Brad Pitt is a God-fearing man. It’s just that his gods are Mickey Rourke, Sean Penn and Gary Oldman. Pitt was promoting Benjamin Button in Paris when he reacted to his Oscar nomination for Best Actor, and to his film’s thirteen total nominations. He complimented his fellow nominees by saying, “When I started out my Gods, so to speak, were Gary Oldman, Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke.”

Pitt also complimented co-nominee Richard Jenkins, saying, “And since then Richard Jenkins has become a great friend and someone I admire.” Pitt did not offer any praise or compliments to Frost/Nixon’s Frank Langella, however. The ghost of Nixon will haunt him now.

Brad Pitt said he is honoured to have made the Oscar Best Actor nominations list.

The actor was out in Paris promoting his film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – a drama where he plays a man who ages backwards.

The film led the field of Oscar contenders with 13 nominations, including best picture.
Pitt said: “When I started out my Gods, so to speak, were Gary Oldman, Sean Penn and Mikey Rourke and so it’s a real honour for me to be sitting at the same table and be mentioned in the same way with these fine actors.

“And since then Richard Jenkins has become a great friend and someone I admire… So it’s a fickle business but it’s nice when your number comes up.”

Pitt, arrived at the premiere of the film with his partner Angelina Jolie but she slipped into the background while he promoted his movie.

Pitt said: “The Benjamin character is really more about receiving, about the people he meets along the way. They have the burden of performance and Benjamin has the burden of taking all that in and how he simulates that.”

The film will vie for best picture with Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, The Reader and Frost/Nixon.

[From ITN News]

Sean Penn and Brad Pitt have made a film together called Tree of Life, directed by Terrence Malick. When filming last year, there was gossip that they didn’t get along and that there were many fights between the two actors. I wonder if there was any truth to the rumored “battle” and if Brad is trying to make nice with Sean Penn. God know Sean won’t be the one to try to bury the hatchet first.

Here’s Mickey Rourke with Bai Ling in London on January 12th. Images thanks to Fame.

Lindsay Lohan and Sean Penn are apparently good friends. I find this nothing short of beyond confusing. First off, if I were Sean’s wife Robin Wright, I’d see someone as skanky as Lohan as a serious threat to my marriage. They must have a strong union if Robin’s alright with Lohan and Penn hanging out all the time. According to Page Six, they’ve been spotted hanging out all over Manhattan and now in L.A. Which also begs the question: what’s going on with Lohan and Samantha Ronson? There were all sorts of reports that they’d recently split, but Lindsay is still denying it.

LINDSAY Lohan left her constant companion Samantha Ronson at home the other night to hang with Sean Penn. He and Lohan went to Nobu in West Hollywood, reports Celebuzz.com. Later, Page Six sources said the pair – who were spotted together all over Manhattan last month – went to newly reopened club Guy’s. Ronson and Lohan have been fighting for weeks, and as one tipster told us, “Sam broke up with Lindsay but she is completely in denial about it.”

[From Page Six]

It seems likely that Lohan and Ronson have broken up. They’re nearly constant companions, yet they haven’t been spotted together since the first of the year, when they had one of their epic fights on an airplane. And hanging out all the time with Sean Penn doesn’t really speak to a healthy relationship. I find that to be such a random and confusing pairing.

It really didn’t seem like Samantha was going to be able to handle Lindsay in the long run. Sam did tone her down and appeared to help her with some of her issues, but a Lohan is a Lohan, and there’s only so much you can do. At this point I’d be seriously surprised if we saw Lohan out with Samantha again, though I doubt she’ll admit to a breakup for a while. At least she has Sean Penn’s shoulder to cry on.

Here’s Lohan shopping in L.A. on Wednesday. Images thanks to Splash.

Mickey Rourke is thought to be a contender for the best actor Academy Award with his moving performance in The Wrestler. He may be jeopardizing his chance at getting a nomination however with this latest news that he’s been trashing the competition, Sean Penn, for his performance in the biopic Milk. A journalist for The Daily Beast claims to have seen a text message that Rourke sent an industry insider in which he calls Penn a homophobe who gave an average performance in the film. Rourke was also supposedly overheard dismissing Penn’s performance on another occasion. It looks like someone is a little insecure about his hard-earned chance at an Oscar nod:

After his December 23 appearance on David Letterman, Rourke told someone backstage that he was surprised that so many people seemed to think that Penn was his Oscar competition since “I’m not even sure he’ll get a nomination.”

On December 28, a Los Angeles entertainment honcho shared a text message with me that Rourke had sent him: “Look seans an old friend of mine and i didnt buy his performance at all—thought he did an average pretend acting like he was gay besides hes one of the most homophobic people i kno” [sic]

“It’s a shame,” says one veteran Hollywood lawyer. “Mickey should be looking at this as a once in a career chance for a fresh start. But dumping on Penn is not going to win him any friends. It’s not the way to get Oscar votes.”

Rourke’s publicist says “there is no Oscar feud between Mickey and Sean. They have known each other and been friends for a very long time. Mickey attended the New York premiere of Milk to support Sean and only has the greatest respect for him.” She adds that Rourke is ”completely unaware of the text.”

[From The Daily Beast via WeSmirch]

The article says that Rourke’s friends know he’s an outspoken and blunt person who doesn’t mince words. He is also supposedly friends with Penn, so maybe Penn will shrug it off if he knows that’s Rourke’s style. This could work out to Penn’s benefit in the long run. The academy isn’t likely to forget Rourke’s rude dismissal of Penn when it comes time to vote. Maybe Rourke will issue a statement saying he never sent that message or that his words were taken out of context. He’s got to be afraid of the repercussions of losing the coveted award if he’s so actively talking smack about the competition.

The movie awards season is just beginning. The latest round of accolades from the L.A. Film Critics Awards was announced this week, which many pundits say can be an early indicator of how the Academy Award nominations will break down.

Surprisingly –well, not surprisingly if you’ve seen the movie — Disney’s animated “Wall-E” cleaned up, winning Best Picture. If you haven’t seen it because you don’t have kids- don’t let that stop you! I actually cried at this movie. (Don’t judge me!) Other winners include Sean Penn for his portrayal of slain San Francisco politician Harvey Milk in “Milk,” British actress Sally Hawkins for her work in the dark comedy “Happy Go Lucky,” Penelope Cruz for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” and Heath Ledger, who picked up his second posthumous award in the last week for his creepy, performance as The Joker in “The Dark Knight.”

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has gone populist on its picks for best movies of 2008, choosing the animated smash “WALL-E” as No. 1 and the Batman blockbuster “The Dark Knight” as runner-up on Tuesday.

Sean Penn was named best actor for the film biography “Milk,” while Sally Hawkins received the best-actress prize for the British comic drama “Happy-Go-Lucky.”

The late Heath Ledger won the critics group’s supporting-actor honor for his turn as the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” while Penelope Cruz was chosen for supporting actress in the Woody Allen romance “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” as well as her role in the drama “Elegy.”

Danny Boyle took directing honors for “Slumdog Millionaire,” with Christopher Nolan the runner-up for “The Dark Knight.” “Happy-Go-Lucky” director Mike Leigh won for best screenplay.

The critics’ picks are one of the early film honors in Hollywood’s long awards season, which continues Thursday with nominations for the Golden Globes, the second-biggest ceremony after the Academy Awards.

Globe nominations and critics prizes can boost Oscar prospects, particularly for lesser-known films such as “Happy-Go-Lucky” and “Slumdog Millionaire.” Oscar nominations come out Jan. 22, with the awards ceremony scheduled for Feb. 22.

“WALL-E” and “The Dark Knight” were unusually commercial choices for the critics, whose past best-picture winners have tended toward smaller films such as 2007′s “There Will Be Blood” and other recipients that include “Letters From Iwo Jima,” “Brokeback Mountain” and “Sideways.”

Among runners-up for the critics awards were Mickey Rourke, best actor for “The Wrestler”; Melissa Leo, best actress for “Frozen River”; Eddie Marsan, supporting actor for “Happy-Go-Lucky”; Viola Davis, supporting actress for “Doubt”; and Charlie Kaufman, screenplay for “Synecdoche, New York.”

[From Huffington Post]

There are a lot of movies coming out at the end of the year that I want to see. I’m looking forward to seeing “Milk” this weekend. The trailer looks great. I’m also intrigued by “Frost/Nixon” because I’m a huge history geek and have always been fascinated by the Nixon era. If you’re staying home this weekend, I encourage you to rent “Wall-E.” You won’t be sorry.

Though Lindsay Lohan claims she and girlfriend Samantha Ronson are doing fine as always, she’s still flirting it up with men, including Sean Penn. According to Fox News, Lindsay recently got super close to Penn at a party, going so far as to “nuzzle” him. Never before has “nuzzle” sounded like such a dirty word to me. And she seems to have done it with all the class and subtly you’d expect of a Lohan.

Lindsay Lohan likes Milk. Anyway, she likes the star of Gus Van Sant’s longish take on the life and times of gay activist Harvey Milk.

At Sean Penn’s private dinner for Milk last week at downtown/far west eatery The John Dory — in which the former Jeff Spicoli has invested — Lohan showed up sans partner Samantha Ronson. Sources say she immediately sidled up to Penn, who took her under his wing, so to speak. “They nuzzled,” says my observer, before taking off for an after party somewhere in the bowels of Chelsea, no doubt.

[From Fox News]

Maybe Lohan has casual nuzzles. She has casual other things, so maybe she’s a nuzzle slut. Lindsay’s had to deny that she has any problems in her relationship because she and Samantha haven’t been out together much lately. Lohan has said that the pair are together and fine, and if they ever did break up she’d announce it on MySpace. Classy.

“today i was out with my friend Jamie and paparazzi wouldn’t stop asking me where samantha was,” Lindsay wrote in her usual style of writing that ignores most punctuation and rules of grammar. “and i’m not writing this blog because i feel like i need to prove that i’m with my girl to anyone at all. but because it’s just annoying. and i want to vent.”

“and i love myspace because it allows me to vent without having to deal with the noise of the ‘tabloids’ and ‘stalkerazzi’s’” she continued.
In fact, the actress loves the social networking Web site so much, that she said it would be the first place she would announce a split from her celebrity DJ girlfriend, if it were to ever happen.

“all in all-they should just stop asking altogether, once and for all if she and i are broken up because frankly, if we ever ever did…. i would say it before they could even think of asking. i’d say it here probably… i say everything here on myspace.”
Lindsay goes on to say that she hopes the publications and gossip blogs perpetuating the rumors are reading her blog in order to get the story straight.
“okay. well, i hope that all the gossip magazines and sites, and lurkers read this cuz it’s not true,” the actress wrote. “ahh! i love myspace because i can just write, and i love writing, and i can prove all the liars wrong.”
“wow- the people that make s*** up must really feel silly, embarrassed, out of stories, s******, f*****, punk’d, and so much more. because, i can use myspace and just let everyone know what’s really going on,” Lindsay added. “which is so much more fun! cuz now, people can get to know the REAL me. yay!”

[From Access Hollywood]

Why even bother having PR people when you have your eloquent words and MySpace to do all your talking? Lindsay is just trash, and anytime people start thinking otherwise, she manages to write a blog that clarifies just how classless she is. It’s also pretty obvious from her writing that she really gets off on the drama. Not that it’s news to anyone. I’m surprised that someone with a legit career like Sean Penn is willing to have her around for even a moment. Being associated with someone so tacky can’t be good for other people’s reputations.

Here’s Lindsay smoking a cigarette with a friend on a private balcony above a farmers market in Los Angeles yesterday. Images thanks to WENN.

Sean Penn stars with James Franco and Josh Brolin in Milk, a biopic about the first openly gay man elected to office in San Francisco. Harvey Milk served as the city supervisor in late 1970s San Francisco and campaigned for gay rights. Penn stars as the title character in the film and James Franco is his lover.

Penn’s co-star James Franco said in an interview with Out Magazine that the first person Penn told about his first experience kissing a man, which was supposedly with Franco on the set of the film, was his ex wife Madonna. He claims Penn sent Madonna a text message about the experience and mentioned he thought she might be interested. Madonna and Penn were married for four turbulent years nearly twenty years ago, from 1985 to 1989.

Sean Penn’s “Milk” costar James Franco has further dished about the pair’s lengthy on-screen kiss. Franco told Out magazine, “After our [on-screen] kiss, Sean texted Madonna – his ex-wife, Madonna – and said, ‘I just popped my cherry kissing a guy. I thought of you. I don’t know why‘ . . . There’s a scene in the pool and everybody else is dressed and there’s just something uncomfortable about that.”

[From Huffington Post]

The Huffington Post also reminds us of Franco’s remarks about kissing Penn. He described how it took about a minute to film and that it felt like a long time. He said he thought “Oh, my God, I’m kissing Spicoli.”

Franco said in another interview (link leads to video) about his kiss with Penn that “It was amazing, I got to make out with him a few times… it was great.”

What surprises me about this story is that Penn is still in touch with Madonna after nearly twenty years. You would assume those two don’t communicate at all, but he supposedly has her current cell phone number and occasionally contacts her. Who knew?

Here’s the trailer for Milk, which looks Oscar-worthy, incredibly moving and inspirational. The film is out in limited release in the US starting on November 26th.

The stars were out for the opening festival at the Cannes film festival, and they sure were gorgeous. The first film to open the 12 day film festival on the Riveria is Blindness. The film by Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles is based on a 1955 novel in which an entire city goes blind after an epidemic. Julianne Moore plays one of the few people who is unaffected and retains her sight. She tries to hide it from the rest of the city as society breaks down from the effects of the change. Blindness also stars Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, and Gael García Bernal.

The 9 person jury at Cannes includes Natalie Portman and is headed by Sean Penn. Penn didn’t miss a chance to rip on US President George Bush while talking to the press at the event. It’s likely that he was asked directly about it, and he is quoted by Reuters as saying “When somebody operates without a brain and without a heart, they kill hundreds of thousands of people around the world.” I dislike Bush as much as the next person, but there are much better ways of phrasing that. It’s lame to personally attack someone in such a blunt way when you can state more compelling reasons for disliking the guy. Bush definitely has a heart and a brain, he just choses when to use them. When it involves money, they’re easily switched off and immune to suffering, death and general havok-wrecking. Reuters notes that Penn then smoked a cigarette “in defiance of French anti-smoking laws.” You would think he would be afraid of setting that ridiculous hair on fire.

Shown at the opening ceremony at Cannes are Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria (who’s still looking pregnant to me), Rachida Brakni, Aishwarya Rai, Gillian Anderson, Sean Penn (the hair!), Julianne Moore, Gael García Bernal, Mischa Barton, Danny Glover, and Bar Rafaeli.

Estranged couple Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn have just reconciled. The couple filed for divorce last month amid rumors that Sean had been cheating. Sean was photographed with model Petra Nemcova at various Oscar parties, but apparently he’s had a change of heart. At a recent Eddie Vedder concert, Sean and Robin were seen together, and Sean even dedicated a song to her. I guess those lame moves actually work on some women, because that same day, Robin dropped her divorce case.

Sean Penn’s divorce to Robin Wright Penn has been called off.

Court officials confirm to Extra that a dismissal was filed and granted on Tuesday.

The same day, Extra reported the pair hit an Eddie Vedder concert in San Francisco, where Penn, 47 — who flirted with Petra Nemcova at the Oscars — dedicated a song to his wife, 42, on stage for her birthday.

He originally filed divorce papers in Marin County December 7, his attorney Mindy Ross told Usmagazine.com, but the petition was dismissed December 18.

On December 21, she filed her own request for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Penn’s divorce papers listed November 30 as the date of their separation; she listed the split date as December 1.

The couple, who have been married for over 11 years, have two kids: Dylan Francis, 16, and Hopper Jack, 14.

[From Us Weekly]

Sean and Robin have a reputation for being emotional, volatile and up-and-down with each other, even when they are working together on a project. Famed director John Cassavetes, who directed the couple in “She’s So Lovely,” said that working with them was difficult. “The beginning and the end of every day is how Sean and Robin are getting along,” the director said during shooting in 1997. “If they have a bad morning, Sean’s broken up about it.”

I hope it works out for the couple this time. But I can’t help but wonder if maybe Sean went divorce-attorney-shopping after the papers were filed, and found out what it would cost him to divorce his wife of 11 years in the State of California. Yep, I’m romantic that way.

Let’s be honest: the best part of awards shows are all the little bits of gossip you hear afterwards. Like Jon Stewart was actually drunk as a skunk during the whole ceremony last night. Or Jack Nicholson and Javier Bardem got in a fistfight, and Javier sat on Jack’s head. Okay none of those things actually happened, but how much would it rock if they did? Well a little bit of juicy gossip that does appear to be true: it seems Sean Penn and Petra Nemcova are hooking up.

Newly single Sean Penn and supermodel Petra Nemcova slipped out of LA’s Villa nightclub at 3:10 a.m. this morning–clearly Hollywood’s hottest new item.

The pair followed up an appearance at a CAA event two days ago with a full-on assault of coupledom tonight at Elton John’s Oscar Party (above). Sean, 47, and Petra, 28, posed on the red carpet at the singer’s AIDS Foundation fete and danced to his many hits before heading to Villa.

[From Page Six]

Further confirmation comes from People. While they say there was no “clear cut PDA” when Petra was asked about Penn, she noted, “Yes, we are friends. He is on the advisory board of my charity.”

I can’t really explain why, but somehow this pairing strikes me as odd. Penn is nineteen years old than Nemcova, but I don’t think that’s what really seems odd. He just looks like he should be out living in a tree somewhere, while she looks like her image should be chiseled in marble or something. He’s very rustic and asymmetrical. And she is highly symmetrical. And since I can’t think of any other way to explain why I don’t think these two go together, I’m going to rely on symmetry (and a lack thereof) to be my main argument.

Sean Penn split from wife Robin Wright Penn right after Christmas; with both parties citing the traditional “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for their divorce. The San Francisco Gate reports that Robin is now dating her ex-boyfriend from the 90s, Jason Patric. It seems fast, but they’re both moving on with their lives and that’s probably for the best. And Jason Patric is much more symmetrical than Sean Penn.

Apparently Sean Penn decided to end his marriage with a bang. So to speak. According to MSNBC and various media outlets, Penn had a threesome with two drunk Russian girls. He had gone on vacation with wife Robin Wright Penn right before Christmas, but had booked separate suites for each of them. So clearly things weren’t exactly cozy before all of this. Robin Wright hardly saw Penn on vacation, and was pissed that she was spending all her time alone. When she went to Penn’s room, she found him in bed with two drunk women. Penn supposedly didn’t care, and continued to party into the night.

Sean Penn was served with divorce papers by his wife Robin after the actress allegedly found him in bed with two other women. Magazine Star has revealed details of the couple’s last weekend together and claimed the Mystic River star was caught being unfaithful to his partner of 11 years.

The actors were reportedly staying at the Squaw Valley resort in Lake Tahoe, California, days before Christmas when the incident is said to have occurred, according to MSNBC.com. A source tells the publication, “Sean didn’t spend much time with his wife – he booked her a separate suite – and when Robin got fed up with being alone, she went over to his suite. (There, she) found him drunk with two Russian girls.”

Penn married Wright in 1996 and they have two children together, Dylan Frances, 16, and Hopper Jack, 14. Wright filed divorce papers in California on December 21, citing irreconcilable differences as a reason for the split. The couple are said to be seeking joint custody of their teenage kids.

[From Starpulse]

There’s always been something about Sean Penn that I’ve found distasteful. I thought it was the constant sneer plastered across his face, but now I think it probably has more to do with the sleazebag, ignoring your wife, having sex with strangers thing. Something tells me the two have a prenup, but if they don’t this could get pretty messy for him.

Update by Celebitchy: The Star article doesn’t say that Robin found Sean in bed with two Russian woman, just that she found him drunk and hanging out with them in his room. The article is being misquoted:

“Sean didn’t spend much time with his wife – he booked her a separate suite – and when Robin got fed up with being along, she went over to his suite and found him drunk with two Russian girls!” says a source. “He’d already finished a couple of bottles of champagne.”

Robin, 41, went nuclear, but Sean “just told her to leave and continued drinking,” reveals the source. Sean, 47, even flirted with the women in front of Robin, whom he married in 1996 after the birth of their children, daughter Dylan, 16, and son Hopper, 14. “He was acting like he just didn’t care,” says the source.

[From Star Magazine, print edition, January 14, 2008]

The article goes on to say that Penn tried to order champagne from room service at 3 am and then had someone drive him to a 7-Eleven when there wasn’t room service available at that time. He then found that he wasn’t able to buy booze after 2 am. That hardly sounds like someone who’s having a threesome. If you’re busy having sex you’re not about to get antsy over not getting booze.