Hugh Hefner is shown with the playmate of the year, Claire Sinclair, on 5/6/11

Last week Hugh Hefner’s runaway bride Crystal Harris went on Howard Stern to say that she’d never seen Hef naked, that they only had sex once and that it lasted 2 seconds. “He isn’t half as sexual as you’d think,” she added. Hef then went on Twitter to deny that was the case, tweeting in part that “The sex with Crystal the first night was good enough so that I kept her over two more nights…. Crystal lied about our relationship on Howard Stern but I don’t know why.” He later wrote that he loved her but that he “realized she really didn’t love me.”

Well Crystal has apologized on Twitter without fully taking responsibility. She wrote “The Stern interview scared me, he’s harsh. I was unprepared and blurted out things I shouldn’t have said, I’m sorry.” Anyone who is surprised by Stern questioning them about their sex life is either truly clueless or lying.

Hef then defended himself on Twitter, yet again, to give more specific details of his sexual prowess. He first diplomatically responded to Crystal’s apology, writing “I don’t blame Howard. Crystal shouldn’t have been booked on the show at this sensitive time.” Then he wrote “For the record, I have sex on a weekly basis, and did throughout my 2-and-a-half years with Crystal.” He followed up with “My sex life involves more than one partner & has since the end of my marriage in 1998.” (This was probably in response to Crystal crying that she was “not the only woman in Hef’s life,” to which he previously countered that she loved.)

We didn’t need that visual, but that’s pretty much what all the other women he paid to live in his house have said over the years. Hef is slowing down, though. He used to have sex parties twice a week. In an interview with the Daily Beast earlier this year, Hef confirmed a former bunny’s account that he has unprotected sex, but claimed that it was no problem since the women were tested for STDs. “One of the ways that you resolve that problem is to have sex with people who don’t have sexually transmitted diseases.” This guy’s money and influence have allowed him to be stuck in a 70s bubble he’s built in which the women never age and he can maintain the facade of a sex god who doesn’t have to get with the times and wrap it up. It’s clear that he’s upset that anyone would call him on that illusion. It’s probably one he works hard to maintain in his own mind too.

Hugh Hefner is shown with the playmate of the year, Claire Sinclair, on 5/6/11. He’s also shown on 6/25/11 and with Crystal and Sophia Berglund on 4/28/11. Credit: WENN.com

I already covered the first excerpts from this week’s hilarious In Touch Weekly, all about how Angelina Jolie is still bisexual, to the point where she just loves to randomly hook up with ladies in hotel rooms, and flirt with girl waitresses, and stewardesses, and how Brad can only weep, knowing that he can never satisfy The Jolie (because he lacks biscuits). Anyway, I’ve had the chance to read the whole thing, and it’s EPIC. You know how In Touch absolutely hates Angelina, right? And you know how they can turn the most innocent little thing into some kind of crazy hate-fest? Well, they did it again, and this time they seem to be bashing Angelina because, in the local parlance, Angelina likes to “get hers”. Basically, she has orgasms, and she encourages Brad to give her as many as she can. DEVIL WOMAN!!! SHUN!!!

But that’s not all, of course. That’s just the subtext. The text is all about Angelina’s insatiable sexual needs, and how she makes Brad feel like he’s not “man enough” to satisfy her. I’ll be honest, this story turned me on a little:

“One of the the things that broke up Angelina’s marriages to Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton was that she found herself attracted to other women, but her husbands didn’t want her to stray,” says a friend of Angelina’s. As fulfilled as Angelina claims to be in her relationship with brad, those desires remain. Though she is discreet about it, Angelina is intent on making sure those desires are fulfilled – whether or not it would hurt Brad.

When they first hooked up, Angelina wanted sex from Brad all the time. Six kids later, Angelina remains “a very sexual person,” an insider shares. “Brad has made a real commitment to make sure that her needs are met.” And that means letting her play a dominant role in their sex life.

In addition to meeting up with ladies for sexual rendezvous at the Roosevelt Hotel, Angelina also requests “only female servers” and whenever she travels without Brad, she brings a female companion. And along the way, on her many trips, she loves to flirt with beautiful stewardesses. “She doesn’t do anything like that when the kids are around, but it’s a different story when she’s alone, or with Brad.”

Brad “had never met a woman as overtly sexual as Angelina, so he was putty in her hands from the start.” Eager to please her, Brad allowed Angelina to be the dominant one in their relationship, and he continues to do that to this day, with their lovemaking session largely cenetered around making her happy.

“Angelina loves to tie Brad down to a chair or to the bed and blindfold him. That’s no secret.”

Some may view her as selfish, but Angelina believes she’s done Brad a favor by expanding his horizons.

“They have a grotto on their Los Feliz compound, and they go there all the time to have sex in the water… they’re not violent, but Angelina likes it rough.” She also likes to role-play. At least once a month, Brad and Angelina check into a hotel room and enjoy a 24 hour “sex vacation” with Angelina inevitably embracing the dominatrix role.

[From In Touch Weekly, print edition]

*fans self*

Okay, what else? Oh, she takes Brad to lingerie shops and makes him choose her panties. And of course, there’s an excess of stuff about “poor Brad” and how Angelina would never let HIM sleep with other women, so why does SHE get to? Um, because it’s HOT.

But my absolute FAVORITE part of the story is the photo spread – In Touch compiled all of these photos of Angelina standing next to or hugging various women on, you know, like red carpets and stuff, and In Touch insinuates that Angelina is boning all of them. There’s a photo of Angelina with Holly Goline, her assistant of 12 years, and ITW claims that Holly will “sleep over” in Angelina’s bed when Brad’s away. There’s a photo of Angelina kissing: a female fan on a red carpet, La Femme Nikita star Peta Wilson, and my two favorites: Queen Rania of Jordan (Angelina is kissing Rania’s cheek, btw, but it certainly looks suggestive), and finally, a photo of Angelina kissing Clint Eastwood’s wife Dina. OH NOES. Angelina is going to homewreck Clint Eastwood! (to get to his wife!)

Is anyone else hot? I’m hot.

Photos courtesy of WENN, InTouch and promotional shots from ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’.

Pipsqueak Hayden Panettiere has been dating gorgeous hunk of a man and boxing great Wladimir Klitschko on and off for about two years. I’ve made it clear how I feel about her in the past, and how I think she is in no way deserving of Klitschko. It’s not that she’s not cute in a very adolescent way, it’s just that she seems insufferable both in interviews and in stories I’ve read about her. Anyway Hayden’s hot boyfriend is 6’6″ and she’s just 5’1″. In an appearance on Ellen yesterday, she explained that people come up to her and ask her all the time how she manages to have sex with Klitschko. She didn’t get into specifics but she said the question didn’t bother her, because of course the bitch is proud that she’s nailing the world’s (current)* greatest heavyweight boxing champion, who wouldn’t be?

In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres that aired today, the Scream 4 star revealed that people actually come up to her to ask how the 5-foot-1 actress and her 6-foot-6 boxer beau, Wladimir Klitschko, um…you know.

“He is quite a bit bigger than me,” Hayden said, when Ellen commented on the height differential. “I get the prudest people [to] come up to me, and they’re like,” she said, lowering her voice to a whisper, “‘Does it work?’”

“Yeah, it works. We find a way,” the 21-year-old actress said.

To which Ellen replied, “I know what you’re talking about and I’m in shock.”

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way!” Hayden insisted.

“People ask you that?” Ellen said, still apparently rather shocked.

“They do!” the one-time Heroes hero said. “And they’re very conservative people most of the time. They just have to know. Like have to know, ‘I just have to ask you this question!’”

Ellen called such questions “crazy and rude,” but Hayden replied with a wave of her hand, “I don’t mind it. I find it amusing.”

“Really?” Ellen wondered. “Well then, how does it work?”

[From E! Online]

Yes Hayden, now we’re all picturing you having sex with Klitschko. Mission accomplished. There are enough pictures of Hayden sitting on Klitschko’s lap to figure out how they work it out.

I guess she’s promoting Scream 4. I’ve only seen segments of the Scream movies and don’t really get their appeal. I watched the trailer though and I’m embarrassed to say it actually looks pretty good and that I want to see it now. It riffs on horror movie cliches but still manages to use them to entertain us. See, Hayden’s little story about how she gets to screw Klitschko served its purpose.

*I put in “current” because I don’t know much about sports and he could have been preceded by better boxers. According to wiki he “is historically the longest reigning Heavyweight Champion for the IBF, WBO & IBO Heavyweight Titles of both measurements of defenses and time.”

Many of you will hate me for that story title, but like something that stinks that we stick in our friends faces, I had to get you to experience my sensory pain. It’s enough to hear that Somers has sex every day, that’s an overshare but it’s something that you can handle without the added “juices” descriptor. She went there, though, while promoting her latest book of quakery, Sexy Forever, to Betty Confidential. She’s all for natural everything, but when it comes to plastic surgery and injectibles she obviously makes an exception.

What are some ways that anyone can feel sexier?…
Hormones, hormones, hormones. Honestly, all women (and men) should read at least one of my books on bioidentical, natural hormones. They are my secret weapons to anti-aging. They promote health and sexuality. They sharpen your brain and strengthen your bones. And there has NEVER been one reported case of cancer by anyone using these hormones.

Describe a typical morning in your life:
Every morning I awaken to the smell of my husband’s delicious strong coffee. While it’s brewing, he goes outside when the weather is nice and picks a lemon off our tree and squeezes a half lemon into a glass of water. It’s a great way to get your liver started for the day. I watch the morning shows, usually news, while I do email, use my Facemaster (my non-surgical facelift machine), take my daily fiber and probiotics — a must for gut health and regularity. I rub on my hormone creams and start taking some of my supplements. My yoga teacher comes four days a week and if it’s an off day I do my own version of yoga, and run in place with the waist strap attached to my EZ GYM. Somewhere in my daily ritual we have delicious sex. We are both on natural hormone replacement and it really stirs up the juices.

Wow! How do you keep things so hot with your hubby after all these years?
We try and not go out more than twice a week but when we do I really enjoy getting all dolled up. We have always had a very romantic, sexy, relationship. We like it that way and we work at it. He emails me love notes when I least expect it and in them he says heart-melting things. I am always aware of the privilege that it is to be doing what I love and having my husband by my side.

[From Betty Confidential]

As far as those “bioidentical” hormones that Somers touts, but it’s worth noting that many professional organizations have come forward to state there’s no evidence whatsoever that they’re safer than traditional hormone therapy. That means that they can probably cause cancer just like traditional hormone therapy and that it’s irresponsible to state that they haven’t. (More on that here.) This isn’t even close to the most controversial claim that Somers has made. A book she put out in 2009, Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer–And How to Prevent Getting It in the First Place, included quotes and recommendations from doctors who have been exposed as frauds who regularly bilk patients. At least by telling people how to be sexy and have more sex she’s not steering sick vulnerable people away from scientifically proven treatments that might prevent their death.

Suzanne Somers is shown on 1/19, 2/1 and 2/9/11. Credit: WENN.com

Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman are still promoting the hell out of their f*ck buddy film, No Strings Attached, which is out this Friday. Ashton has a new interview with Redbook [via US Weekly] in which he reveals that he waited before having sex with Demi and was friends with her first or something. Maybe she just wasn’t into him at first and thought he was an idiot. It’s hard to tell what he’s saying exactly, because he’s not the most articulate person. That’s probably why he prefers communicating in short bursts of text speak.

“My relationship was a relationship first,” the 32-year-old actor tells Redbook. “Well, there wasn’t anything physical happening for awhile, but from the get-go it was more than friendship. It was a deeper connection than that.”

The Iowa native — who once dated January Jones and the late Brittany Murphy — claims that all men reach a point where they want to leave their bachelor days behind them.

“I think guys wind up…not wanting another guy sleeping with the girl they’re with,” he reasons. “But eventually everyone wants something more. We all have that desire for something special, something committed. We all want to be The One.”

[From US Weekly]

Yeah, guys like Ashton want to make sure they’re the only guy “sleeping with the girl they’re with,” but they don’t want that “girl” to be the only girl they’re sleeping with. It doesn’t work both ways for them.

In another interview, Kutcher talks about how his “youngest daughter” went on a date, and was prescreened by him. Kutcher’s “youngest daughter” would be Tallulah Belle, who turns 16 next month. I wonder if Bruce Willis is going to have a little talk with Ashton for not only claiming Tallulah as his daughter, but for weaseling his way into the traditional boyfriend-screener role that Bruce has so willingly taken on in the past. Who would you find more intimidating, Die Hard or Dude, Where’s My Car?

“I think holding the door for the girl that you are having casual sex with is very romantic,” Kutcher told me during a recent one-on-one interview we had in Los Angeles.

“My youngest daughter just went on a date with a kid,” Kutcher continued. “I made him come in. He said hello. He walked her to the door at the end of the night and did all the right things. So that gives me hope.

“I think this movie does point out, though, that we have to stop acting like casual sex isn’t happening, and start to be realistic about what a modern courting relationship is like,” Kutcher went on to say.

[From Hollywood News via Huffington Post]

According to Ashton, casual sex is happening somewhere out in the world and in his movies, but not in his own home either in his current relationship (the one he’s honest about) or in his “youngest daughter’s” relationship. Maybe he should put the smart phone down and take some lessons on public relations. He might be able to make a coherent point.

Ashton, Demi and Tallulah are shown on 10/14/08. Other photos are from 1/11/11. Credit: WENN.com

Sting once admitted that all that crap we heard about him being able to have tantric sex all day wasn’t accuratebut that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a healthy sex life with his longterm partner. The 59 year-old rocker told Harper’s Bazaar that he still has great sex with his wife of 18 years, Trudie Styler, 57, and that they enjoy dress up and “the theater of sex.” TMI, Sting:

Sting, 59, said: “I don’t think pedestrian sex is very interesting.

“I like the theatre of sex. I like to look good. I like her to dress up. I like to dress her up.” And asked about romantic things he had done, he replied: “Romantic? We like tawdry.”

Actress and film producer Trudie, 59 [sic], said: “We don’t get bored. Being apart juices the relationship.”

The couple, who have four children – Bridget, 26, Jake, 25, Coco, 20 and Giacomo, 15 – have been married for 18 years.

And the frontman for 1980s band The Police said: “We treat every day as it comes. Relationships aren’t easy, and I don’t think they’re particularly natural, but we’re lucky because we actually like each other. We love each other – that’s a given – but Trudie lights my world up when she comes into a room. I don’t take her for granted.”

They met in 1982 – shortly after he separated from his first wife Frances Tomelty, with whom he has a son Joe, 34, and daughter Kate, 28 – and married 10 years later.

[From Mirror.co.uk]

I’ve always assumed that Sting and Trudie’s sex life involved third and fourth parties, but it’s not like they’re going to admit to the press that they’re swingers. We heard a few years ago that Sting loved strip joints and was considering opening his own titty bar, but nothing came of that. Good for these two I guess for keeping it hot after nearly two decades. We don’t need to know details, but at least they were mercifully vague about it. There’s something inspiring about a couple who is still hot for each other after 18 years, but I could do without the visual.

Guess who shot these pictures? Terry Richardson. I wonder if he asked Sting to give him a hand job while Trudie watched.

Photos from Harper’s Bazaar, where there are more.

Update: Here are more photos of these two, from 9/2/10, 8/3/10, and 5/13/10. Credit: News Pictures/WENN.com

The Daily Mail has published excerpts from a tell all memoir by former Playmate Izabella St James, who lived at the Playboy mansion starting in 2002, at the same time that the original Girls Next Door were there. I read the highlights at the Huffington Post, and was struck by how similar St. James’ account of her life at the mansion was to an earlier tell all I’d read, with Playmate Jill Ann Spaulding. I thought the Daily Mail was rehashing that story in light of Hefner’s engagement, but they’re not. Those details were given by two separate Playmates, and are backed up by some of the details in Kendra Wilkinson’s memoir about how Hef had regularly scheduled sex parties in which women would hop on and off him (without a condom) while porn played in the background.

St. James’ story is consistent with other accounts, although see may focus more on how restrictive, stifling and dirty it was at the mansion while she was there. Here are the highlights from the Huffington Post, and compare them to this account from a former Playmate. The details of Hef’s Wednesday and Friday sex sessions are very similar. James’ memoir Bunny Tales came out in 2006, so you may have heard some of this before.

On the mess the dogs made in the house:
“They weren’t house-trained and would just do their business on the bedroom carpet. Late at night, or in the early hours of the morning – if any of us visited Hef’s bedroom – we’d almost always end up standing in dog mess. Everything in the Mansion felt old and stale, and Archie the house dog would regularly relieve himself on the hallway curtains, adding a powerful whiff of urine to the general scent of decay.”

On how bad the decor and accommodations were
“Each ­bedroom had mismatched, random pieces of furniture. It was as if someone had gone to a charity shop and bought the basics for each room. Although we all did our best to decorate our rooms and make them homely, the mattresses on our beds were ­disgusting — old, worn and stained. The sheets were past their best, too.

“Eventually I persuaded Hef to pay for a new mattress and bed linen — but I had to turn in every single receipt before I was reimbursed.

“Hef also eventually permitted us to have the rooms painted and recarpeted. But for some reason he insisted on creamy, white-coloured carpets. He liked the girlfriends’ rooms to look very girly, all white carpet and pink walls. It looked great at first, but with two dogs (most of the girlfriends had pets that lived in their rooms — I had two pugs), butlers delivering food, dirty shoes and occasional spillages, the carpet was grey and stained in a matter of months.”

On the Playmates’ weekly allowance
“Every Friday morning we had to go to Hef’s room, wait while he picked up all the dog poo off the carpet – and then ask for our allowance: a thousand dollars counted out in crisp hundred-dollar bills from a safe in one of his bookcases. We all hated this process. Hef would always use the occasion to bring up anything he wasn’t happy about in the relationship. Most of the complaints were about the lack of harmony among the girlfriends – or your lack of sexual participation in the ‘parties’ he held in his bedroom.”

“If we’d been out of town for any reason and missed one of the official “going out” nights [When Hefner liked to parade his girls at nightclubs] he wouldn’t want to give us the allowance. He used it as a weapon.”

Freedom of a kind came on Wednesdays and Fridays, the official nights out, which were the prelude to the twice-weekly sex parties in Hefner’s bedroom.

On her curfew
“Strictest of all was the curfew. Everyone had to be on the Mansion grounds by 9pm every night — unless we were out with Hef at a club or a function. People honestly did not believe us when we told them we had a curfew at the wild and crazy Playboy Mansion.”

On sex with Hef
“I wanted to see if this experienced King of Sexdom knew anything the rest of us did not. But he just lay there like a dead fish. We often wondered why he did it at all. He must know deep down that it is just a show. But he is trying to live out this fantasy he has been selling to people since 1954.”

[From The Daily Mail via The Huffington Post]

So for $52,000 cash a year, presumably tax free, free rent, free chef-prepared food and free plastic surgery on their birthdays, these live-in Playmates had to be home at 9pm every night, go out with Hefner twice a week and have unprotected sex with him twice a week. Their living conditions weren’t the cleanest because they had little dogs that they didn’t clean up after. They dealt with older furniture and the residue from countless tramps accumulated over decades. I remember watching “Girls Next Door” and thinking that the mansion looked small, cramped and old so this isn’t surprising.

Is Hef giving up his lifestyle with a house full of kept completely inappropriately younger women (the twins were just 19 when they took up with him last year) now that he’s engaged to a woman 60 years his junior? I doubt it.

People has a photo of Hef’s fiance Crystal Harris’ ring and it’s not huge or anything. He probably saved the money over a few weeks from paring down the women he paid to stay in his house.

I don’t really care about singer/actress/DWTS contestant Brandy all that much. She’s just sort of there. Her younger brother is Ray-J, right? The one on the sex tape with Kim Kardashian. That’s basically all I know. Wait… Brandy also had some sort of horrible accident too, right? Yes, she killed someone accidentally. Okay, so I know two things about her. And now, something new to add to the growing pile: Brandy doesn’t get laid all that often. I think the gist of the story is that she told someone she hasn’t gotten laid in six years, when she meant to say that she hasn’t been in love with anyone is six years…? Sounds like a back-track!

R&B star Brandy Norwood opens up to Life & Style about her shocking admittance on the Oct. 11 episode of Dancing with the Stars that she hadn’t been intimate with someone in 6 years.

In an exclusive interview, Brandy clarified her remark. “I haven’t been with a man seriously and in love in six years,” says Brandy, 31. “And, honestly, I tend to abstain if I’m not in a relationship.” So has she been celibate for six years? “Um, no. But it’s been a long time. We’re talking years,” Brandy admits.

The opportunity has certainly been there. “I actually went on a blind date a couple months ago that was very interesting but nothing serious,” she says.

She even confirms her interest in rapper Flo Rida.

“I was very interested in him,” Brandy says. “I mean, how can you not be — he’s very attractive. But there was just something about us that didn’t click.”

Until Brandy meets the right guy, DWTS is helping her feel confident again.

“I always relate sexy to being in love,” she says. “But I’m starting to realize that if I put on a little leotard like when I danced the rumba, I could feel sexy a lot more!”

[From Life & Style]

Eh. I’m not going to judge her. It sounds like she’s just not in a “I want to get laid” mood, and she hasn’t been in the mood for a while. It’s different for everyone, and I’ve gone through stages where I just didn’t feel like getting involved with anyone, not even for a night. There’s something to be said for staying in and spending some months away from the dating scene – and I kind of appreciate Brandy for being so honest.

Who wants to chip in and send her a vibrator? What am I saying? Girl’s probably already got one that she’s in a serious relationship with. ‘Atta girl.

Last thing – she’s done something to her face, right? That’s not the same Brandy I remember.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

This story comes from Evil Beet, via some sketchy quotes that seemed to originate in a British tabloid. It might be bullsh-t, but it might not, who knows? Personally, I could totally see Simon Cowell admitting this. Allegedly, Simon claims that he’s slept with 2000 women in his adult life, mostly in the 1980s and 1990s, when cooter flowed like wine, apparently. I have to ask… were these girls who just wanted a music career and Simon seduced them and was all “Smell ya later”? Ew.

THE creator of the X Factor, Simon Cowell, who remains a judge on the UK version, has bedded up to 2000 women, he has revealed. The 50-year-old multi-millionaire’s “good times” ran through the 80s and 90s, up to 20 years, which means he will have racked up the massive “magic number”, the Daily Star in the UK reported.

Cowell was quick to point out he was “not as bad as Russell Brand”.

“I like women. I just like them. I like flirting and I like to listen,” said Cowell, executive producer and judge on American Idol. Guys will say they fancy girls, but my best friends are girls.”

With a string of beauties in his past, including pop star Sinitta, 41, presenter Terri Seymour, 35, and models Jasmine Lennard, 25, and Jackie St Clair, 50, Cowell is now officially off the market. He popped the question to make-up artist Mezhgan Hussainy, 37, in February this year though he warned he might not marry her for another 10 years.

And the star talked about why their relationship works so well, saying: “She just gets it.”

“You’ve got to understand it, that it’s not serious,” said Cowell, who earns around $90 million (£54.25m) per year.

“You mustn’t be uptight, can see the funny side of things when I get down about stuff.”

Simon’s spokesman Max Clifford said yesterday: “I have no idea how many women Simon has known. The only person who knows that is Simon himself.”

[From The Courier Mail]

Yeah… I really don’t think you can nail 2000 women just be being a good listener, I really don’t. You can f-ck 200 women by being a good listener, but the sheer volume of 2000…? No, you’re picking up some strange that is f-cking you for their career. Or you’re paying them. That I would buy, honestly. Simon seems like the kind of guy who would pay for it just to keep things simple, because he’s a busy man and he wants his pieces delivered.

Even with this news, and even with his fur and his weird hair and his odd pointy moobs and his snotty attitude… I still would. He seems like he would be interesting in bed. Oddly erotic and commanding. Also, I think he would be into me, because he seems to have a thing for darker-skinned girls, bless his heart.

This is the “O-face” that 2000 women have seen:

Simon on June 6, August 6 & 7, 2010. Credit: WENN.

There isn’t really anything new in this Us Weekly story – it’s just their version of a confirmation of the “romance” between Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez, which People reported/confirmed days ago. But Us Weekly has their own sources, and those sources are romantics. The basic story is that Halle and Olivier are not “just boning” as I would have thought. According to these sources, it’s a very passionate, intense romance. Sigh… damn, the sex must be awesome and nasty, right? It’s always nice when two sexual freaks can get together and be “intense.”

Nice rebound, Halle Berry! Months after her announced split from longtime model beau Gabriel Aubry, Berry was been spotted this week in Paris kissing, cuddling and holding hands with a new handsome hunk: Olivier Martinez, her French costar in Dark Tide, a currently-shooting thriller.

“Yes, it’s a romance,” a source close to Martinez confirms to UsMagazine.com.

Berry, 43, and Martinez, 44 are “sharing an intense passion,” the insider adds. “They were instantly attracted to each other” when Dark Tide began filming in South Africa a couple months ago.

Perhaps best known in the U.S. for his role as Diane Lane’s super-sexy extra-marital lover in the flick Unfaithful, Paris-born and raised Martinez dated pop singer Kylie Minogue for about four years; they parted ways in 2007.

After nearly four years together, Berry and Aubry, 34, announced their split this May. They share a daughter, Nahla, 2, and have been spotted spending lots of quality time together with their little girl.

Berry recently told Vogue she and Aubry are “still friends, we love each other very much, and we both share the love of our lives…[he is] an amazing father.”

[From Us Weekly]

My take – and this judgment comes from reading Halle’s most recent interview in Vogue – is that Halle is still screwed up about men and relationships, and she is truly and honestly not looking to jump into another relationship. That being said, I think Halle likes to get laid, often and well (good girl). Even though the tabloids and their “sources” are praying that this will be an intense relationship that lasts months and even years, I doubt it. Halle and Olivier might be able to hold this sh-t together until the film opens next year or whenever, but my guess is that Halle is going to be all “see ya, bitch” in a few months or sooner.