messing around.

“The last thing Banderas wants is a nasty high-profile divorce,” the source continues. “Despite their problems he still loves her and will do anything to keep her from leaving him.”

[From Radar]

I’ve heard of other situations where husbands cheat and then act remorseful and sweet when they’re busted. It’s like they want the freedom of stepping out with none of the consequences. They act devastated when they learn that their infidelity could cost them their marriages. Banderas has been so supportive and loving of Melanie in public that I never pegged him for a cheater, but you never know. All the recent stories have been adding up. So I guess I don’t blame Melanie for trying to keep Antonio at arm’s length but not cutting him out entirely. She clearly loves him a lot, but she’s not exactly being a doormat. Of course a lot of people would say she is if she takes him back. I don’t imagine that she’d respond any differently, but I could be wrong.

Antonio is shown at a benefit in Rome on 7-12-12. Melanie is shown at the Munich Film Festival on 7-4 and at an event on 6-7-12. She’s shown with Antonio at this year’s Oscars in February. Credit: Fame Flynet and WENN.com

Melanie Griffith, 54, is working again after a three month stint in rehab for pain pill addiction in August, 2009. She’s been sober for nearly three years now and is now starring in a play in Burbank, California. It’s called “No Way Around But Through” and was written by and co-stars Scott Caan. I saw an interview with the two of them on Extra last month and they were so flirty with each other. After that, The Enquirer ran a story about how Melanie was flirting with Scott to get back at Antonio, who has been seen out with various other women who are not his wife. There’s plenty of speculation that Melanie and Antonio’s divorce is imminent, but I’m hoping that they pull through. I like both of them, and I don’t want to think of Antonio as a cheater.

Anyway Melanie did an interview with the L.A. Times to promote her role. She talked a lot about aging in Hollywood and how she’s discouraged by the lack of roles for women in their 50s. It made me sad for her. She always strikes me as fragile, and you can tell that it’s affected her. She also explained how her daughters convinced her to go to rehab in 2009. Melanie only mentioned Antonio once, in passing, and it kind of confirmed my suspicions that they’re either separated or going through a very rough patch. Here’s more.

You got great reviews on Broadway when you played Roxie Hart in “Chicago.” Why haven’t you done more theater, or are you planning to?
I would love to. I really love it. It’s so much more challenging than film. And the way the film business is these days, it’s pretty bad. And the things that are written now are not very good, not many. And the good ones go to the chosen few of the year or the decade. And there certainly aren’t a lot of movies written for women who are in their 50s. I think that’s always a shame; it should be done more.

I know you’ve been pursuing a number of projects recently, but I haven’t seen you around lately. Are you diving back into your career or were you doing that all along?
I have four kids, and Stella, my youngest, is 15, and she’s going into 10th grade in September, so now I can start thinking about going back to work. I really love working. It makes me feel like an even better person when I work. I function much better if I have a really rigid schedule. When I’m left to my own devices, I can just be all over the place.

Plus just getting older in this town is very hard on your self-esteem if you pay attention to what people say or read what people write. That’s why I really like doing theater. I think theater actors are a whole different breed.

Has it been hard for people to look past your girlish roles of the past when they’re casting?
I don’t know. And I really don’t care. Honestly. At this point, I would be really, really happy if I could do more work, if I could make more movies. But I don’t want to say that I would be grateful. I would be really happy to be working and be able to do my craft. But I’m not desperate anymore or feeling weird about myself because I’m not working in this business. I’m older and wiser and there’s a lot more to life.

You’ve struggled with sobriety over many years. How have you managed to succeed?
It’s exactly what I used to hear, when they would say, “It takes what it takes and you’ll know when you know.” What happened to me three years ago was the tipping point for me. It was when I finally went, oh, OK, I get it.

The family intervention?
No, it wasn’t an intervention, well, sort of, in a way. My daughters really sat me down and said, look, Mom, this is what it is. Dakota and Stella, both. I don’t want to say what really happened, but they were the ones who said, “You really need to get help,” and I heard them and knew what they meant. And I saw it and I did it. But I couldn’t have done it without them. I really couldn’t have. And I’m so grateful. I see now I just didn’t get it before. It doesn’t mean that I’m stupid. It’s just that that’s what the disease is.

[From The L.A. Times]

Both Melanie and Antonio have talked to the press prior to this about her latest stint in rehab. He opened up in an interview with AARP last year, saying that they’d all worked together as a family to help Melanie get sober. Melanie disagreed with that though, (and I just found this out) she was interviewed by AARP separately and said that Antonio “was in London at the time” that she went to rehab and that “We had two family weeks there, but we didn’t follow through.” Maybe I have a mistaken impression of how together they are. Maybe Antonio likes to present an image of a doting husband and family man when he’s off on trips hooking up with randoms. Melanie went on in that interview to praise him and say that he has been supportive, but she hedged a little.

“Antonio was supportive to the extent that he can be, but if you’re not an alcoholic or drug addict, and you find out that your wife is a bad one, it’s hard to deal with. … I wish he would go to a meeting with me or to Al-Anon, but it’s very foreign to him. Addiction runs in my family but not in his.

“I don’t mean that against him. I would like him to do more, but it’s a difficult thing to have happen in any family, and in that way he has been totally by my side. He really is the greatest guy.”

Well I’m glad to see Melanie working again, and sober. She was honored at The Munich Film festival on Monday for her long career. These photos are from that event, where she dressed like it was still the 90s in a v-neck leather mini dress, too much jewelry and a little black cardigan. It’s kind of a fug look, but it could be worse I guess.

They also premiered her new movie at the festival, a psychological thriller called The Grief Tourist. She looks very happy, but I have to say, where’s Antonio? We always see her at his events supporting him. The last time we saw Antonio he was partying in Cannes without Melanie.

Photo credit: API/FAMEFLYNET

We’ve been hearing plenty of stories lately about how Melanie Griffith’s husband of 16 years, Antonio Banderas, has been stepping out on her. I honestly didn’t want to believe them at first because Antonio has been so sweet to Melanie and their daughter, Stella, 11, over the years. I still remember how he gushed about Melanie to Hello! Magazine, and how he defended her when she went to rehab. All that may be ancient history when it comes to their relationship. According to The Enquirer, Antonio’s cheating is taking a predictable toll and they’re on the brink of divorce. Their estimated net worth is $50 million, with Antonio’s career of course the hotter of the two, especially as of late.

The tension between Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith is nearing a crisis point over fears that he’s cheating – and pals say the Hollywood power couple is now on the bring of a $50 million divorce!

And while Melanie was the bigger star when the A-listers married 16 years ago, sources say Antonio could walk away with half their fortune and wind up ahead because his earning power has soared while Melanie’s has plummeted.

“There’s a lot of money at stake,” a family friend told The Enquirer. “Melanie’s a mess. Not only is in jeopardy of losing the love of her life, but her career is in the toilet while Antonio’s star is continuing to rise…

“I think Melanie’s self esteem hit an all time low and she believed Antonio was torturing her [by openly flirting with other women],” the friend continued. “For years, it as if she’s been consumed with jealousy over his flirting and outspoken love for beautiful women.

“I don’t think Melanie can live with the constant fear that he might cheat…

“Melanie’s a dirty divorce veteran,” said the source. “But a split from Antonio could very well be the nastiest. There’s a lot of money at stake – and a lot of emotion.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, June 25, 2012]

Melanie seems crazy about Antonio. (I think it’s the big “Antonio” tattoo that convinces me, although tattoos often last much longer than marriages. She also hangs all over him in photo ops.) I’m still hoping that it’s not true that Antonio has been cheating and/or they can patch it up and work things out. They just seem suited for each other, and like they were pulling for each other. Damn. It’s sad for me to consider that they might be kaput. I don’t know why I like them so much together, but it may have something to do with Melanie’s obvious fragility, and how Antonio came across like he was protective and loving of her. He really opened up a lot to the press about their relationship, and that’s rare. He may have been full of crap, or things may have changed quit a bit for them since.

In other news about these two, they just donated over $100,000 to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, along with gifting needed medical equipment to the facility. I found this story after I wrote all that about worrying about them, so maybe they’re fine. They have also spent time at the hospital volunteering together as a family with their daughter, Stella, and recently hosted a party at their home to honor other benefactors. So that’s a good sign and such a nice way to give back to the community. This story gives me hope for them.

Melanie is shown on 6-7-12 at an event honoring Shirley Maclaine. Antonio is shown at Formula One in Monaco on 5-27 and in Cannes on 5-24. He’s shown with Melanie on 1-5-12 and at the Oscars on 2-26-12

Back in April, Star Magazine had an interesting story (with photo evidence) about Antonio Banderas fooling around on his wife, Melanie Griffith. Star claimed that Antonio and some busted-looking blonde were down in Cancun, partying and flirting and looking very much “together”. I was surprised by the lack of commenter surprise – it seems like many of you thought Antonio was capable of cheating, or has already been cheating on Melanie for a while. Anyway, here’s a new story from The Enquirer – while Melanie and Antonio were in Cannes last month, Antonio was flirting away with attractive women in front of his wife, and Melanie was so displeased, she threatened to leave him.

Melanie Griffith is threatening to give her Spanish heartthrob hubby Antonio Banderas the boot after seeing him getting overly cozy with two exotic beauties at the Cannes Film Festival! Antonio was caught on camera cuddling with gorgeous Goga Ashkenazi, a super-rich businesswoman and socialite from Kazakhstan at the Cinema Against AIDS party. But that wasn’t all! Antonio was also snapped getting down on the dance floor with Bollywood stunner Mallika Sherawat, who was decked out in a revealing see-through black dress.

“Melanie’s eyes almost popped out of her head when she saw that,” a source told The Enquirer. “She couldn’t believe Antonio would dance so close to another woman. Antonio knows he’s a heartthrob and he makes no secret of his love for beautiful women. Even though Melanie didn’t catch him cheating, the photos of Antonio with Mallika and Goga really freaked her out.”

Insiders say a furious Melanie lashed out at Antonio, 51, as soon as she saw the pictures, but the flirtatious actor just brushed off her concerns.

Making matters worse, rumors swirled that he’d invited stunning Mallika to Spain to tour the new facilities of an AIDS charity they both support.

“Melanie feels there is absolutely no reason for Antonio to be inviting anyone to Spain with him, except HER… she told him if she ever sees him cozying up to another girl, the marriage is over. Neither one of them really wants out of the marriage, so he agreed to her demands just to keep the peace.”

[From The Enquirer, print edition]

I was just looking through our photos, and I can’t even find any of Melanie in Cannes this year. Was she even there? Was Antonio flying solo in Cannes (and then in Monaco for the Grand Prix), and while he was there, he was flirting up a storm with available women? Yikes. Whatever is going on with them, I do have some concerns. Maybe they have some kind of arrangement – they’ll stick with their marriage through the bitter end, and both of them gets to do whatever they want for their extracurricular activities? Hm.

Photos of Antonio in France and Monaco in May, and Melanie at Coachella in April, courtesy of WENN.

The American Film Institute awarded Shirley MacLaine with a Lifetime Achievement Award last night in LA. Guess who was on hand to give Shirley the award? MERYL! For the event, Meryl stayed by Shirley’s side the entire time. Meryl also decided to wear what I’m assuming are flat-out DRAPES. Really fussy drapes at that. So, obviously, Meryl was a sartorial hot mess, but I can’t hate on her. Clothes aren’t her thing. So she’s wearing drapes. Or a tablecloth. Or wallpaper. As for Shirley – well, if she has one more facelift, her eyes are going to meet at the back of her head. Look how natural Meryl looks in comparison!

Other celebrities in attendance… well, Jennifer Aniston was there, but she didn’t walk the red carpet, so we don’t have access to any photos of her – you can see some here. Here’s Elizabeth McGovern wearing what amounts to a doily. McGovern and MacLaine have been working together on Downton Abbey.

Marcia Gay Harden and Melanie Griffith (Melanie was without Antonio last night – dunDUNdun). Marcia looks great, doesn’t she? And Melanie looks… er… okay.

Toni Collette wins everything, forever. She’s not barefoot – she’s just wearing sandals that blend into the black-grey carpet.

Here’s Wendi Deng, wife of Rupert Murdoch. Why is she dressed like a Molly Ringwald character?

Katherine Heigl looks like she’s about to tell someone off. She probably is. Her dress is fine, but THAT HAIR. The makeup sucks too – that is the wrong lipstick color for her.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Star Magazine claims that Antonio Banderas was spotted out with a blonde in Cancun in late March. They have photos to prove it, and while Antonio and the blonde aren’t seen to be kissing or anything, they do look overly familiar. I have to hand it to CB – she really didn’t want to believe this story, and she went about trying to prove that Antonio‘s “mystery blonde” was some female relation. We don’t have the photos that Star Magazine used, but I’ll describe them – Antonio was photographed partying at a nightclub with a busted-looking blonde woman. To my eyes, she looks mid to late-30s, styled like a Real Housewife of Orange County on a night off. Too much makeup, a really bad bottled-blonde hue, giant earrings. CB thought the woman looked younger, though – and could possibly be Melanie Griffith’s adult daughter Dakota. But! Dakota is beautiful – and the chick with Antonio just isn’t.

“To be married in our profession is not an easy thing,” Antonio Banderas once said of his relationship with Melanie Griffith. “There’s too many beautiful people around, very interesting people.”

Now Star can reveal that Antonio gave in to the temptation, connecting with one particularly beautiful, interesting person at Cancun nightclub Coco Bongo on March 24.

Antonio, 51, was spotted getting down and dirty with a younger version of Melanie, 54, from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. at the crowded hotspot – and she wasn’t the only one. “He was partying and dancing with lots of women,” an eyewitness tells Star.

A source says Antonio was in Mexico for several days without Melanie – and turned to this young woman for company. Antonio and his gal pal were “singing, dancing and partying” for hours, the source says.

Did Melanie know? She does now!

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

There have been tabloid rumors about Antonio maybe-probably fooling around on Melanie before – in 2007, he was photographed with another busted blonde, although that time, he didn’t look quite as friendly with her, and I could buy that they were just friends.

Antonio has talked with a lot of honesty about his marriage in interviews, and he always comes across as a very decent man who adores his wife. I don’t know what to make of these stories – I don’t have a huge problem thinking that Antonio might be screwing around. It could happen. But that doesn’t mean he won’t always go home to his wife?

PS… Maybe it’s just a SPRING BREAK hookup in Cancun? Is Antonio a douchey college boy?

Photos courtesy of WENN.

These are photos from last night’s Goya Awards in Madrid. Let’s just start with Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith. The other day, I was watching part of Working Girl – how great is that movie? And Melanie is great in it too. When Melanie got with Antonio, she seemed to definitely feel that she was “the older woman/cougar” and soon after, she began screwing with her face. It’s believed that Antonio – over the past few years – has been encouraging Melanie to go natural and stop messing with her face. In interviews, it seems like he’s still very much in love with his wife, and he takes her as she is and wants her to accept herself as-is. Which brings me to these photos – I honestly think Melanie looks less jacked then she usually seems. Her face looks worked on, sure. But there’s natural aging there too. And her lips has definitely taken a turn for the better. I like the dress on Melanie too – it’s matronly! As it should be.

Salma Hayek and her man were at the Goya Awards too. I’m not in love with the dress, I really dislike her hair, and yet I come away thinking that Salma is still incredibly sexy. It’s her crazy body. Jesus. I would love to have that kind of body just for a day. A week! Forever, I want to try her body for forever.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Barbara Walters is 82 years old and has probably had at least a couple of face lifts prior to her most recent work. Unlike say, Betty White whose face lift(s) look natural and were allowed to settle at some point, Barbara keeps tweaking it and she’s starting to get that freaky look. (Don’t tell me Betty hasn’t had any work done. She’s admitted to getting her eyes done at least and she looks way too good to be all natural at 89.) As I’ve mentioned many times before, I’m completely fine with face lifts and will probably get one myself in about 15 to 20 years. I’m serious, and I’m being honest. It’s the injectables, the touch ups and the follow up surgeries that end up screwing with your face. I really wanted to report on poor Melanie Griffith’s latest work, which is really really bad, but we don’t have the latest photos of her yet. I hope it settles for her. Instead we’re writing about Barbara. You may have heard this last week on Radar, but In Touch is running something on Melanie and Barbara’s work (alongside their Brandi Glanville plastic surgery story) and The Daily Mail has more about Barbara:

With her career still going strong you can’t blame Barbara Walters for wanting to maintain her on-camera appearance.

The 82-year-old television host and veteran journalist recently debuted what appears to be a freshly-tightened face sparking rumours that she went under the knife.

Barbara showed off her smoother complexion and more define jawline at the wedding of Sir Paul McCartney to Nancy Shevell ten days ago.

This is not the first time that Barbara has been rumoured to have gone under the knife in the name of her appearance.

Back in 2007 she also looked to have freshened up her face with some form of tightening procedure. – Daily Mail

---

With the iconic stars appearing to have rejected the option of aging gracefully or naturally, RadarOnline.com asked a plastic surgery expert why they may have gone to such extremes to fight back the years.

Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Ashkan Ghavami (who has not treated either star) told RadarOnline.com in an exclusive interview that he thinks both women have had what he calls “the last straw” in facial plastic surgery.

“By last straw, I mean that they have likely had procedures before and now with this extensive work, they look overdone,” Dr. Ghavami told RadarOnline.com.

“Barbara Walters appears to have had another facelift combined with way too much fat or filler injections,” he explained, adding that her face doesn’t look like it has settled yet and still has post-operative swelling.

Dr. Ghavami went on to say that The View host looks like she has had too much fat removed from around her eyelids, causing an “A line” deformity.

“The combination of excess pull and too much fat transfer are likely the culprits here,” he told RadarOnline.com. – Radar Online

[From Daily Mail and Radar]

I really think Barbara, and Melanie, looked better before. At least Barbara is almost 30 years older and doesn’t have a mask-like face yet. Those cheeks are really bad though. I don’t give a crap about her and found her so pompous during her book tour. She’s a piece of work. I hope she ends up looking like Priscilla Presley or Joan Rivers. Melanie, I like though and I really want her to stop with the visits to her surgeon. It must be hard to see positive results and then take a step back and realize you need to stop or there’s no going back. There are always things we want to improve, but less is best when it comes to surgery and injectables.

March 13, 2010:

August 1, 2009:

Antonio Banderas is the sexy cover boy for this months AARP magazine. I can imagine retired ladies sitting in their condos in Boca, fanning themselves at both Antonio’s inviting stance on the cover, and the sweet honest things he says about his wife in the interview. Antonio, 51, has been married to actress Melanie Griffith, 54, for 15 years and they have a daughter, Stella, who is almost 15. Last year Antonio and Melanie talked openly to Hello! Magazine about their issues as a family when Melanie needed to go to rehab for a painkiller addiction. Antonio made it clear that they had problems, but that they were ultimately solid and remained tight as a family and as a couple. He said “There are days that I’ve fallen in love with her many times over, because of things that she’s done.”

In this latest interview, it’s more of the same from Antonio. He’s so honest about what they’ve gone through that it’s refreshing. He also talks about how they fell in love with each other when they were both with other partners, and how he’s tempted to cheat too. I was so impressed with this interview.

Q: You met when you costarred in the 1995 comedy Two Much. How did you go from a professional to a personal, romantic relationship?

A: I think we were both unhappy with our different relationships at the time. I wouldn’t put anything on the shoulders of the other persons. Things just don’t work sometimes, and that’s the way it goes. But we recognized that we were unhappy. And I saw this sweet, vulnerable soul, funny, also very smart and generous. I saw her with her kids, and she was so beautiful as a mom. It happens sometimes that you connect with your costar. It’s normal. But at the end of the movie, it’s just “delete” — you go home and it’s good-bye. But it didn’t happen. We kept calling each other on the phone all day long. And then one day we had to actually confront it. And we did. It was not easy.

Q: That’s a long time for a Hollywood marriage. What’s your secret?

A: The secret is that we had failures before. And love at the beginning is a rush. It’s big, full of energy, beautiful. But it doesn’t last like that. Melanie and I talked about that a lot. Are we going to make the mistake of looking back for that thing all the time? Or are we going to look ahead and create universes that are different? We made the second choice. That thing at the beginning disappeared, but it became something better. We discovered the value and warmth of family, and what is home — that we can be stronger together. That thing that you thought was gone comes back again, and you fall in love again. Even in crisis, we have been patient enough to detect that at the end of the tunnel was a light. We have had as many problems as anybody. We’ve never hidden it. We’ve been open about addictions, in the case of Melanie. She has overcome her problems beautifully. I didn’t know she was so strong. It makes me love her even more, because she has been an unbelievable lion fighting, and she got it. The last [relapse] was three years ago, and it just welded us.

Q: When she went back into treatment? How did that weld you?

A: The whole family participated. We did all the therapies together — the kids, everybody. It was a very unique experience, not only for Melanie. It was very rewarding at the end.

Q: Many people want to keep these kinds of problems from their kids.

A: The pretending is the worst, because kids are so smart. They can see through all of those things, and if you don’t talk openly about problems, it creates a very dark place. They carry that through the rest of their lives, to their marriages, to their kids.

Q: Who decided to be open with them? You or Melanie?

A: Melanie. She was the one.

Q: Can we talk about fidelity and recent instances in the news of men behaving badly? Anthony Weiner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Edwards, Tiger Woods — what is going on?

A: It has always happened, and it’s not just in Hollywood or in Washington. Is it in our genes? Are we monogamous or not? Have we been trying to put men on a path that is not natural? I think men are drawn to the hunting — the psychological reaffirming of themselves in their manhood.

Q: So how do you deal with temptation when you’re in a marriage?

A: It’s a very, very personal issue how you deal with that. [You have to ask yourself ] if you are willing to damage what you have — your kids, your family, your friends. How do you deal in your sexual life with your wife? How rich can you make it in order to not have to look for something outside your marriage? What other things can you do, in your home? What are the things that you may tell her, or are you going to be always lying? There may be people who don’t even allow themselves to watch a movie and say to their wife, “Ah, that actress is sexy,” because their wife may get very upset. I think that you should be able to be honest with your wife: “I should be able to tell you that, yeah, sometimes I walk into a party and I feel there are women there that are very beautiful. And you shouldn’t be upset. In the same way, you may see a guy who’s very attractive.” The question is, how much will you stretch that? It’s all about balance in life. We all need water, obviously, but I’m not going to drink the pool. [Laughs.] I think it’s very important that you know exactly where the limits are.

[From AARP.org]

That was so insightful and eloquent. I really enjoyed reading that and imagining Antonio saying it in his sexy voice! It’s even more impressive when you realize that he only started to learn English in 1992. He’s had plenty of practice, and he’s learned to express himself so beautifully. I get the impression that he hasn’t always been faithful to Melanie, and we’ve heard rumors to that effect, but that whatever happened he’s faithful now and he’s really learned his lesson.

On another issue, Melanie’s addiction to painkillers, that seems to be so common lately. I’ve had at least two friends who have been addicted to them after getting prescriptions for legitimate pain issues. My friends didn’t realize that they were dependent on the medication and that it was causing so many other issues with their bodies until well after they were addicted.

Photo of Antonio alone is from a photocall yesterday in Rome. Other photos are from July and August of this year. Credit: WENN.com