Sean Penn and Robin Wright did the breakup-and-makeup thing for years and years. It got so bad, I even lost track for a few years as to whether or not they were on or off. Like, I almost positive they were done and then they showed up together while Sean was promoting Milk in 2008-09. But shortly after that, I think they were finally over? Maybe? Like, summer 2009. Post-split, Sean drowned himself in booze and women (no different then when he was married), and he spent a lot of time in Haiti, working with his charity. And after their split, Robin had moved on with a new boyfriend, producer Greg Shapiro. When Robin showed up with Shapiro at the 2010 Oscars, according to reports, Sean got into it backstage with Shapiro, and Sean’s actions were so off-side, Penn was banned from the Governors Ball. However, through it all, Sean and Robin were said to be close because of their two kids, and they were committed to co-parenting (when Sean wasn’t in Haiti). So maybe it’s not shocking that they might have found their way back together?

Sean Penn and ex-wife Robin Wright may be headed toward reconciliation.

“They’ve been spending a lot of time together,” says an insider, who reveals that the couple originally grew apart due to busy work schedules and long stretched of time away from each other.

“They’ve been living the single life – and quit frankly, it doesn’t agree with either of them. They really miss their life together as a family.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

I’m not sure that I buy that they split up because of “work schedules”. I think they split up because Sean’s an ass and he was always screwing around on Robin and she finally had enough of all of it. While I believe that Sean has been drowning himself in young ladies since then, I’ll buy that he does miss Robin. She held him together, I think. She kept him sane and she definitely helped with his reputation.

UPDATE: Ah, I just saw this denial that Robin’s rep gave to RumorFix: “[Robin’s] on location in Australia, she’s shooting a movie with Naomi Watts. They’re just making up stuff; she’s been gone since mid January. Clearly there’s no photos of them together, so it’s clear…they’ve not been spending any time together.” I want to believe Robin isn’t messing with Penn again, but her history with him… it makes me believe that she’s capable of falling into his clutches again.

Here are some photos of Robin filming The Grandmothers with Naomi Watts this week – Robin’s still got a great figure, doesn’t she?

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.

Thank you, thank you, thank all of you who agreed with me about Rooney Mara in yesterday’s post. She’s a smug one, and she thinks it’s fine to trash-talk her early jobs now that she’s a huge movie star. Well, I know one thing – she’s not going to get very far as a fashion girl. After Rooney’s goth-bridal Givenchy gown to the London premiere of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Rooney is now giving us full-on goth at the New York City premiere. Rooney wore this Prabal Gurung Spring 2012 dress which… I dislike. I don’t hate it passionately, and I think it could be interesting on a different woman. But on Rooney, it just feels like a costume, and like she’s trying so hard to be “dark.” Plus, will you hate me if I say that I don’t think Rooney really has the figure to successfully pull off this dress? Not only does she remind me of Gwyneth Paltrow intellectually, but her boxy figure reminds me of Goop too. Goop would try to pull off this dress. Goop would fail as well. Rooney’s hair looks slightly better, though. No bangs. What’s with her expression in all of these photos, though?

As for the other “stars” on the red carpet – Daniel Craig was there, looking delicious. I’ve been sad that Rachel Weisz hasn’t come to any of these premieres – I was looking forward to seeing them walk a red carpet together. Instead, Daniel posed with his arm around Rooney a lot of the time, and then he got to see Robin Wright. I like Robin’s dress, although it’s a bit boring. I still don’t like that choppy haircut, though.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

The last time I remember seeing Robin Wright, she had blonde shoulder length hair that was choppily layered around her face. Her hair was short by Hollywood standards, and she deserves a lot of credit for not filling it out with fake long extensions.

Now Robin has cut off her hair to a short bob that makes her look a lot like Edie Falco in Nurse Jackie. This cropped ‘do is popular lately, with Katherine Heigl, Hayden Panettiere, Carey Mulligan, and Emma Watson all wearing variations of this style. Robin was spotted out in Paris on Friday, where the photo agency Fame notes that she is “working on a campaign for Gerard Darel designs.”

When you compare her new hair to the last time we saw her, at a premiere in April, it’s much better. The layers were too thin around her face and her hair looked as messy as her outfit.

If you compare her hair to the SAGs in January, it was better longer. She has angular features and longer hair softens her face. I have shoulder length hair, though, and it scares me to think of cropping it so short. It’s daunting to cut off your hair, although I guess when you’re as beautiful as Robin it’s not as big a risk as the rest of us.

Remember when she went brunette for a little while in 2009? That didn’t last long.

Photo credit: Fame Pictures (new photos) and WENN.com (older photos)

Last night was the New York premiere of The Conspirator, after this past weekend’s Washington, D.C. premiere. Robin Wright, the star of the film (she plays Mary Surratt), is going though a skinny-pantsuit phase. I didn’t care for yesterday’s funky gray suit, but I’m kind of liking this white Julien Macdonald one. The jacket is awesome, but the pants… well, I’m not a skinny pants person. I would enjoy seeing this suit with straight-leg pants. But as for Robin’s face… it’s exquisite. Just gorgeous. And I love that it looks real and untouched.

Alexis Bledel wore Oscar de la Renta. I know some of you like her, but to me she’s just a boring chick in a boring dress. If you’d like to see photos of Evan Rachel Wood’s premiere dress, go here.

And lastly, my lover James McAvoy, wearing THE SAME PANTS. The same pants as the previous premiere, the same pants he’s been wearing for every public appearance for months. The boy is cheap, and he LOVES those pants.

Photos courtesy of Fame & WENN.

Sean Penn and Robin Wright (Penn) were on and off so many times that when Robin finally got around to officially filing for divorce last year, I ignored the story because I thought it was old news. But she did file, and she seems to be the one who left, who finally had enough. Anyway, I guess they had some sh-t to organize, because it took a while for their divorce to be finalized and for everyone to be in agreement about the assets and children and everything. I doubt this process was made any easier by Sean’s almost total move to Haiti, where he told Vanity Fair that Robin “is like a ghost to me now.”

After a few false starts, Sean Penn and Robin Wright’s divorce is finally behind them.

The former couple have reached a private agreement on child support, spousal support, split of assets and custody over their son, Hopper Jack, 17, according to court papers filed July 22 in Marin County, Calif.

Penn, 49, and Wright, 44, who are now legally single and free to wed others, also have a daughter together, Dylan, 19.

The process of divorcing hasn’t been without its hitches for the actors. In Dec. 2007, the two started divorce proceedings after 11 years of marriage, only to call it off four months later.

Penn then filed for legal separation in April 2009 before the couple again temporarily reunited in May. Wright later finally filed for divorce in August and told More magazine she had no plans to reconcile with the actor.

Since their most recent split, Wright has been enjoying her newfound independence and has said she’ll remain friends with her ex, though the feeling doesn’t appear to be mutual.

In an interview for Vanity Fair’s July issue, the actor reflected on his split. “[Robin] is a ghost to me now. We spent all those years together … Now she’s just gone.”

[From People]

I wonder if they were considering dragging it out even longer just so they wouldn’t have to deal with Hopper’s custody issues – they could just wait until he turned 18 years old. From reading Sean’s VF piece, I think Hopper might still be having health problems from a traumatic brain injury he suffered from a skateboarding accident, and that Robin seems to be the (only) one taking care of all of that.

Anyway, it seems like both Sean and Robin are trying to move on romantically. Sean is dating a 25-year-old model named Jessica White it seems, and Robin is keeping her sh-t pretty quiet, but she allegedly had or has a boyfriend already too. Or maybe she’s just holding out for Brad Pitt? They’re working together right now on Moneyball! Hm…

This is just an interesting little blurb from In Touch Weekly, of course. In Touch thinks that the newest drama in the Jolie-Pitt household is that Angelina is jealous of Robin Wright (formally Wright Penn). Brad and Robin are set to work with each other in Moneyball, which starts production any day now, if it hasn’t already. I have no idea who Robin plays in the film, if she’s Brad’s character’s wife…? Ooooh, Philip Seymour Hoffman is going to be in it too! F-ck me, I might watch this one.

In Touch Weekly – In L.A. recently, Brad and Angie had a “huge fight in the car” over a sex scene in Brad’s new movie, Moneyball. She’s also not happy about how much time Brad is spending with his costar, Robin Wright.

[From ITW via Jezebel]

I could actually feel this scandal, couldn’t you? I’m not saying Brad and Robin are going to have an affair, I’m just saying this rumor has the potential to be very interesting. Robin is a real woman, she doesn’t take sh-t (in the long-run). She’s got her own life, her own interests, her own drama. And I could see how that kind of independence would interest Brad. Hm…

Also, CB and I have been looking to see if we can publish these new photos of Angelina at the photo call in Mexico for Salt, but unfortunately, we don’t have access to them (I’m seriously about to cry about that – why the f-ck doesn’t every photo agency have these pictures?!?). Angelina went without her trademark black sack and went for a sweetheart neckline strapless white cocktail dress. She looks pretty!

Sean Penn did another extensive interview while working in Haiti. I think this Vanity Fair one is supposed to be a lot like the exclusive he gave CNN a few weeks ago – focusing on what he’s doing in Haiti, and how everybody else’s efforts are falling short and “dispassionate.” But this Vanity Fair piece is more all-encompassing – they get Penn to go on the record about his split from Robin Wright. Penn says, regarding Wright and the split: “She is a ghost to me now. We spent all those years together…. Now she’s just gone.” Or she was just tired of your sanctimonious ass. Or maybe because you abandoned your children for months to work in Haiti. Anyway, mostly, the piece is a love letter to Penn’s efforts in Haiti. The article is called “Welcome to Camp Penn” and VF put an excerpt online:

If it looks as though Sean Penn is just another Hollywood star courting headlines with a camera-ready cause, look again. With a midlife milestone looming (Penn turns 50 in August), his marriage to Robin Wright Penn seemingly finished (“She is a ghost to me now,” he observes), and a teenage son, Hopper, having recovered from a life-threatening skateboard accident, the Oscar-winning actor decided to redirect his focus and his priorities.

Instead of shooting another film or hawking his latest (Fair Game, in which he portrays Ambassador Joseph Wilson, playing opposite Naomi Watts as “outed” C.I.A. agent Valerie Plame), Penn ended up committing himself to the people of Pétionville, a once-affluent Haitian suburb where he now runs a camp for 50,000 displaced earthquake survivors.

As Vanity Fair’s July issue reveals in detail for the first time, a week after the quake hit last January—killing an estimated quarter of a million people—Penn, a longtime political activist, joined forces with L.A.-based, Sarajevo-born philanthropist Diana Jenkins (creating the humanitarian organization J/P HRO, lined up crisis veteran Alison Thompson to assist in recruiting an A-team of relief volunteers, and flew from his home in Malibu to a ravaged hillside in Port-au-Prince—with a dozen doctors in tow.

Ever since, Penn, wearing camouflage khakis and carrying a Glock handgun, has been living in a tent not much larger than an army-surplus locker. And this spring the actor and his organization—who toil alongside Haitian colleagues, fellow aid workers, and army rangers—were designated by their fellow NGOs and U.N. officials as the “camp manager” of the Pétionville facility.

“I wanted to give back something more to help struggling people, but I didn’t know how best to do it,” Penn tells Douglas Brinkley. “I was for 20 years in a relationship with Robin and 18 years with children. I didn’t have time to commit to anything—for real—in places like Iraq, except to denounce the war. But now I’m single. I can lend a hand.”

For the past five months, Penn’s home base has been the sprawling tent city set up on the former Pétionville country club. (He has left only for a short fund-raising swing, to attend the Oscars in March, and to testify about Haiti on Capitol Hill in May.) As the camp has been buffeted by outbreaks of TB, malaria, dengue fever, and diphtheria, and as the rainy season threatens to bring new potential perils (mud slides, disease, civil unrest), Penn spearheads relief efforts, helps relocate displaced families, and works to arrange deliveries of emergency medical supplies—in one instance coordinating with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez to airlift in morphine and other drugs.

The U.S. military, it turns out, are among Penn’s strongest supporters. “My politics are not in line with Sean Penn’s,” states Major General Simeon Trombitas, a frequent guest at J/P HRO compound. “But we are allied in trying to save lives and alleviate human suffering. He is a doer and not a talker…and I respect that immensely.”

Lieutenant General P. K. Keen, deputy commander of the U.S. Southern Command, concurs: “In a humanitarian crisis you can be a neutral—always pinching your knuckles white. Or you can operate an NGO the way Mr. Penn does.… He intuitively knew how to both work with the U.N. and break its bureaucracy down…. I applaud the leadership he has shown. He doesn’t have to do this.”

Says Penn of Keen, recalling a recent ceremony at which the general bestowed several commendations on Penn for his Haitian crisis work: “Keen gave me this look in the eye—a look of pride. It meant more to me than any movie award.”

While Penn has abiding respect for scores of his U.N. and NGO compatriots, he is careful to point out what he sees as an inherent risk whenever diverse, committed groups vie to make their mark on the world. “Many people in the U.N. and NGO disaster-relief community share much with Hollywood: envy, Schadenfreude, and the cover [that] bureaucracy gives to a cult of unimaginative ambulance chasers—all of whom want to claim it was they who ‘made the movie’ on Haitian relief.”

Penn insists he will remain in Haiti for the long haul. “There is no exit for me until there is more life than death,” Penn says. “I can always see light in any situation. It’s just the way I’m made. I’m capable of making foolish commitments. Of being a fool. But I can see the light very clearly in terms of the ‘big picture’ for Haiti.”

Adds Penn: “There is a strength of character in the people who have, by and large, never experienced comfort. That’s exactly the character that our Main Street culture lacks and needs in the United States. In other words, we need Haiti.”

While J/P HRO has helped bring about a real social-engineering achievement, Penn says that the displaced people of Port-au-Prince have given him a gift as well. “It’s a reciprocal thing. They have returned to me something I had lost—my humility.”

[From Vanity Fair, excerpt]

I said it in the other post, but I’ll say it again: I admire Sean for what he’s doing in Haiti. I appreciate when someone puts their time, money and efforts where their mouth is. And I think Sean is giving interviews to CNN and Vanity Fair to draw attention to a crisis that desperately needs more attention. However… my complaint with Sean in this piece is the same complaint I had with the CNN piece – humanitarian work is not either/or. Sean can be doing admirable work, and so can hundreds of other aid workers. What bothers me is that Sean (and others) feel there should be a comparison, perhaps to emphasis what good work he’s doing? I don’t know.

VF put up this video too:

Sean Penn made a cryptic comment during his presentation of the best actress Oscar on Sunday night. We assumed he was speaking of his estranged wife, Robin Wright Penn, when he said. “I never became an official member of the academy, but the academy and I do have in common that we neglected to acknowledge the same actress in our own ways two years running.” Penn neglected to thank his wife in his Oscar acceptance speech last year, and the two split soon afterwards. (They’ve had an on-off relationship and did reunite at least once, but have since moved forward with their divorce.) The Academy didn’t nominate Robin for The Private Lives of Pippa Lee this year, which is thought to be what Penn was referring to. (As far as I can tell, she was only in one film that came out in 2008, What Just Happened.)

Anyway after the ceremony Penn was said to have been involved in some kind of vague altercation backstage with Robin’s new boyfriend, Greg Shapiro, a producer of The Hurt Locker. Words were (allegedly) exchanged and Penn was perhaps later barred from the Govenor’s Ball post-Oscar party. A rep from the Academy denies that Penn was unwelcome at the party and Penn’s rep says he just didn’t go to that affair.

The Milk star apparently had some sort of backstage confrontation with Greg Shapiro, one of the newly minted Oscar-winning producers of The Hurt Locker. But if you think it could have had something to do with Penn’s politics and the war movie, not so fast…

Shapiro happens to be dating Penn’s former ladylove, Robin Wright.

Minutes after Penn and Shapiro came face-to-face, “Academy officials…said he was banned from the Ball,” one of my sources said.

Penn’s rep insists there was no confrontation and that the actor chose not to stop by the Ball. A rep for the Academy would only say, “Sean Penn chose not to attend the Governors Ball.” (Update: Late this morning, another rep for the Academy emailed me, insisting that Penn was never not welcome at the Ball.)

Penn eventually made his way to the Sunset Tower Hotel afterparty. “Fine,” he told E! News’ Ashlan Gorse when she asked him how his night was.

Earlier in the day, Wright and Shapiro appeared to be very much a couple—and a very happy couple at that. I actually saw them enjoying a meal at Cheebo in L.A., where they canoodled over breakfast while reading the Los Angeles Times together.

[From E! Online]

It’s hard to tell if this story is true, but since this is the same guy who just wished rectal cancer on his detractors, I don’t doubt it. He was thinking about Robin enough to say something unsanctioned at the Oscars, and I could see him getting up in her new boyfriend’s face. Maybe it was just a minor exchange that’s being blown out of proportion, though, especially in Penn’s estimation. He could have been gruff and rude to the guy, but it’s not like that’s out of character for him.

Actress Robin Wright Penn, the estranged and reportedly long-suffering wife of Sean Penn, showed up to the premiere of her new movie, “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee,” with two very noticeable changes: first, she’s once again dropped the “Penn” from her surname. And second, she’s traded in her familiar long blond hair for a darker shade. While Robin doesn’t elaborate on what prompted her to file for divorce this time, she has said in multiple interviews that this time, the separation from Sean Penn is for good, and she’s looking forward to starting over.

Robin Wright is doing just fine without Sean Penn. The actress has dropped Penn from her name and turned her blond hair brown. She wowed guests at the star-studded Cinema Society screening of her movie “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” on Sunday night. Showing off her slim figure in a Herve Leger dress, she was overheard saying, “This is all about new beginnings for me.” Wright was seen chatting with writer/director Rebecca Miller and husband Daniel Day-Lewis at the packed party at the Breslin attended by stars, including Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Billy Crudup. Her co-star Blake Lively, accompanied by boyfriend Penn Badgley, was also the talk of the evening in a plunging white jacket. But Lively admitted she still gets nervous seeing herself on screen. She told Page Six: “I loved the role, but it is hard to watch myself with so many people in the theater.”

[From Page Six]

In a recent “Entertainment Weekly” interview, Robin gets a little more specific about her new beginnings, and what this new role in “Pippa Lee” meant to her.

In recent months, the actress has overhauled just about every aspect of her life. In August, she filed for divorce from Sean Penn, shed his last name and put an end to the turbulent 20-year relationship, during which they broke up and reconciled at least three times. Shortley thereafter, she moved back to L.A. (with kids Dylan, 18, and Hopper, 16) after 12 years of raising a family in Marin County, near San Franscisco. Her new home, in Santa Monica, happens to be on the same eucalyptus-shaded street where she lived 25 years ago while shooting her breakthrough role in 1987′s The Princess Bride. “I didn’t want to raise my kids in this weird, sycophantic society,” Wright says, referring to Hollywood. “If you have celebrity parents, it’s not a good recipe for the kids, or anyone at any age. Look at what Brad and Angelina go through.”

The notoriously selective star has also thrown herself back into work. After stealing scenes from Russell Crowe in the political thriller State of Play, she won a chorus of critical shout-outs playing a chain-smoking flirt in last month’s New York, I Love You. Now she’s about to do double-duty in Robert Zemeckis’ 3-D animated holiday extravaganza Disney’s A Christmas Carol as both a 9-year-old moppet and Scrooge’s neglected fiance, Belle. Then comes her substantial and potentially career-changing role as the title character in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, out Nov. 27.

“I read the script, and I was like, ‘I’ll give my left tit to play this role,’ and that’s huge for me, because I don’t have any tits,” she says. “Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and the Kates all have gotten great roles, and were so good in them, and now I got one,” she smiles. “I finally got one.”

Wright’s face darkens when asked about her divorce from Penn. “I don’t want to talk about it in great detail because it will all be reflected back to him, and I’m not interested in sharing that with people,” she says. “I have no regrets. I have two wonderful kids, and when I’m asked ‘Why did you leave?’ I guess, it was just ‘I’m going over here now.’” She takes a breather to gaze out at the Pacific and adds her last two words on the subject: “New book.”

[From Entertainment Weekly]

I’ve always thought Robin Wright was a fantastic actress who just needed the right role – maybe this one is it. She certainly seems a lot happier these days, even while Penn has taken up with a 25-year-old swimsuit model. As for the hair color change, I’m thinking it might be for a role or something. It actually makes her look a bit younger than the blond but I don’t think it’s a long-term thing. I’m rooting for her, and for her career.

Last week, some outlets reported that Sean Penn and Robin Wright’s 16-year-old son Hopper was arrested at his Malibu school. The school and the police wouldn’t confirm the arrest (because he’s a minor), but Radar had sources who initially claimed that Hopper was arrested for possession of narcotics. Now it’s looking more like it was all some kind of big misunderstanding. A source is telling Radar now that Hopper will not face any charges because the “possession of narcotics” was simply Hopper’s prescription medication.

Sean Penn’s 16-year-old son Hopper Jack will NOT face charges in connection with his arrest last week at his high school in the Malibu area.

A source close to the investigation exclusively tells RadarOnline.com that the District Attorney’s office has closed their investigation after Hopper proved that the drugs found on him were in fact prescription medication in his name.

Hopper was taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies when the medication was discovered on him, but after an investigation, the D.A.’s office Wednesday decided no charges were warranted. Authorities will not say what type of medication was involved.

[From Radar]

That story turned on a dime, didn’t it? At first people were like “of course Sean Penn’s son is into drugs, look at his whackadoodle father.” And now people are like “my bad, it was nothing, sorry to overreact.” I do wonder what kind of medication Hopper is on, though. But it’s none of my business.

In one last piece of Penn-Wright family news, Robin Wright was interviewed in an upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly, and she described how difficult it is to raise her children with any kind of connection to Hollywood, mainly because of all of the junk with the paparazzi. She says: “I didn’t want to raise my kids in this weird, sycophantic society. If you have celebrity parents, it’s not a good recipe for the kids, or anyone at any age. Look at what Brad and Angelina go through.” Robin knows it too – she and Sean were still together when Brad and Sean worked together on The Tree of Life. She must have seen it first hand.

Sean Penn is shown out on 7/14/09 and 2/27/09. Credit: PRPhotos