I’ve been hearing this rumor for a few weeks, but now Paul Bettany is confirming it – apparently, he was the first choice to play the lead role in The King’s Speech. As in, Paul Bettany could have played King George VI, and Paul could be the dude sweeping the awards instead of Colin Firth. What if, what if, what if. Anyway, I think the whole thing started when The King’s Speech’s screenwriter David Seidler said in an interview that Paul was his first choice to play the king. Then, when Paul got some questions about it during Sundance, he basically said that he had been offered the part ahead of Colin. That’s a big no-no, talking about the parts that you passed on. But Paul does it in a way that I find charming, mostly because you can tell that he really does regret passing on it, but he still had great reasons for passing:

British actor Paul Bettany regrets not taking Colin Firth’s Oscar-nominated role in “The King’s Speech.”

Screenwriter David Seidler has said he wrote the screenplay — also nominated — with Bettany in mind for the role of King George VI, with Oscar-nominated Geoffrey Rush as his speech therapist.

In an interview at the Sundance Film Festival on Tuesday, shortly after it was announced that the film had received 12 Oscar nominations, Bettany explained what he regrets most about not accepting the role:

“Number one, of course, it is a regret not to be working with such great, and really great people, Geoffrey Rush and (director) Tom Hooper. I think it is a little inelegant for me to discuss it. I had been working for five months steadily and my son missed me and I missed my son. Both of my sons and my wife,” explained the actor, referring to his work on “The Tourist” as Inspector John Acheson. Bettany is married to actress Jennifer Connelly and they have two sons together.

“Do I regret it?” said Bettany. “I regret not working with such amazing, amazing actors and directors and writers. But no, I have to do the right thing by my family every time.”

[From The Canadian Press]

There must be some way to give a special award to Paul!!! God, I love him. I love any man who uses “inelegant” in a sentence. I love any man who puts his family above his career. I love Colin Firth a lot too, and Colin was absolutely brilliant in the role. Paul probably would have been brilliant too, but we’ll never know.

Here’s nobody’s second best, Colin Firth, in London today… I love Colin and Paul equally. They are both lovely Englishmen. I want them in my own private cucumber sandwich.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

When I was covering the NYC premiere of The Tourist last week, I noted that Paul Bettany’s wife Jennifer Connelly was looking especially pretty and healthy – she appeared to have put on some much-needed weight, and she just seemed to be glowing and lovely. Now we know why – she’s knocked up! Jennifer and Paul just announced that they are expecting their second child together – Jennifer gave birth to their son Stellan back in 2003. Jennifer also has an older son, Kai, from a relationship in her youth. Here’s the kicker: Jennifer is 40 years old! And Paul is 39 years old. Does anyone else get hot for two attractive people – who are the same age – in a loving relationship that includes babies every seven years or so? Forget the recent rash of breakups – I will be heartbroken if Jennifer and Paul ever split.

Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany are expanding their family. The actress, 40, is pregnant with her third child, her rep confirms to PEOPLE.

Connelly and The Tourist star Bettany, 39, are already parents to son Stellan, 7, as well as Kai, 13, from her previous relationship with David Dugan.

“Becoming a mother has made all the difference in terms of learning to take more responsibility for myself and my life,” she has said.

“Parenthood changed the way I do everything. The biggest thing for me is wanting my kids to grow up safely and have happy lives. To me, that’s enough.”

The couple, who met filming A Beautiful Mind, wed in Scotland in 2003.

[From People]

Jennifer is such a lucky bitch. Of course, Paul is too, you know. He’s a corpsey, goony (hot) Englishman who hides his ginger and he scored a gorgeous American bird. For her part, Jennifer is a lucky bitch because Paul so obviously adores her and treats her like a princess. Sigh… I love this story.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Okay, so this is just my review of The Tourist – if you want to read the bad reviews, and there are totally SO MANY bad reviews, go here to Rotten Tomatoes, where The Tourist is holding at 20%. From the looks of the reviews, you’d think that Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie had made Ishtar 2: Kingdom of the Crystal Dong. But I went to see The Tourist last night, and I have a confession: it really wasn’t that bad. In fact, I rather enjoyed it.

Is it because I’m a Brangeloonie? Sure. I’m positive that my card-carrying membership to Empress Zahara’s Queendom had something to do with my general warmth towards the film. But if something sucks hard, I hope you have enough faith in me to call it as I see it. Here’s an example: when I saw Salt earlier this year, it disappointed me. I thought it was a waste of many talented people, I thought the script issues were atrocious, and I thought the plot holes were ridiculous. I don’t really want to see Salt again – but I would watch The Tourist again tomorrow.

So why the bad reviews? I think it’s because there is a problem with “tone”. The film isn’t some serious movie, and it’s totally not the best work any of the actors or the director has ever done or will ever do. It was like the film didn’t know whether it was a quirky little Hitchcock Lite suspense/dramedy or whether it should just be full-on action/drama.

And yes, there were other problems too: the music was sketchy, and detracted from several key scenes. Angelina’s hair was a rat’s nest for the last half of film, and it was totally distracting. Also, her costumes: she can wear the hell out of a suit or a slim-cut dress, but the evening clothes were tragic. For a major part of the film, she’s wearing a ghastly Gone With the Wind ball gown – in another part, she’s wearing a lumpy satin dress that makes her abdomen look like a tree trunk. Poor girl has never had much of a defined waist, and this dress was the wrong choice for her body type. As for Depp – his come-and-go facial hair was distracting. As was Jolie’s come-and-go accent.

What was good? Depp and Jolie gave understated, solid performances. Once again, not the best work from either of them, but they weren’t bad either. They didn’t have a lot of sexual chemistry, but their little love story was sweet, and the two characters seemed to affectionately like each other, rather than be all hot and bothered for each other. There were no sex scenes – there didn’t need to be. This was Depp as his most “normal” – no garish costumes or makeup to hide behind. It was nice. Refreshing, even. It was also refreshing to see Jolie play a character where her default position isn’t on “kick his ass”. Her character gets out of situations realistically, like a smaller woman without a death wish would, rather than some strident action heroine, bustin’ a cap in every bitch trying to mess with her. I also liked that she was playing “beautiful” – every man who comes into contact with her stops to check her out. Angelina doesn’t play that part very often.

My favorite part of the film? Paul Bettany. He was AMAZING. If you feel like seeing a fun, silly little movie and you’re trying to decide, let Paul Bettany’s scene-stealing performance be the deciding factor. Every scene with him popped. He was funny, he was sexy, he was dashing, and he was a total wisecracking, know-it-all a–hole. He was the perfect foil, the perfect character actor, the perfect sidekick.

There was also some decent character work done by the underutilized Timothy Dalton and Rufus Sewell, and a cameo by Raoul Bova. The “villain” was played by long-time character actor Steven Berkoff, who, if you’re in anything like me, is known solely for his role as Victor Maitland in Beverly Hills Cop. Of course, I’ve seen Beverly Hills Cop about a million times, so during all of Berkoff’s scenes, I was flashing back to his dialogue with Eddie Murphy.

All in all, I’d give the film a B-minus. If you want to see something silly, sweet and a bit cheesy, and Paul Bettany looking fine in a suit, you should see this.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

And now for Part II of our coverage of last night’s premiere of The Tourist. I had been hoping that all of Jolie’s hot male costars would show up for the premiere, and indeed, most of them did. Johnny Depp, the lead jointly with Jolie, flew solo for the event – God knows where Vanessa Paradis was. I’m pretty sure Depp is still filming the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film in London, so this was likely just a day trip for him – that’s all he could be spared. It looks like that Jack Sparrow eye makeup is really hard to wash off, right? Yeah… I think Depp looks kind of mangy here, but I will allow the possibility that his hair and styling looks so bad because this was a hurried trip.

Interesting side note: the two leads, Depp and Jolie, did not pose for photos together on the red carpet. At all. No chummy-but-professional awkward arms-on-back pose, no kissy-face for the cameras. It’s weird.

Anyway, you know who I just can’t get enough of? Paul Bettany. He’s grown out his hair and… DAMN, this man is FINE. Paul plays the government dude trying to track Angelina Jolie’s character, I think. It’s the kind of supporting part Paul usually gets, but now that he’s stirring up my lady bits, I’m hoping he takes another stab at lead roles. He’s really, really handsome here. Oh, and his beautiful wife Jennifer Connelly looks good too – she’s wearing Balenciaga. Eh on the dress, but she looks good – she’s gained some weight after looking painfully thin for a while.

I know you bitches like Rufus Sewell… we get a lot of requests for him for HGF. I think he often comes across as rather smarmy, but yes, he is an attractive man. He looks really good here too.

And Brooke Shields, for some reason. She’s not in the movie, I guess she just wanted to see it.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Paul Bettany is pretty cool, though he’s no Gerard Butler. So it comes as a surprise that Gerard Butler was replaced by Paul on the soon-to-be filmed “horror-western” film Priest, based on a graphic novel. According to My Park Mag, Priest is about “a warrior clergyman who confronts a band of vampires who have kidnapped his niece… It is an adaptation of a TokyoPop comic book, which is based in a world that has been ‘ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampire’.” Yikes.

Paul Bettany is to star as a priest in a new horror movie.

The ‘Match Point’ actor has been approached to re-team with his ‘Legion’ director Scott Stewart in ‘Priest’ after ’300′ star Gerard Butler dropped out of the project.

Clint Culpepper, president of Screen Gems who are making the movie, said he believed the ‘Da Vinci Code’ star was perfect for the title role in the new film.

He said: “I knew the minute I saw Scott’s first cut of ‘Legion’ that Paul was ‘Priest’ and I mentioned it to him immediately.”

Described as a horror western, ‘Priest’ follows a warrior clergyman who confronts a band of vampires who have kidnapped his niece.

It is an adaptation of a TokyoPop comic book, which is based in a world that has been “ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampire”.

[From My Park Mag]

Who thinks of this stuff? I can never tell if these kinds of graphic novels (the kind where you have to believe the earth has been “ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampire”) are extremely creative or so utterly boring.

In other Gerard Butler news, the film that he did a year and a half ago has gotten a new name. It was called Game, but will now be called Citizen Game. Like a play on Citizen Kane. The film is another one of these futuristic bloodfests, so don’t go expecting a romantic comedy:

Lionsgate has released the first photo from the film that used to be called Game starring Gerard Butler, but is apparently now titled Citizen Game.

The picture is directed by Crank duo Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor and stars Gerard Butler as Kabel in a futuristic film in which Kabel participates in Slayers, an ultra-violent multi-player online game in which millions worldwide tune in online to watch him and hundreds of other convicts battle.

As for the new title, I have no idea if this is supposed to be some sort of play off Citizen Kane or if it is to imply the citizens fuel this violent game or what, but it just seems silly.

However you look at it, Citizen Game is set to hit theaters on September 4.

[From Rope of Silicon]

Yes, it all seems very silly. Here’s my question: are Paul Bettany and Gerard Butler on the same playing field? Paul is a really talented actor, but I can’t really see a big, futuristic action film falling on his slender shoulders. He should be doing thoughtful, quiet dramas, right? Now, if Gerard Butler had stayed on to play the vampire-killing priest, I might have bought it.

Here’s Paul Bettany at the People’s Choice Awards in Los Angeles on January 7th. Images thanks to WENN .

It’s sort of startling to read about an actress who is so utterly well-adjusted and down-to-earth as Jennifer Connelly. I would say that she’s boring, but even when she’s downplaying her great marriage, motherhood and life, she’s still really interesting.

Connelly sat down for an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald to promote He’s Just Not That Into You. In the film, Connelly plays a married woman absorbed with her career and her own idea of the perfect life – so wrapped up that she doesn’t notice that her husband (played by Bradley Cooper) is falling for Scarlett Johansson’s character. This is just my opinion, but I’ve always that Connelly is immensely talented, and this film is totally beneath her.

Connelly talks about how much her first son, Kai, changed her life. She also talks about her husband, British actor Paul Bettany a little, but I want more! She and Paul have another son together, a five-year-old named Stellan. Paul and Jennifer will be working with each other again on the Charles Darwin biopic, Creation. Jennifer will be playing Darwin’s wife. Sydney Morning Herald has more:

Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly has made a successful habit of playing generally unhappy or tormented women in movies. From her junkie role in Requiem For A Dream and her Oscar-winning performance as the struggling wife of John Nash (Russell Crowe) in A Beautiful Mind to her subsequent turn as a thrill-seeking journalist in Blood Diamond, she has avoided the lightweight roles that defined her early career.

“I was drawn to playing in something that was a little lighter,” Connelly says. “It’s a feel-good movie, it’s a popcorn movie. I like popcorn movies too. You can sit down with your friends when you don’t really want to watch anything heavy and have some fun with it.”

Perhaps it’s no surprise that Connelly plays one of the film’s less extravagant characters, the highly strung Janine, a professional who has taken the plunge and married. Her mistake is that she gets so caught up in creating a perfect life that she doesn’t notice her lawyer husband (Bradley Cooper) succumbing to Johansson’s charms.

“Although there are great guys in it too, I was really drawn to the idea of working with a bunch of women,” Connelly says. “A lot of my scenes are with Ginnifer, who plays my closest friend, and that was interesting to me because I haven’t really done that in a film. Usually I’m a wife or mother and often I’m with lots of men.”

Displaying a refreshing candour, Connelly, a self-confessed perfectionist, admits the joys of motherhood and her marriage to the outgoing British actor Paul Bettany, whom she met on A Beautiful Mind, have helped her to relax. However, she says it was the birth of her son, Kai (now 11), from her previous relationship with photographer David Dougan, that set her on the road to success.

“I don’t think I would have been able to do the quality work that followed if it hadn’t been for my son,” she says. “He changed me. He helped me to understand myself and find my place in the world.”

Connelly’s return to acting came after she had studied English at Yale and Stanford. She graduated to more adult fare in Mulholland Falls, Inventing The Abbotts, Dark City and Pollock, though admits “it took a while to change people’s perceptions of me”.

Her career blossomed with her appearances in the Oscar-nominated films House Of Sand And Fog and Little Children. She had a starring turn as a desperate mum in the horror film Dark Water and she was Eric Bana’s ex and co-worker in The Hulk.

“I wish there were more strong, dramatic roles. I love working and I don’t often find things that I feel [I] really love. I often make choices because it’s a decent choice.”

Connelly is a low-key kind of movie star. Based in New York, she and Bettany try to manage their movie commitments around their family, which now includes their five-year-old son, Stellan.

“Paul and I started out trying to work at different times but it’s a bit unrealistic with the timing of projects,” Connelly says. “That said, it’s worked out really well. We do a lot of flying around to different places to make sure the family is together. I think the longest we have ever been apart is two weeks … so it’s a lot of aeroplanes. It’s very bad for the environment, I know, but it’s been really good for our family.”

Currently she is again playing a wife, this time in the Charles Darwin biopic, Creation, which chronicles the naturalist’s early years as he struggles to cope with the loss of a child. Still, she’s not complaining as she finally reunites with Bettany on screen.

“We’d been circling around things, trying to find something to do together for some time,” she says, “and now I feel so lucky to be able to come to work with him every day. It’s really great. Not many people get to be so fortunate.”

From The Sydney Morning Herald

I didn’t know that Jennifer and Paul had their home base in New York – I really thought they lived in London. I’ve seen interview with Paul, and to say that he adores his family is an understatement – that man worships his wife, his son and his step-son. Jennifer Connelly might be one of the luckiest women in the world, but
she will forever underplay it.

Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany are shown at the NY premiere of Inkheart on 1/15/09. Credit: WENN

Jennifer Connelly just lost a whole bunch of weight, which had some sources speculating that she was unwell, losing weight for her scary Balenciaga campaign, or competing with her He’s Just Not That Into You co-star Jennifer Aniston.

Her husband, Paul Bettany, felt compelled to reveal yesterday that the weight loss was because of grief.

Jennifer Connelly is undoubtedly one of the most gorgeous actresses in Hollywood. But lately, recent reports have focused on Connelly’s sudden weight loss, which have people wondering if the He’s Just Not That Into You star is okay.

At Monday’s 20th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, Connelly’s husband, British actor Paul Bettany, finally addressed the weight loss rumors.

“I will tell you… My wife just lost her father,” he explained to OK!.

OK! Magazine

Jennifer lost her father Gerard in September.

Paul Bettany obviously felt the need to defend his wife’s weight loss, which is a bit sad in a way. I guess we can sometimes look at Hollywood stars and think they have these wonderful glamorous lives that aren’t touched by the same tragedies as ours. But the sudden loss of Jett Travolta this week, or Jennifer’s father Gerard, kind of shows us that everyone, no matter how wealthy, famous or intelligent, still lives through the same basic human experience we all do.

Jennifer and her husband Paul are working together on the film Creation, about Charles Darwin. She can be seen currently in The Day the Earth Stood Still, and He’s Just Not That Into You.

Jennifer Connelly is shown at the premiere of The Day The Earth Stood Still on 12/9/08. Credit: WENN and Fame

The stars were out at Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards at Avery Fischer Hall in NY City last night. Jennifer Garner was accompanied by her husband, Ben Affleck, to accept her award as “The Icon Next Door.”

Senator John Edward’s wife, Elizabeth Edwards, was named “The Role Model,” and her award was presented by her children, Cate, Emma Claire and Jack. Elizabeth Edwards is a breast cancer survivor and is currently fighting stage four breast cancer that has spread to a spot on her rib. She is being treated with anti-estrogen drugs.

Young Abigail Breslin was named “The American Girl,” and famed author Toni Morrison was given a lifetime achievement award titled “The Voice of Our Time.”

Garner has an interview with Glamour in which she talks about balancing motherhood with her career and admits that she is a “goody-goody,” but is not immune to an occasional diva moment. She also says that she doesn’t pose on the red carpet with her husband Ben because she tries to avoid the needless speculation that goes along with that:

GLAMOUR: Your press is impeccable. Your fans adore you. Do you have a dark side, or are you a goody-goody?

JENNIFER GARNER: You totally called me out. I am a bit of a goody-goody. Not that there aren’t times when I think, I was kind of an asshole today. I work in a world in which people are really catered to; someone will come up to me and say, “Is it OK if this person’s makeup is done before yours for the premiere?” Right now Ben’s in Africa studying malaria and visiting slums with a lack of potable water and maternity wards where many women have HIV. So would I really put my energy into worrying that I’m second to get my makeup done? When you think about the bigger picture, it’s hard to not have some perspective.

GLAMOUR: Have you managed to find that balance for yourself?

JG: I’m trying to, but it’s hard: I just had a year off where I put every spoonful of food into [Violet’s] mouth. Now I’m working and though I’m usually with her more hours than not, some days I just can’t be. That’s hard for me, and for the first time, my daughter. Luckily my husband is a true partner, and he picks up where I leave off.

GLAMOUR: Is being in Hollywood hard on a relationship?

JG: We’ve worked really hard not to be one of those couples who are constantly in the limelight. In the past we’ve both been the kind of people who go along with things—if you’re supposed to be photographed together, you don’t question it. But how does that help your relationship? So now we refuse to walk the red carpet together: It’s a way of not condoning the attention. Plus, it just feels silly to be in that situation with him: Ben was nominated for a Golden Globe [for 2006’s Hollywoodland]. I remember being photographed next to him and thinking, This is ridiculous. You’re not some actor; you’re my husband.

[From Glamour.com]

Garner also talked about the causes she’s involved with, which include Hurricane Katrina victims and the Children’s Defense Fund.

As for whether nearly two-year-old Violet will have a career in show business, Garner doesn’t rule it out but says that she won’t allow her to get her start in it as a child.

Like Julia Roberts, Garner says she wants to help Britney Spears, and that she “wanted to go backstage and mother her” after her performance at the VMAs.

Garner said she doesn’t wear her Alias costumes for husband Ben at home, because that stuff isn’t that important to him since he doesn’t seem to notice how she looks. She said his lack of attention to her appearance is annoying when she’s dolled up for an event, because she wants to get him to comment on it, but that it usually works in her favor because “most of the time I’m a schlep.”

As for whether she’ll have another child, Garner says she will but that she’s not pregnant or trying yet.

Garner’s hero is her sister, who is “a mom and an accountant for the state of West Virginia.” She says that her sister is “able to juggle a job, kids, volunteer work and church, and she still manages to cook dinner every night without feeling bogged down.” If she’s anything like Jen, she probably does it all with a smile while looking fabulous.

Other women honored at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards include Dr. Victoria Hale, Donna Karan, Lara Logan, Lorena Ochoa, Mariane Pearl, Nancy Pelosi, Shonda Rhimes, and Alice Waters. The non-celebrity woman who was honored was Laura Crandall, a 39 year-old woman who founded the Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) Program after losing her 15 month-old daughter to unknown causes.

Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures of the event. Attendees that were not yet mentioned and are pictured include Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany, Hugh Dancy and Claire Danes, Eric Dane, Portia Di Rossi, Taye Diggs, Iman, Rashida Jones, Fran Lebowitz, James Pickens, Brooke Shields, Diane Sawyer, and Jamie-Lynn Sigler.