Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd take the cover of the March issue of GQ to promote Wanderlust. They play a married couple in the film – it feels like they’ve worked together a million times before, but I guess it’s just been twice now? Anyway, this is Aniston’s new thing, doing magazine photo shoots with her male costars. She did it for Horrible Bosses too. She’s also doing the same thing she always does, which is take off her clothes. I mean… yeah, she’s got a nice figure, and look! She’s not preggo. But enough. She drops trou every time she promotes a movie. You can see the slideshow here, and you can read the full interview with Aniston & Rudd here. Here are some highlights:

Jennifer Aniston & Paul Rudd on whether—being they’re such longtime friends—it’s weird to kiss on-screen…
Jennifer: “Nah. I’ve kissed him for years.”
Paul: “We’ve made out for decades.”

Their new film, Wanderlust, is about a marriage at a turning point. Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd on whether any of the issues in the film resonated with them…
Paul: “I think most marriages, mine included, you’re constantly tending the garden, constantly working at it.”
Jennifer: “It’s a growing, literally living thing. There’s going to be growing pains, there’s going to be awkward moments—your lanky phase, your pimpled phase. I think that’s the beauty of a relationship. But if the road starts to…”
Paul: “…diverge…”
Jennifer: “…and one person is growing this way and the other is growing that way… Sometimes that can happen and you can stay together, and sometimes you can’t.”

Jennifer Aniston on recently turning 40….
“Forty’s great!” [GQ: Is it?] “Oh, my God, my thirties blew! Forties are great.”

Aniston on her NYC apartment: I bought an apartment, but I didn’t buy the right apartment. There were photographers outside every day. To the point of embarrassment.

Aniston on babies: “I’m not having triplets. Not having twins. Nor am I having one baby. [lifts up sweater and gestures to belly; it appears flat] I did not elope. Well, I recently quit smoking, and you do put on some extra pounds. It makes a difference, especially if you’re not 20. I think people maybe want me to have a kid now. I still kind of go with, if it happens, it happens. I’m calm and peaceful with whatever the plan is. It’s not something where I’m going, “I gotta have a kid!” [Does it bother me that “kids” are] Part of the picture-perfect life? I think that’s sort of cliché, isn’t it? Like, if you want to be happy, you should have the house, the husband, the kids… Kids are messy! The one time I do say, “Yes! I’m pregnant!” they’ll be like, “Pfft. Right.” Anyway, I’m drawing the line on the children conversation. You heard it here. I’m not knocked up now.”

[From GQ]

Yeah, I didn’t have the time or the inclination to really pour through that interview. Paul is nice enough, and he and Jennifer have a nice chemistry, but their conversation was just kind of boring. Should we talk about the baby stuff, I guess? I understand what she’s saying now – she doesn’t feel like babies are a necessity for her life, and she’s offended that “babies” are a constant in her narrative… but hasn’t she done that to herself? She’s the one who went to Vanity Fair and talked about how much she wanted children and how she will be a mother. She’s the one talking about it in interview after interview. So no, I don’t feel bad that “babies” are part of her tabloid narrative.

Photos courtesy of GQ.

I feel like Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston have worked together a million times before, but it just seems that way, right? In reality, they only did The Object of My Affection (where he played a gay dude and she was his BFF), and now they’re playing a married couple in Wanderlust. The trailer has just come out – it’s not bad. I smiled a few times, and thankfully, it doesn’t look like the standard-issue romantic comedies that Aniston usually gets involved with, now the standard-issue sausage-fests that Paul Rudd is usually involved with. The basic story is: neurotic New York power-couple has to move out of city when Rudd’s character loses his job. Stuff happens and they end up in a hippie-dippy commune of nudists, druggies, farmers, etc. Chaos ensues. This is also the movie where Aniston met Justin Theroux (who had a girlfriend at the time). Justin actually gave me the biggest laugh with “flick the tip”.

It’s doesn’t look bad at all, although there might be reason to worry because the release date has already been pushed back. Wanderlust was supposed to come out this fall, but now it’s set for release February 24, which is probably Oscar weekend, right? So Aniston and Theroux and Rudd might end up as presenters at the Oscars, of course, JUST to promote their film, not because Brad Pitt will likely be nominated. OF COURSE NOT.

But seriously, I won’t give Aniston credit for much, but she is a talented comedienne, and an underrated physical comedian. It looks like this film gives her a lot of physical comedy, which is great for her. As for Rudd… it just seems like the role he’s had a million times before.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I was really surprised to hear that the Reese Witherspoon and Owen Wilson comedy How Do You Know finished a very low eighth at the box office on this, its opening weekend. I remember that Reese and Vince Vaughn’s Four Christmases really cleaned up at the box office when it opened around Thanksgiving, 2008, which was surprising because the film was generally considered to be total crap. How Do You Know didn’t fare much better with critics, with a current 35% on Rotten Tomatoes as compared to Christmases 25%. Still, it has Reese, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson in it. How could it go so wrong? Tron Legacy also opened this weekend, as did that Yogi Bear movie and wide releases of The Fighter and Black Swan, all of which trounced the generally unremarkable romcom How Do You Know. (Update: Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Tourist and Tangled also outperformed this film.) Here’s more from Radar.

The box office numbers this weekend come with more extremely bad news for A-List stars, RadarOnline.com is reporting.

How Do You Know, starring Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson, is one spectacular flop, and will be among the biggest financial disasters for any studio in 2010.

How Do You Know, which cost $120 million to produce with all those big star paychecks, took in just $7.6 million its opening weekend. That’s one huge ouch!

The Tourist, with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, continued its slide after a mediocre opening last week. It finished fifth this weekend, taking in a tepid $8.7 million.

Number one in the box office rally was TRON: Legacy 3 D, with an estimated $43.6 million in ticket sales.

But the real winner, for the third weekend in a row, is Black Swan. The Natalie Portman thriller took in another $8.3 million this weekend in fewer than 1000 theaters. It has already grossed more than the mere $13 million it cost to produce.

[From Radar]

This makes me a little sad! I like romcoms and I love Reese. I would have seen this movie eventually, after The Fighter, Black Swan and Yogi Bear (I have a six year old). I guess that’s the problem. How Do You Know could have done well on a less crowded and less competitive opening weekend. They should have waited until next year to release it. It makes me wonder why they put it out for the holiday season. We have a lot more mindless action movies to look forward to instead of mindless chick flicks. I guess it’s a wash really.

Photos via AllMoviePhoto

Last night was the big LA premiere of How Do You Know (ugh on that title again), the film starring Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson. All of the stars came out for the premiere, and all looked pretty good, in my opinion. Reese wore this cute strapless Zac Posen cocktail dress that had a perfect fit. I even like that she did black with the touches of pink at the bust and waist – it’s perfect. Her hair and makeup look good too – Reese knows how to be occasion-appropriate, and she’s got a style that works for her.

Jack Nicholson probably looked the worst out of everybody – he’s gained a great deal of weight since I last saw photos of him. I’m not saying that I still wouldn’t hit for old time’s sake, I’m just saying that I’m worried about his health. Also: I’m surprised he showed up for the premiere, I really am. It must be because James L. Brooks directed the film, and Jim and Jack and really tight. Also: the woman with him is his daughter Jennifer, and WENN identifies the kids as her children, but I think one of those boys is Jack’s (and thus, Jennifer’s half-brother).

Paul Rudd! So, so cute. I like that he’s wearing all blue.

Even Owen Wilson looks nice, albeit a bit horsey. Still: it’s good to see him looking healthy and happy.

Photos courtesy of WENN

It’s for a movie, of course. But it looks like the beard is real? Maybe? The beard looks kind of budget and like he grew it over a week, that’s what makes me think it’s real. But I think the hair is a wig. I hope so. I hope this look dies when Paul Rudd finishes filming My Idiot Brother. He’s got one of those amazing boyish faces, where you don’t even realize he’s in his forties (he’s 41!) because he looks like he’s still in college.

Guess who has a crush on Paul? Jennifer Aniston. At least according to last week’s National Enquirer. Paul and Jennifer have signed on to do two films together, and they’ve been friends for years – probably since The Object of My Affection, I guess, which was in 1998. Anyway, the Enquirer’s source claims that Aniston has “developed an unhealthy attachment to Paul… she’s allowing her feelings to veer from platonic to close to romantic.” But no fear, it really isn’t serious! That’s because, as this source says, “It’s as if she’s living out her own private romance fantasy so she doesn’t have to face the reality of her real-world, dead-end love life.” Harsh much?

JENNIFER ANISTON has found the man of her dreams – so what’s the hitch? This IS Jennifer Aniston we’re talking about – and her love life never runs smoothly. So what’s the problem this time? Hunky thesp Paul Rudd is happily married!

The two have been friends for more than a decade, and Paul’s been there to offer support when each of Jen’s relationships has crashed and burned. But as the two plan to film the sexually charged film Wanderlust together in the coming months, Jennifer’s feelings for Paul have intensified, say sources.

“I think Jen has developed an unhealthy attachment to Paul,” claimed one source.

“After having her heart broken so many times, Paul seems like a safe alternative for Jen. she has a huge crush on a completely unattainable man.”

Jen’s marriage to Brad Pitt ended after Angelina Jolie came between the couple, and now Jen is the one playing with fire after falling for married Paul.

“Jen has opened her heart up to Paul, and she’s allowing her feelings to veer from platonic to close to romantic,” continued the source. “But there’s no way Jen’s feelings for Paul can lead to anything but more heartbreak.”

Despite the fact that Paul has been happily married to film executive Julie Yaeger since 2003, Jen tells friends that he is her dream man – smart, funny, handsome and a solid family guy. (Paul and Julie have a 4-year-old son.)

“It’s as if she’s living out her own private romance fantasy so she doesn’t have to face the reality of her real-world, dead-end love life,” said the source. “Paul doesn’t know about Jen’s crush on him. He’s just trying to be a good friend to her – but she’s mistaken his affections for something more.”

[From The National Enquirer]

I doubt it all. But it would be interesting if Aniston went for a “Paul Rudd type” you know? Someone funny, interesting, sweet who is not really a movie star, more of a consistently working character actor. Is that dude Christopher Gartin the one? Even though her rep denied the rumors as “silly,” every tabloid was running stories about the two of them this past week, and he seems like an interesting candidate for her film promotional boyfriend.

Paul Rudd on July 12, 2010. Credit: Bauer-Griffin. Aniston on March 30, 2010. Credit: WENN.

He’s quickly becoming a bankable comedy star. He’s also very, VERY easy on the eyes. Actor Paul Rudd, whose new movie “I Love You, Man” opened at number two this weekend, has had hilarious supporting roles in “Knocked Up,” “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Anchorman,” but his real success started with last year’s gross-out comedy “Role Models.” Rudd opened up to Entertainment Weekly and admitted that he is way in touch with his feminine side.

I always thought I’d be a really good gay guy. I love American Idol. I watch Antiques Roadshow like crazy. Guys like Oscar Wilde, Stephen Fry, Elton John – they’re all very bright, with a razor-sharp wit. David Sedaris – who’s funnier than David Sedaris?

The Saturday Night Live [episode] that I did was such a gay-heavy show. But it didn’t even cross my mind until after. The family that kept kissing each other – I didn’t even think of that as being gay.

I remember doing interviews for The Object of My Affection [in which he co-starred as Jennifer Aniston's gay roommate], and people would say, “What was it like to kiss a guy?” Like it was such a shocking thing. I said, “How many times does anyone ask, ‘You had to shoot somebody, was that weird?’”

I love gay guys. I feel pretty gay. I’m certainly not the most macho guy in the room.

[From Entertainment Weekly]

I wonder what Paul’s wife had to say about this little revelation? Heh, heh. Anyway, I’d bet that Rudd has plenty of admirers these days – gay and straight. The actor also revealed that one of his favorite pastimes is going out and singing karaoke with friends. Of course, those friends include Jon Hamm, the star of Mad Men, as well as Peter Dinklage, the star of “Elf” and “The Station Agent.” Not exactly your everyday group of friends. Gay or straight, I’d gladly sing karaoke with Paul any day!

Here’s the dreamy Paul Rudd leaving the restaurant Il Sole on March 23. Photo credits: Fame.

John Hamm was right, Paul Rudd really is adorable. Rudd continues to give utterly charming and hilarious interviews as he promotes the hell out of his “bromance” comedy, I Love You Man, costarring Jason Segel. The premise of the film is basically this: guy gets engaged, realizes he has no man friends to serve as his best man, girl tells guy to go find some man friends, hilarity ensues.

CNN has a nice little interview with both Rudd and Segel. If this interview is any indication of their chemistry together, the movie’s going to be huge. Strangely enough, Rudd and Segel hate the word “bromance”. Rudd thinks the film has “characters that hopefully people can relate to and what’s funny about just certain insecurities and just certain things in life. They could easily be dramatic… Just less fart jokes.” Segel enjoyed the doing the film because he got to be “creepy”, which Segel actually seems to be in real life. Segel admits to having 40 puppets and no girlfriend. I bet his neighbors would describe him as “kinda quiet, a loner” too. CNN has more:

[Don't] call the film a “bromance” in the presence of Rudd and Segel.

“We hate that word,” Segel told CNN.

“It was not part of the lexicon while we were filming,” added Rudd. Still, both actors have plenty of experience in the, uh, guy-pal genre.

Segel observes that what helps the films work is the discomfort of two men trying to talk about their emotions while hoping to maintain a dispassionate, hard-edged, prototypically manly façade. And he knows he’s good at bringing out that discomfort in his co-stars.

“Judd Apatow told me that my special skill was that I am able to maintain my likability while getting incredibly close to the creepy line, and that’s what I should try to cultivate,” he said.

“That’s what he does,” Rudd noted. “He just holds [the moment] a little too long.”

“It’s the fraction of a second too long that makes people uncomfortable,” Segel added.

In “I Love You, Man,” Segel’s character is rougher and looser than his characters in “Sarah Marshall” and “How I Met Your Mother.” He welcomed the change.

“It was a real treat for me, to be honest for a minute, to play this character, because I’ve played sort of a puppy dog guy in ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall,’ and on ['Mother'] I play a husband, you know, a loving husband,” he said. “So to get to play a character who is a bit more of a man of mystery was very exciting for me.”

In real life, claims Segel, he even has a man cave.

“It’s filled with puppets,” he said. “And I keep wondering why I don’t have a girlfriend. I’m like, ‘hey, this is my house; come check it out. This is where I keep my 40 puppets.’ … I think that I have a reputation for being weird because of that.”

But he quickly turns serious and maintains that “I Love You, Man” does have a message to go along with its comedy.

“I think we both had something to learn from each other,” he said. “Paul’s character had to learn that it’s all right to take a little distance from your significant other and have some dude friends and someone to vent to about things you can’t necessarily talk about with your girl.”

“Sometimes buddies hold a mirror up to the way you behave in ways that relationships with the opposite sex don’t,” Rudd said.

“Yeah, and my character had to learn that maybe it’s time to grow up a little bit,” Segel added.

So, this “bromance” thing, allowing a few feelings to show. Perhaps it’s not so bad after all? Rudd says that the idea has its upside, despite its name. And he’s glad it’s been successful. “That’s us in a nutshell, not macho, not tough,” he said.

“I think that we’ve all been kind of drawn to real stories, you know, characters that hopefully people can relate to and what’s funny about just certain insecurities and just certain things in life. They could easily be dramatic,” he pointed out. “Just less fart jokes.”

From CNN

Jason Segel is hot in that weird, accessible way. Like “Oh, I went to college with a guy just like that.” Or “My friend tried to set me up with this strange puppet fetishist man from her office. It was a disaster.” It would be really interesting to see Segel in a well-written drama – I bet he would be really good.

I Love You Man might have a lot in common with a standard Judd Apatow film, including some of his favorite actors, but it was written and directed by John Hamburg, who directed and wrote Along Came Polly and co-wrote Meet the Fockers. Judd Apatow wasn’t involved with this film. I don’t think those Apatow-type films are high art or anything, but they’re much funnier than what usually passes for comedy. I Love You Man opens this week!

Note by Celebitchy: Here’s the trailer for I Love You Man.

Stills from I Love You, Man thanks to AllMoviePhoto. We were not contacted or otherwise encouraged to promote this film.

Twitter is everywhere. Public figures from Perez Hilton to John McCain and Lilly Allen to P. Diddy are using the site to update their status in 140 characters or less. Most recently, Lindsay was caught drunkenly commenting on the emotional roller coaster that is her love life. But some stars, like Paul Rudd and Rashida Jones, have decided that Twitter is not for them.

“I’m afraid of the Internet. I’m too old to tweet,” said Paul Rudd when E! News caught up with the stars of I Love You, Man at Austin’s South by Southwest Film Festival. “So I don’t tweet, I tw-t.”

“If I didn’t talk to you in high school, I don’t need to talk to you you now,” agrees costar Jason Segal.

And while some stars will tweet their exact location and invite fans to rub up against them at a bus stop, Office vixen Rashida Jones isn’t so hot on the idea, “I don’t need to invite stalkers into my life. I just don’t really see the point.”

This could be part of a growing trend among celebs who were stung by the Twitter bug.

P. Diddy, who has been known to twitter about tantric sex and raucous parties, recently switched his Twitter to private, which means that only 107,356 of his followers will know when Diddy decides to party till 6 in the morn’ or stay home and floss.

However, one high-profile Tweeter has become one bona-fide member of the Twitterati, actor and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau. At a panel discussion for Rudd and Segal’s movie, titled “I Love You, Man: Are You Saying it Enough?”, Favreau applauded Twitter as a “grassroots” way to reach out to fans and generate word-of-mouth buzz for smaller movies.

Favreau live-twittered the event and even snapped pics of his tweet-shy costars Rashida and Jason, proving that the social-networking tool-cum-promotion machine may be here to stay, whether celebs like it or not.

[from E! Online]

It’s appropriate that Rashida Jones and Paul Rudd choose not to tweet. Although they’re celebrities, they tend to be private and don’t feel the need to keep the public updated on their every move. Twittering is perfect for celebrities who want constant coverage (think Lilly Allen and Lindsay Lohan), and public figures who want to stay relevant. Even more than Facebook, Twitter allows attention-starved celebrities to keep the public updated on their every move. The length of the posts and the topics they tend to discuss (Lilly Allen, for example, recently updated on her consumption of ribs in bed), makes the audience feel like they’re getting a text message from the celebrity. Too bad Obama hasn’t updated his Twitter – it would be fun getting texts from the President.

Photo credit: PRPhotos, WENN.com

Paul Rudd is lovely. He shows up in movies where I least expect him, and then he just steals every scene he’s in. He’s got that wonderful droll, subdued humor that works wonders on good, bad and in-between scripts. He’s good-looking without being pretty, he’s a dude without being a misogynist, and edgy without being threatening. Just when I think Hollywood’s gone to hell in handbasket, I remember that for all of Hollywood’s problems, at least they’ve found a place for an actor like Paul Rudd.

It’s no surprise that Paul Rudd gives a great interview. In this Time Magazine profile, written by Joel Stein, I actually laughed at loud. It’s a great read, and I’d recommend reading the entire thing at Time. Rudd gave the interview to promote his new film I Love You Man, about a guy getting married who realizes he has no male friends, and goes on an epic search for a “man friend”. Rudd and Stein decide to spend the entire interview sitting in a bar, trolling for a new “man friend” to see how difficult it really is. Joel Stein calls it “the gayest journey ever”.

Not so surprisingly, it’s really easy for Rudd to make new friends. Rudd even had very specific ideas about what he wanted in a new friend:

For the first half-hour, all the guys we like walk right by, piling into the back of the bar for a reading by debut novelist Stephen Lovely. I wonder if maybe we should have gone to a sports bar, but Rudd seems to know what he’s after. “If we went to ESPN Zone — that’s not our kind of guy,” he says. “We want someone nerdy. Bookish. Probably wears Chuck Taylors. Can make jokes about the fact that he’s listening to the new Fleet Foxes CD. Maybe a little fey. I love straight guys that seem gay. I’m a little like that.”

From Time Magazine

Rudd went to college with Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, which I didn’t know. Hamm calls his friend “adorable”, which I absolutely love. Many of Rudd’s man friends take this opportunity to tell funny/embarrassing stories about him:

…But for a soft guy, his comedy can be pretty dude. He’s both the kind of guy who indulges his 4-year-old son’s habit of dressing up in three-piece suits and one whose friends view a TIME magazine article as an opportunity to tell embarrassing stories about him. “He always liked to get naked. Anybody that lived in his fraternity house would tell you. And yes, he is a frat boy, no matter how much he would go screaming from that now,” says sportscaster Joe Buck, who, along with Mad Men star Jon Hamm, has known Rudd since their college days.

Buck says the ass-slapping, gun-shooting dance Rudd did with Beyoncé when he hosted Saturday Night Live in November was his typical way of leaving a room in college. He built on those skills when he moved to L.A. after graduation, deejaying high-end Bel Air bar mitzvahs. “He was known as the guy who did the dork dance,” Buck says. Even then, with his mullet and Duran Duran jacket, people thought he was cool.

“He’s adorable. There’s no two ways about it,” says Hamm. For an adorable guy, though, Rudd has depth. “He has a bit of a postmodern Jimmy Stewart quality. He’s an everyman who has a dark side that peeks out from the edges,” says Donald De Line, a producer of I Love You, Man.

From Time Magazine

Eventually, Stein and Rudd find a man friend who is just their type. They get a married 31-year-old investment banker with glasses and a Lisa Kudrow fetish. The guy is totally into it, too, saying: “We’re three married dudes. I wonder if there’s a thrill of the chase missing from our hormones that we’re searching for.” Rudd agrees, and Stein makes note of the fact that “This exchange does not sound as gay as it does poignant and questioning.”

Paul Rudd is shown outside the Late Show on 3/10/09. Jon Hamm is shown on 2/7/09. Credit: Wenn.com/Fayes Vision