Mom of two Jennifer Garner made her first public appearance since the January birth of her second daughter, Seraphina, at the premiere of her new romantic comedy, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, co-starring Matthew McConaughey. She looks great and videos of the night show her being very friendly with fans as usual. The film is a modern take on A Christmas Carol, with a playboy bachelor re-living his promiscuous past and visiting the future to see what he missed by letting his childhood sweetheart get away. It probably won’t get glowing reviews, but the trailer makes it look like a fun mindless comedy and I would definitely go see it. In interviews Garner and McConaughey seem to have a kind of effortless camaraderie that looks like it translates well to the screen. There’s something fun and appealing about the two of them together.

The pair have had plenty of romps with romantic comedy, though few have caused them to reflect seriously on their past loves. There’s no escaping romantic history, however, with the Dickens-inspired Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, opening Friday. McConaughey stars as a heartless Casanova-type who gets his comeuppance when he is visited by spectral visions of his many flings. Garner is the long-ago love of his life, who may be about to find another soul mate…

McConaughey mentions a scene in which Garner’s character wakes up alone after spending the night with him. “He gets to go back and see what happened after she woke up. I’d be willing to say I’ve been there. I saw that and know I felt a little bit of that. I’ve had to end good relationships, and I know how we talked about them, and tried to be nice and everything, but I think … maybe that bruised a little bit more on the other side than I noticed, or than it did me.”

He leans in on his elbow and says, in a confidential tone: “Because when you flip it over, I know there were times when I was the dumpee or whatever, and I was like, ‘No way am I showing her how much this is hurtin’.’ ”

McConaughey’s cowboyish self-assurance fades as he considers the ramifications of being an invisible eyewitness to some of his own breakups: “There’s that old saying about three truths: what I say, what you say and what really happened. You never know how the other person really took it. You get behind the closed door, and you can see how your actions affected someone.”

During filming, the pair often talked about whether they would, if it were possible, go backward or forward in time to re-examine old or future relationships.

“Jennifer said, ‘Yeah, I would go forward, but not if I’m going to see a disaster that I can’t effect [sic] now,’ ” McConaughey says.

“Just to see it?” she adds, shaking her head. “No, I don’t want to see it.”

“The more interesting question is about going back,” he says. “Ghosts from your past or whatever …”

McConaughey goes back — way back — to some of his first experiences with romantic relationships.

“Those first times, though, I knew how to handle it,” McConaughey boasts with a grin. “We went to see a movie once, and slowly this right hand started moving.” Sitting beside Garner, he begins an infinitesimally slow drape across her shoulders. “It took me the entire movie to get there, and then the credits rolled. I was so concentrated on just getting there, I didn’t see one frame of the movie.”

“How far down did you get? Inside bra?” Garner says, calling him out on his vagueness.

“Yep,” he says, nodding. “And then the credits rolled.”

Garner laughs and says, “She probably spent the whole time thinking, ‘Am I going to brush that hand off? Am I going to move?’ She probably had to pee, but was like, ‘Well, no, because then he’d have to start from scratch.’ ”

“Girls just play defense,” Garner offers. “Guys are the chaser and pursuer.” Neither role is easier, she adds.

“I think it’s different now than it was when we were going through this,” she says. “It’s more equal. But when we were kids, you didn’t just call a guy. At least not a nice girl.”

“No, you didn’t call,” McConaughey agrees, like someone who remembers it well.

“There was no texting or IMing or anything. Your friends could go ask his friends if he was interested, but that was all,” she says. “You’d send your secretary of state out.”

“But the funnest and the hardest moments,” McConaughey says, “was the one where you go up and say, ‘Will you go with me?’ Just say those words, and then she says, ‘Yes.’ And I’d be like … ‘Great! Now what comes next?’ “

[From USA Today]

I kind of agree with Garner in that there’s nothing I’d like to see in the future if I can’t change it. There’s a little bit I’d like to visit from the past, but all of that is ancient history. McConaughey gets philosophical at the end of the interview and gives one of his common-sense but worthwhile quotes that reminds me why I’m such a fan. “I wouldn’t change any of the past – the victories, the glories or the pain. Cause they helped me get to where I am today.”

Here’s a pretty funny interview for Ghosts of Girlfriends Past with a journalist from National Lampoon who takes off his shirt to somehow better relate to often-shirtless McConaughey. Garner tries to get the guy to take off his pants too:

And here’s the trailer for Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. It’s out on this Friday, May 1.

Thanks to WENN.com and O’Duran/Fame Pictures for these photos.

Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson looked cute and non-clingy at the premiere of their film Marley and Me in London last night. Aniston wore a sky blue strapless dress that was casually elegant if a little too long for her. She paired it with sandals, a stacked gold necklace, and a great looking sparkling bracelet cuff with a concentric design featuring a large stone. I thought she looked great. I loved how Owen Wilson wore a pair of dark sneakers with his suit.

Yesterday the news came out that Aniston has a new interview with Elle Magazine UK in which she basically says it really doesn’t matter what she says as it will be picked over and taken out of context.

My husband brought me home a stack of magazines from his trip to England last week and OK! magazine’s UK edition, March 3 issue, has what’s presented as a “new” interview with Jennifer Aniston. I started to write it up, thinking it was a new interview and mentally damning Aniston for always giving similar comments that don’t provide enough new information for a story. It turned out that parts of the interview were word-for-word the same as an interview already published in Hello! Magazine last September – that I covered. Either Aniston gave the interview in a press conference or it was resold to OK!, which presented it as fresh to coincide with the UK Marley and Me release.

Aniston is right that her words will be skewed and misinterpreted. I found just one example of how they were repurposed in the same country. People will read that, though, and think “Aniston always says the same thing,” without realizing that it’s an interview they’ve already partially read. It took me a while to even figure it out and I typed up both interviews from the magazines.

I saw Aniston and Wilson’s “Wetten, Das” appearance over weekend and they were both incredibly good sports and dealt with it all with class. Aniston ate a dog biscuit after Wilson lost a bet, even though she technically bet against him and shouldn’t have had to do it. Host Host Thomas Gottschalk said that it was so nice to see a star who was “easy,” meaning easy going. That’s a good way to describe Aniston, even as the press tries to make it hard for her.

The stars were out for the premiere of He’s Just Not That Into You in Hollywood last night. Many of the female stars made risky outfit choices, with the exception of Jennifer Aniston, who donned a underwhelming black low-cut tuxedo suit with gold chains.

Drew Barrymore was goofy-looking in a short cocktail gown with a poofy bow on the bodice and her hair in a ponytail.

Scarlett Johansson wore a pink strapless down with giant flowers on it. It looked like a curtain print to me.

Jennifer Connolly showed off her legs in a very short green sequined dress with jeweled gladiator heels that seemed more like a holiday outfit.

Ginnifer Goodwin looked gorgeous in a short orange cocktail dress with a bold necklace and matching strappy heels. I love her hair and makeup.

Jenna Fischer is one of my favorite celebrities, but I’d like to see her get a new stylist. Her navy blue and black dress is too plain.

The guys goofed around on the red carpet, with Bradley Cooper giving Justin Long a hug. Kevin Connolly and Ben Affleck were both dapper in suits and were sporting some facial stubble.

He’s Just Not That Into You is out in the US this Friday, February 6. Here’s the trailer. It looks like a cute, fast-paced movie, and I usually enjoy movies like this with multiple sub plots. We’ll have to see how it does at the box office.

Thanks to Fame Pictures for these photos.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrived at the Berlin premiere of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, both clad in suits. Brad’s outfit was typical – a well-tailored dark suit. Angelina’s look is shoulder pads shoulder pads shoulder pads. I mean, her suit was a lovely, crisp white. The pants were wide-leg, the jacket a loose-fit, open style that I enjoy. But the shoulder pads! And the big hair! No! Angelina’s never been some fashion icon, but for the past five years she really seems to be getting her fashion act together. And now, this. The Shoulder Pad Debacle of 2009. When did the Dynasty look have a resurgence? But I should have known – Angelina’s cover shot on last year’s Vanity Fair seemed to be a slight homage to the Dynasty era too. The Gossip Girls have all of the details about Brangelina’s big night out.

They made a trip to the red carpet for the German premiere of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” but that was only the beginning of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s night out in Berlin on Tuesday (January 19).

The “Mr and Mrs Smith” co-star couple were escorted out of the CineStar Sony Centre movie theater following their red carpet stop, with Brad toting a beer in-hand like a true German.

Up for a bit to eat, Brad and Angelina were then swept off in a chauffeured vehicle to VAU Restaurant, located in the midst of Berlin’s historical, reconstructed Mitte district.

The red carpet night out will reportedly draw a close to the Jolie-Pitt’s stay in Berlin, where Brad has been filming a new Quentin Tarantino movie titled “Inglorious Bastards.”

[From The Gossip Girls]

Brad was carrying around a bottle of beer? Instead of going to a really negative place about Brangelina, I’ll go out on a limb and say that Brad has probably seen Benjamin Button about a dozen times, at least. Maybe he was thinking something along the lines of “If I have to sit through this movie one more time, I’m going to be mainlining beer.” Hopefully it’s just the aggressive movie promotion schedule and not something more serious. Like Brad taking one look at Angelina’s hair and shoulder pads and thinking, “I need a drink.”

Here are Brad and Angelina at the premiere. Images thanks to WENN and Splash.

Photo taken by my neighbors

Will Smith thrilled fans at the Berlin premiere of Seven Pounds on Tuesday night by shaking hands and signing autographs in the freezing cold. Smith has received a lot of praise for his friendliness and patience with fans and last night was no exception. Our neighbors’ sons went to the premiere and said that Smith took the time to shake everyone’s hand and sign a book for them. They were thrilled to meet the star and had a lot of fun. It was just 9° F last night in Berlin last night. Good for Smith for braving the cold to greet fans!

Smith, Rosario Dawson and Gabriel Muccini also posed by a snowy Brandenburg gate earlier in the day. Presidential elect Barack Obama spoke to a crowd of over 200,000 just down the street from that location in July. We may see see Smith play Obama on film at some point in the near future. Obama himself joked to Entertainment Tonight that he’d spoken to Smith about it, saying “Will and I have talked about this because he has the ears!” Smith is an Obama supporter and told Oprah after the election that he was hugging his family and crying when Obama won. Given Obama’s historic victory and popularity, we may see a dramatized account of his life sooner rather than later.

Seven Pounds has not received the best reviews and is generally considered a real downer of a film with a complicated plot. It’s about a man who is suicidal and decides to change the lives of seven strangers to amend for his role in a tragedy. The film was released on December 19 in the US and has grossed $62 million worldwide. It’s done passably at the box office and is not likely to diminish from Smith’s massive draw.

Smith was just named 2008′s top grossing movie star and from the way he works the crowd with a smile you can’t help but think he’s earned it.

The close up pictures of Smith are courtesy of our neighbors. Other photos credit: WENN

Tom Cruise avoided protesters at the LA premiere of his Nazi movie Valykyrie last night by entering the press tent from an underground garage and not going out to mingle with fans at all. He dealt with the controversy the same way at the NY premiere on December 15. Neither venue had an outdoor red carpet, and Cruise didn’t sign autographs or greet people waiting for him. Photo agency Splash News said that some fans stood in the cold for hours hoping to see Tom and had to leave disappointed.

It was a whos-who of celebrity Scientologists at the opening too. Many of the people who showed up but weren’t in the movie were easily identified as members of Tom’s cult.

High profile Scientologists Jenna and Bohdi Elfman, Priscilla Presley, and “Young and the Restless” actress Michelle Stafford were in attendance. There was a some pregnant singer I’d never heard of called Holly Palmer, and some other random actors and actresses. Not all of the non-cast premiere attendees are easily-googled Scientologists, but it makes you wonder. (For instance actresses Kelly Hu and Bree Turner aren’t listed on the IMDB credits for the film. A lot of random people show up at premieres, but with the Scientology angle it kind of makes you suspicious.) There’s nothing wrong with inviting your friends for support, but does Cruise want to keep reminding the public that he’s a member of one of the world’s most dangerous and oppressive cults? He said he wasn’t going to talk about it, but it’s not like he’s really distancing himself. His wife, Katie Holmes, and their daughter, Suri, were not at the premiere as they’re in NY where Katie is performing on stage.

Ultimately the public will decide if Cruise has redeemed himself enough to entertain us again. His press junket might have ended triumphantly if he was starring in a more palatable move, and he should have chosen lighter fare for the holiday season. Valkyrie is not likely to be successful in attracting ticket sales or more than one or two technical nominations from the Academy.

Credit: Protester photos from Splash News. Premiere photos from Fame Pictures. Also shown are Cruise’s co-star Carice van Houten, Kenneth Branagh, and Thomas Kretschmann.

Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson attended the premiere of their tearjerker Marley & Me last night in LA. The film chronicles 10 years in the marriage of a couple with a difficult dog and is based on the bestselling autobiographical novel by John Grogan.

ET asked just about everyone on the red carpet about Jennifer’s GQ spread. Her co-star Owen Wilson said she looked great while John Mayer said he would only talk about “dogs and movies and fonts,” referring to the all caps sans serif on the cover of GQ. He did mention something about being there as “boyfriend support.”

Yesterday Ceilidh covered Aniston’s interview with GQ and I thought her take on it was a little harsh at first. Surely Aniston wasn’t bringing up the infidelity thing again and was just making a joke. Once I read more of the article, though, I was pretty amazed that Aniston did talk more about the issue, calling it a “Bermuda Triangle,” and saying that Angelina admitting that she fell in love with Brad on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith “was definitely a confirmation for me of something that wasn’t quite confirmed at the time… Considering the source, nothing surprises me.”

Couldn’t she have just left it at “uncool”? She called Vogue “tabloid” for focusing on that comment but turned around said the same thing to another magazine. Brad has since confirmed that he fell in love with Angelina on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. He volunteered the information completely unnecessarily in an interview with Rolling Stone, showing his solidarity with Angelina. These people need to give it a rest already. I thought it was the tabloids making this up and it turns out that they were either right all along, or that they managed to keep the fires stoked until the parties decided to come back and throw some more wood on.

And could Aniston wear something other than black for once?

Credit: WENN

According to dad Billy Ray, 15-year-old Miley Cyrus’ relationship with 20-year-old model Justin Gaston is just as perfect as can be. He talks about what a great team they are, and how they’re so in sync that they write songs together. As Celebitchy quipped, “So that’s what they’re doing up there in her bedroom at night.” Billy Ray doesn’t know how to do anything but talk about Miley in super cheese ball fashion, and it’s getting to the point where it’s making me sort of ill.

Billy Ray Cyrus says his 15-year-old daughter Miley and 20-year-old underwear model Justin Gaston are making sweet music together. “I’ll tell you what – they are great friends, and they make a good team,” he told Usmagazine.com at Monday’s Bolt premiere in L.A. “They write a lot of songs together, and they sing – it’s incredible.” He called his daughter’s latest big screen effort, the animated Bolt, “amazing.”

“It’s going to be a great night,” said the “Achy Breaky Heart” singer, who walked the carpet with wife Tish. “I’m looking forward to seeing the film.” What advice does he have for his daughter? “Make good choices. Do the best you can do – mostly have fun,” he told Us. “I always tell her that as long as she’s having fun, then it’s working.

“When it starts being work, then it ain’t working,” he added. “She loves what she’s doing. She has a real passion for making music as an artist. She loves being an actress, and we all feel very fortunate being in the Disney family and getting to do both of our loves.”

[From Us Weekly]

Wow, talk about towing the Disney party line. Billy Ray seems to be saying a lot of good things about Disney lately. It could be because Miley’s 8-year-old sister Noah wants to get into show business too, and Disney would be a good way to go. Billy Ray is sending a pretty bad message in terms of a work ethic. It makes sense that Miley should have fun while she’s young, but if she’s taught that it “ain’t working” if it feels like work and she carries that mentality into adulthood, that’s not a great lesson.

Miley’s costar in “Bolt” is John Travolta, who was donning some interesting new hair. A week ago he was totally bald, and it didn’t appear to be a cap. Now he’s back to a full head of hair, and I find it utterly confusing. And we’re supposed to act like we haven’t noticed. Miley, however, had nothing but nice things to say about John, and managed not to comment on his follicle situation.

Miley is not only achieving a teenage milestone this year, she’s maturing as a performer as well, co-starring with John Travolta in Bolt. She calls working with the actor “a dream come true” adding that, “[John was] an actor I had wanted to work with for a long time, so I got to do that so I’m really happy,” she says.

It also fulfilled her mother’s dream! “My mom was so happy I got to work with him…so happy. She said, ‘You won’t believe I had posters of him on my wall,’ and I was like, ‘Okay, you keep that to yourself when you meet him. Zip that tight!’”

[From OK!]

Miley was born right around the “Look Who’s Talking” years, so she probably is too young to remember lame John Travolta and only knows about cool, “Pulp Fiction” comeback Travolta. Otherwise I seriously doubt anyone would have wanted to work with him for a long time. Sorry, I just want to make fun of him for his hair and I’m trying not to, so I have to go back to bad talking baby mockery.

Photo Credit: WENN

Angelina Jolie isn’t the only famous mom talking about leaving the glamor of movie-making behind to concentrate on her family. Nicole Kidman told reporters at the Sydney premiere of her new epic, Australia, that she’s been thinking about stepping away from Hollywood to have more children. She has two adopted children in their teens who live with her ex, Tom Cruise, along with a baby daughter, Sunday Rose, four months:

‘I’m in a place in my life where I’ve had some great opportunities, and I may just choose to have some more children,’ said the 41-year-old, who has a 4-month-old girl with Urban and two adopted children Isabella, 15, and Connor, 13, from her marriage to Tom Cruise.

‘There’s many things I want to do besides act.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Kidman, 41, held her hands over her stomach several times yesterday and she may already be working on that fourth child. Maybe she was just trying to find a place to rest her hands, though. It does seem suspicious that she hasn’t dyed her hair, but it’s possible she’s working on getting pregnant again and doesn’t want to risk it.

Director Baz Luhrmann has denied reports that he was furiously scrambling to change the ending (warning: link contains spoilers!) of the film at the last minute due to negative reactions from test audiences. He did shoot three different endings though, which is rare in movie-making as it ends up costing the studio a lot of money. Australia reportedly cost $120 million to make.

Australia is out in Australia today, 11/18, and opens in the US next week on 11/26. Here’s the trailer. My first boyfriend was Australian and that accent gets me every time. It doesn’t hurt that it’s coming from Jackman’s mouth.

Photos are from the Australia photocall, where Kidman and Jackman are shown with young actor Brandon Walters (Bauergriffin) and from the Sydney premiere (WENN)

The young stars attended the much anticipated premiere of the film Twilight, based on the first book in popular young adult vampire series by Stephenie Meyer. Advance buzz for the film, which features relatively unknown actors Robert Pattison and Kristen Stewart, has been enormous, especially among teens. The film, about a young girl who falls in love with a vampire, is put out by small film studio Summit Entertainment and is expected to be a box office smash. There are three additional books in the series by Meyer and if Twilight is a hit we can expect to see a phenomenon to rival Harry Potter.

The film, directed by Catherine Hardwicke (“13″ and “Lords of Dogtown”), arrives Friday on 5,500 screens with the industry already abuzz with reports about spectacular advance ticket sales. During the last few weeks, I’ve been hearing from studio marketing chiefs, who all seem in awe of the word-of-mouth groundswell for the film.

When the film’s young stars, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, showed up at Comic-Con last July, they were greeted by Beatlemania-style screams. Last week, 10,000 kids showed up at a Dallas mall to mob them. They’ve been on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and several teen tabloids as well as all over MTV.

But what’s amazing is that one of Hollywood’s biggest studios had the project for years and simply let it go. “Twilight” was originally at Paramount’s MTV Films, which spent nearly two years trying to develop the picture before the studio put the project in turnaround. A second studio, Fox Atomic, also passed on the project before it came Summit’s way.

It wasn’t as if “Twilight’s” teen appeal was exactly a secret. The second novel in Meyer’s series, “New Moon,” debuted at No. 5 on the New York Times bestseller list for children’s books when it was released in 2006. It hit No. 1 the following week and remained in the top position for 11 straight weeks. The fourth installment, “Breaking Dawn,” sold 1.3 million copies in its first day of release. The entire series has now sold 8.5 million copies in the U.S., more than 17 million copies worldwide.

[From The LA Times]

Considered a Romeo and Juliet tale with vampires, you can see Twilight’s appeal among the younger set. At least 250 people camped out overnight to make sure to secure their spot for last night’s premiere.

Expect the stars to earn millions and get a lot more media attention. Pattison, 22, previously played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Stewart, 18, starred In the Land of Women and Into the Wild.

Here’s a trailer for Twilight, which is out Friday in the US.

Thanks to WENN for these photos from the premiere last night in LA.