I was glancing through some new photos, and at the same time, I saw photos of Michael Douglas and Robert Redford, on two separate continents, separated by a deep void of experience, both looking like hell. But it’s a strange thing, this “getting older” stuff. Michael is 66 years old, and had a facelift several years ago that is now falling apart because of chemo, amongst other things. Robert Redford, on the other hand, is 74 years old, and looks every single year, and yet somehow… he looks extremely healthy and rugged, even manly. Yes, his skin looks like leather. Yes, that’s a horrible f-cking dye job. But I would still hit it.

Which brings me to my question – even though Redford looks like a beautiful kind of aged massacre, shouldn’t we love him more for being all natural? It’s the Meryl Streep thing, the Helen Mirren. Even if your skin isn’t the best, and you have wrinkles up the wazoo (I bet Redford’s wazoo looks leathery too), I appreciate that your face moves and that you don’t look like you swapped heads with an alien.

Anyway, these are new photos of Redford today in Paris, where he will be receiving the Knight in Order of Honor at the Elysee Palace, from President Sarkozy. And the Michael Douglas photos are from today as well – Michael was out and about in NYC. Michael really, really looks bad. I’m not trying to be all Star Magazine, but I don’t think he’s doing as well as all of the happy, optimistic statements from his people.

Photos of Redford, courtesy of WENN.

Megan Fox hates to watch herself “act”. She admitted as much recently when she claimed that in order to sit through Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, she needed some champagne. Personally, I don’t think I could sit through a Megan Fox movie without several shots of hard liquor, but that’s just me. Megan describes her anxiety with watching herself as a “phobia”, but I’ve read many actors feel the same way about watching their own work. I’ve heard people like Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Hugh Grant describe their horror at watching themselves on film, and how they usually avoid their own films like the plague:

It’s nice to see that Megan Fox takes the same approach to watching one of her movies as the rest of the planet.

The actress has admitted that she needs to be drunk before a viewing – especially when it came to her most recent flick, the critically-panned Transformers 2.

Megan – who spent the weekend househunting in Santa Monica with on/off boyfriend Brian Austin Green – admitted: “I usually don’t watch myself. I don’t watch playback. I don’t look at still photos. I have a phobia of it.’

“But, I forced myself to sit down for Transformers 2. I shot an entire glass of champagne, so that I could get through it.”

[From The Sun]

Since I don’t want to bash Megan Fox for this, I’ll just tell one of the funniest stories I’ve ever heard regarding this subject. It comes from Robert Redford’s appearance on Inside the Actor’s Studio, which you can see a small clip of here. Redford was talking about how he didn’t like or care to see his movies, and how that’s the way it’s always been throughout his career. Then he said something about how that had recently changed because he took his grandkids to the video store, and they wanted to see some of his old movies. As Redford is telling the story, he then does an aside to James Lipton tells him that he doesn’t know what’s wrong with his daughter, that she hasn’t shown the kids Redford’s old movies, which got a big laugh. Redford admitted that he sat down with his grandkids and watched a bunch of his old movies, and he said in a very humble, funny way, “They were pretty good.”

Megan Fox is shown at Fashion Week in Paris on 7/7/09 and outside the Ken Paves salon in LA on 7/10/09. Credit: WENN.com

Redford and Newman in November, 2006

Beloved late screen star and philanthropist Paul Newman has been honored by many celebrities who worked with him and whose lives he touched. His co-star and best friend Robert Redford, 72, spoke with ABC News about his long and enduring friendship with Newman. He spoke of his dear friend in the present tense. Redford talked about how Newman loved his own jokes, even if they were crappy, but said his laughter was contagious and it didn’t matter how bad the joke was.

He told some stories about the pranks they used to play on each other, including one time he got a trashed Porsche and had it sent to Newman as a gift for his 50th birthday. He had the car wrapped with a ribbon and put on Newman’s back porch. Redford said that Newman used to bug the shit out of him talking about racing and he sent him the car as a reference to that.

Redford said he didn’t hear anything from Newman for a couple of weeks, but then he saw a big box sitting in his living room that was so heavy it dented the floor. Newman had sent the Porsche back to him in a box after he had it compacted.

Redford then contacted a sculptor he knew in Westport, CT where they both lived at the time and had the Porsche sent to her to make into a garden sculpture. He then hired a towing company and had the transformed Porsche towed back to Newman’s garden.

He said that “to this day, neither of us had ever spoken about it. Never acknowledged it.”

Redford currently lives in Sundance, Utah, but he used to live about a mile away from Newman in Connecticut with his family.

Here’s a link to the video of Redford talking about Newman and here’s a link to the transcript if you’d rather read it.

Robert Redford is planning to marry his partner of 12 years, German artist Sibylle Szaggars. Sibylle is 19 years younger than 71 year old Robert, who was previously married to Lola Van Wagenen. They had four children together, but because he guards his private life so much his divorce was not revealed to the public until ten years after they divorced in 1985 after 27 years of marriage.

In the same pattern of not wanting to give too much away about his private life, here’s what Robert had to say about his engagement.

The Oscar-winning actor told German magazine Bunte: “We are engaged and very happy with that. She (Sibylle) is my fiancée and that says everything, doesn’t it?”

Telegraph

This makes a nice contrast to modern Hollywood, who seem to get engaged, then immediately broker a deal with a magazine for the exclusive.

Congratulations to the happy couple – we’d love to see some wedding pictures soon, but I suspect they’re going to keep them private.

Robert Redford and Sibylle Szaggars are shown at the premiere of Lions for Lambs in Paris on 10/25/07. He is also shown promoting the Sundance Channel at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona on 2/13/08. Thanks to WENN.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes looked like brother and sister at the premiere of Lions for Lambs at the AFI Fest in Hollywood last night. Tom has grown out his Nazi bowl cut while Katie’s short dark bob looks suspiciously similar. Add the matching outfits and they’re like any other couple that ends up looking alike, perhaps intentionally. Katie mercifully wore flats, which made her about even with Tom instead of towering over him like she did at the Berlin premiere of the film.

In terms of Tom and Katie’s home life, Cruise recently gave some statements to the press that show he’s mastered the art of revealing enough to create a news blurb without really giving too much information. He praised his wife’s acting ability and said that they’re good at coordinating schedules. He also admitted he doesn’t get a lot of sleep without complaining about it:

With his first anniversary fast approaching, Cruise said married life was “all very good, all very lovely,” and that he feels “lucky” to be wedded to Holmes, his third wife.

“I have a lot of respect for her as an artist, as a woman,” he said. “She’s a very strong, gracious woman.”

When it comes to juggling his responsibilities as a husband and father with his career as a leading man and studio mogul, Cruise admits that life gets busy.

“Just like everybody else, you just work it out,” he said. “We’ve gotten pretty good at organizing everything. I don’t sleep much anyway.”

[From EOnline]

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt should take note, because Cruise provides enough general information to make it mildly interesting without revealing any weaknesses for tabloids to run with.

Cruise plays a Congressman in Lions for Lambs, which weaves different stories around the fates of two college students fighting in Afghanistan. Lions for Lambs is directed by Robert Redford and is out in the US on November 9. It also stars Michael Peña and Meryl Streep.

Here’s an introduction to the film, told by the young actors.

Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures. Also shown are Will Smith, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Samantha Mathis, and David Beckham. What’s up with Beckham’s outfit? Is it deliberately messy or is he just unable to dress himself when Posh isn’t around?