Will Smith has what reads like a new interview with UK’s The Sun. He’s promoting his upcoming movie, After Earth, with his 14 year-old son, Jaden. Some of the quotes we’ve heard before, so I can’t be sure that The Sun isn’t rehashing other interviews, although most of it is new to me. As he’s explained in the past, Will continues to talk about his hands-off parenting approach, which involves very little discipline and is firmly rooted in the beliefs of the Scientology cult. (Will and Jada deny that they are Scientologists, but they’re surely raising their kids like they are.) Will and Jada’s children are allowed “self determination,” and they’re given the same treatment as adults basically. These two don’t believe in punishment or in telling children what to do at all. Will admits that Jaden, 14, wants to be an emancipated minor and is asking for his own house. Will explains this like it’s not a big deal and is normal. Note that Jaden has performed with Justin Bieber and regularly hangs out with him. So he probably has quite a bit of control over his life already.

Will, 44, reveals: “He says, ‘Dad, I want to be emancipated.’ I know if we do this, he can be an emancipated minor, because he really wants to have his own place, like ooh.

“That’s the backlash. On the other side, if kids just want to have command of their lives, I understand.”

On his movie imitating their real life
Will can’t deny that art is imitating reality. He says: “It’s very similar for Jaden and me — your father’s the biggest movie star in the world, and you’re struggling for your little piece of dignity in this extreme shadow.”

His parenting approach
Will says: “We generally don’t believe in punishment. From the time Jaden was five or six we would sit him down, and all he has to do is be able to explain why what he did was the right thing for his life.

I think it’s a much more difficult question to ask someone — ‘Why was that right?’ — than to try to show them why it was wrong.

“Nobody wants to be wrong, all parts of yourself fight like crazy to not be wrong. So I’ll say to Jaden, ‘Why was that the right thing to do for your life?’ and if he can explain why kicking his sister in the chest was the right thing to do, we can see to it that he understands that it wasn’t so smart.”

On letting his kids do anything they want
Essentially, the only conflict is getting the rules down. Like for example, when Willow shaved her head bald.
“There was a big thing about her being allowed to do it. Well, the rule in our house is you can do anything that you want and we don’t pull the parent card until danger is involved. So we are not going to let you do something that injures yourself or will have long-term repercussions.

“But she didn’t cut my hair, she cut her own hair. It grows back.”

[From The Sun]

Little kids are very self-centered by nature. Depending on their age it’s a stage they’re in and they’re not able to understand adult issues like accountability, cooperation and morality until they get to be older. It’s just how their minds work. Having them explain why they behaved badly isn’t going to get them to grasp concepts like an adult would. That’s why they need guidance on how to behave and act when they’re little. Giving a child complete freedom is ridiculous. How does this work with things like mealtime and baths? Are the children allowed to eat candy constantly, refuse to clean up, and watch television the entire day? Are they given anything they want from the entire store? It sounds like a recipe for disaster.

But can’t you tell from this interview that Will is considering letting Jaden go off on his own? That he’s treated his kids like little adults since the time they were born and is seriously thinking about letting Jaden get his own house? I worry about those kids. At least Willow is asking to be a kid, and her parents are letting her. You can tell they would rather be her buddy while she becomes a big star, though.

Update: Will’s rep tells Gossip Cop that “this isn’t real.” So does that mean that this interview isn’t real or that Jaden isn’t really going to get emancipated? So many questions.

These photos are from May, July and September, 2012. Credit: WENN.com

Will Smith was asked in an interview about how he raises his kids. His answer was very telling, and explains why the Smith kids are basically running their own careers and being expected to face deep adult issues on camera. He says he treats them like adults, basically, and judging from his answer I would say he’s done that since they were little. It’s sad for them and makes me want to protect them. Remember that Willow is just 12 and Jaden is 14.

“We don’t do punishment. The way that we deal with our kids is, they are responsible for their lives. Our concept is, as young as possible, give them as much control over their lives as possible and the concept of punishment, our experience has been – it has a little too much of a negative quality.

So when they do things – and you know, Jaden, he’s done things – you can do anything you want as long as you can explain to me why that was the right thing to do for your life.”

[From Metro.us via Starcasm]

This is Scientology-speak. This is how the Scientologists treat kids, like little adults who are responsible for themselves and don’t need parenting. The cult’s doctrine preaches “self-determination” for children which may sound ok as some kind of theory, but often becomes neglect and abuse in practice. Little kids in no way have the maturity or capability of adults, and they need our guidance and help. This is a recipe for disaster like so much other crap in Scientology.

Will Smith’s private school uses Scientology “teaching” materials which are wholly unproven and can be harmful, so I guess it’s not surprising that he follows their recommendations for raising his children. I now believe the rumors that the Smiths are undercover Scientologists and that they’ve been hiding it for years. I’ve been willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until now, but no longer. It’s just a shame because the kids are the ones who suffer the most, and I’ll leave it at that. At least Willow and Jaden won’t be expected to join Sea Org.

Remember in the immediate wake of Kristen Stewart’s Mini-Coopering Debacle, when “industry analysts” claimed that the scandal would probably help her career? Yeah. Not so much. Kristen has been struggling to sign on to quality projects, and a few of the films she has signed on for seem to be stuck in development hell.

Last November, Kristen signed on to a film called Focus, which was supposed to be about an older male con artist teaching the art of the grift to a young female con artist. Kristen wanted to play the young grifter, and Ben Affleck signed on to play the older grifter. It was hilarious because Ben was in the midst of his Happy Family Fun-Times Oscar Campaign, trotting out his wife and kids on a near-daily basis to promote Argo and shill for his Oscar. The Trampire would have ruined that image a little bit (or a lot), and within hours of Ben and Kristen’s association, there were stories about Jennifer Garner being super-pissed. So, a week later, Ben pulled out of the film. And now Will Smith has signed on… and Kristen pulled out…?

Will Smith may have found his next project — he is in final talks to star in the Warner Bros. con artist pic “Focus.” Kristen Stewart was attached to also star in the pic but when Smith became engaged in the project, Stewart fell off with the feeling that the age difference between the two would be too large a gap.

Smith had been weighing the film for some time and has committed to joining it. Written and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who helmed “Crazy, Stupid, Love” for the studio, the story follows an inexperienced female con artist who teams up with a more seasoned male one. Denise DiNovi will produce.

It’s a sign of positive forward movement for Warners, which has been trying to get the project made since Ficarra and Requa brought them the script early last year. The original idea was to reteam “Crazy Stupid Love” co-stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone for the leads, but when Gosling’s schedule could not be worked out, Warners began looking at other candidates.

Sources say the studio loves the script but knew it would be tough to greenlight without a top-tier actor, so it began courting leads such as Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck. Affleck came close but earlier commitments got in the way.

[From Variety]

Age difference? Ben Affleck is 40 years old. Will Smith is 44 years old. Kristen is 23 years old. There’s not a huge difference between 40 and 44, at least to me. Besides that, I’m not entirely convinced that the film is a love story? Maybe it is, though – if it’s from the writers of Crazy, Stupid, Love, it’s probably a romance and it’s probably kind of awful. I really disliked that film and most of its problems came from a poorly-written script. So, why did Kristen really drop out? Here are your choices:

1. She really wanted to Mini Cooper Ben Affleck, and she’s just disappointed.

2. She’s racist!

3. She realizes that the script isn’t all that awesome after all.

4. She didn’t want to roll with closet-Xenu’s minion Will Smith.

5. The producers are just letting her save face by saying she’s pulled out when really they want to recast the part with a better actress.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Well it looks like Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith aren’t really the committed couple having sex on a moment’s notice they tried to portray a few years ago. You can revisit those asinine moments here and here. That was in 2009 and 2010, and a lot can change in a relationship in three years. So now Will is probably off having hot sex with randoms instead of with Jada, and Jada is kind of talking around it.

In an interview with the Huffington Post earlier this month, Jada was asked if she and Will had an open relationship, and she didn’t say “no.” She also got really intense when she said that she told Will he could do what he wanted, only she sounded mad about it and then explained why she wasn’t going to ditch Will for cheating. At least that’s what I read into it. She said, in part, “I’ve always told Will, ‘You can do whatever you want as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror and be okay’… I don’t think it’s easy to be married to anyone. I think that you have to go into a relationship knowing, especially when you’re dedicating yourself to someone for the rest of your life, this is a life partnership… And so that’s something you can never take away.” That’s not a denial that they have an open relationship

Anyway Jada thought that she didn’t explain herself well enough in that interview, so she went on Facebook to try and clarify what she said and she made it way worse:

Open marriage?

Let me first say this, there are far more important things to talk about in regards to what is happening in the world than whether I have an open marriage or not. I am addressing this issue because a very important subject has been born from discussions about my statement that may be worthy of addressing.

The statement I made in regard to, “Will can do whatever he wants,” has illuminated the need to discuss the relationship between trust and love and how they co-exist.

Do we believe loving someone means owning them? Do we believe that ownership is the reason someone should “behave”? Do we believe that all the expectations, conditions, and underlying threats of “you better act right or else” keep one honest and true? Do we believe that we can have meaningful relationships with people who have not defined nor live by the integrity of his or her higher self? What of unconditional love? Or does love look like, feel like, and operate as enslavement? Do we believe that the more control we put on someone the safer we are? What of TRUST and LOVE?

Should we be married to individuals who can not be responsible for themselves and their families within their freedom? Should we be in relationships with individuals who we can not entrust to their own values, integrity, and LOVE…for us???

Here is how I will change my statement…Will and I BOTH can do WHATEVER we want, because we TRUST each other to do so. This does NOT mean we have an open relationship…this means we have a GROWN one.

Siempre,

J

[From Facebook via Bitten and Bound]

Oh give me a break with those “there’s a war going on, why are you interested in little old me” excuses. You know who did that? A bunch of celebrities, but dumbass Billy Bob Thornton is the first one who comes to mind. Jada is basically saying the same thing here that she did in the Huffpo interview, that they trust each other. Nowhere does she deny that either of them sleep with other people, and that’s their prerogative! If they have an understanding about it, good for them. But if Jada was so ok with that, why does she feel the need to keep justifying herself? She should have just let it slide after she said all that stuff in the Huffpo interview. As it is, she opened up the whole issue again. Maybe that’s what she wants though. Maybe this is her way of keeping Will on notice.

These photos are all from 4-3-13. Credit: FameFlynet

Remember when everyone was saying that Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, known for oversharing about their allegedly hot sex life, were about to divorce after over a dozen years of marriage? That was basically the whole second half of 2011, from August until at least early 2012, when Jada was said to have met with a divorce lawyer. Around that time, J.Lo and Marc Anthony also split, and rumor had it that Jada’s too-close relationship with Marc Anthony on the set of HawthoRNe was to blame. Will and Jada denied that they were having trouble, and stepped out together for some photo ops eventually, but it was clear something was going on.

Well Jada was interviewed by HuffPost Live recently and I’ll be damned if she didn’t get really pissed off when she was asked about rumors of her open marriage. She wasn’t mad at the interviewer, she got really intense when describing how she told Will he could “do whatever” he wanted as long as he could live with it. The subtext was that he shouldn’t be able to live with cheating on her, at least that’s how I saw it.

Here’s the video clip and some quotes are below (a longer video is on Huffington Post)

“I think people get that idea because Will and I are very relaxed with one another. I’ve always told Will, ‘You can do whatever you want as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror and be okay.’ Because at the end of the day, Will is his own man. I’m here as his partner, but he is his own man. He has to decide who he wants to be and that’s not for me to do for him. Or vice versa.”

“I don’t think it’s easy to be married to anyone. I think that you have to go into a relationship knowing, especially when you’re dedicating yourself to someone for the rest of your life, this is a life partnership … He’s my best friend. He’s been by my side through some of the most difficult parts of my life. And so that’s something you can never take away.”

[From Huffington Post via Starcasm]

She was hardcore when she was describing how she told Will he had to live with himself. I got the impression that Will cheated, it pissed her off incredibly, and she was like “that’s on you, a-hole.” It wasn’t some “whatever he does is ok with me” speech, it was “how can you live with yourself?” That’s not “relaxed.”

In terms of calling Will her life partner, this is similar to what she’s said in the past. In an interview with Essence last year she said “We’re not getting a divorce. Where am I going to go? That’s my boo. It’s like he’s another part of me.” So I get the impression that she’s in it for the long haul but that she’s not putting up with a lot of crap. Telling someone they can do whatever they want “as you can look at yourself in the mirror and be okay” is not the same as giving them carte blanche. She really cares about what Will is up to, but she’s not going to get rid of her partnership because of some side pieces.

Sidenote: I really like her hair like that (in the video and in the green skirt. On the red carpet it’s kind of cheap looking) The ombre curls suit her, and I’m not a fan of ombre hair.

Will and Jada Pinkett Smith are shown on the red carpet yesterday for Free Angela and all Political Prisoners, which they co-produced. (The trailer is here.) It’s a documentary about activist Angela Davis and her 1972 trial for murder and kidnapping. Davis had no known role in the crime apart from purchasing the guns that were used. The film is out in limited release tomorrow.

Jada and Angela Davis:

Photo credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet

Will Smith must be starting early promotional duties for his upcoming June movie, After Earth, which also co-stars his real-life son, Jaden, as his son in the movie. Oh noooooo. I only just realized that this film is both directed and written by M. Night Shyamalan, who is entirely hit and miss as a filmmaker. Mostly miss. In other words, I’m not seeing any reason that I’ll voluntarily run out and see this movie in theaters, and unless reviews are really solid, it won’t appear on my Netflix queue either. Oh well.

Entertainment Weekly recently grabbed a quick chat with Will, and they must have asked him about Django Unchained. During that movie’s early casting buzz, Will was rumored to be Quentin Tarantino’s first pick for the titular role. Big Willy says that he turned QT down because he only does lead roles. Like, the Django role wasn’t big enough for him (***SPOILER ALERT**** below). Say what?

When Quentin Tarantino’s western revenge-fantasy Django Unchained was first announced, casting rumors pegged Will Smith as the titular slave-turned-vigilante. But Smith, who teams with his son Jaden in this summer’s sci-fi epic After Earth, tells EW that he turned down the part because his character would’ve been second fiddle to the bounty hunter (played by Christoph Waltz) who teaches Django his trade. “Django wasn’t the lead, so it was like, I need to be the lead. The other character was the lead!” says the Men in Black star, whose departure opened the door for Jamie Foxx to play the role.

Smith says that before he left the project, he even pleaded with Tarantino to let Django have a more central role in the story. “I was like, ‘No, Quentin, please, I need to kill the bad guy!’” (Ironically, Waltz was considered a supporting actor during his Oscar-winning award season, while Jamie Foxx was promoted as the movie’s lead.)

But no hard feelings: Smith was a big fan of the final product. “I thought it was brilliant,” he says. “Just not for me.”

[From EW.com]

Oh, who cares if Django didn’t kill the bad guy? He got to kill nearly every other bad guy in that movie! Will’s just making excuses, really. His ego won’t let him play any role that doesn’t absolutely dominate every moment of a movie, and I’m glad he turned down the Django part because Jamie Foxx killed it, and furthermore, I can’t ever take Will seriously when he tries to play “serious” in movies.

I bet there’s more than just ego to Will’s rationale of turning down this plum part. He probably couldn’t handle going up against the sheer talent of Christoph Waltz. Like, it’s not that Christoph’s role would have overshadowed Will’s role in and of itself — but Will would have seemed ridiculous trying to act next to Christoph, and Will probably knows that, but he’d never admit it.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and AllMoviePhoto

We’ve seen Jaden Smith, now 14, make his film debut in The Pursuit of Happyness with dad Will in 2006, and in The Karate Kid in 2010. Now Jaden is following in his dad Will’s footsteps by becoming a rapper. He has his first video out, a kind of monotonous song called “The Coolest” in which he barely varies his tone while he sings about how great he is. I don’t think Jaden has his dad’s talent for making music, but maybe he’ll surprise us. His sister Willow is a little popstar in her own right, and she had her first song out before she turned 10. Here’s a little about Jaden’s single:

[Jaden] gives it plenty of attitude as he raps about how girls are attracted to his wealth in The Coolest.

Jaden’s flash tune comes amid the crippling economic crisis enveloping much of the world’s population.

With a laidback vocal style, he proffers a list of reasons that make him the coolest kid on the block.

He teams his bravado lyrics with cocky smiles and a couple of glittery diamond ear studs…

Despite boasting about his riches in The Coolest, Jaden recently revealed he’s brought up in a strict household.

So much so, he claimed Will and Jada refuse to let him watch TV.

He said: “I stopped watching TV when I turned, like, ten because my parents were like, ‘TV’s really bad for you,’

“I’ll watch movies I like to see, Steve Jobs interviews, something that’s going to make me smart and then go to sleep.

“I always have to go to sleep with the TV on though.”

[From The Sun]

I don’t have a problem with the lyrics. A lot of rap music involves bragging about being rich and getting women. I do have a problem with a 14 year-old kid putting out a rap song, but this kid had been famous for years, and his sister became a singer when she was much younger. There were kiddie rappers in the 80s when I was a kid. It just seems like the Smiths want their kids to be in the family business and they don’t see or try and mitigate the pitfalls of show business for children. They treat them like adults. On the plus side, Willow and Jaden are confident kids and they seem fearless. Still, they’re kids, especially Willow. It makes me uncomfortable that Will and Jada didn’t use their wealth and experience to help their children have a more normal childhood. Instead, they taught them how to be famous and rich too. Hence this song featuring Jaden rapping about it.

These photos are from the Toronto Film Festival at the premiere of “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners.” Credit: FameFlynet and WENN.com

We heard rumors for months last year that Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith were on the verge of a split. The split stories started in August, 2011 and then picked up steam toward the end of the year. There were rumors that Jada may have gotten “close” to Marc Anthony on the set of her show HawthoRNe, that Jada and Marc’s “friendship” hastened the end of his marriage with J.Lo and that Jada and Will were living in separate homes. In December, Will was seen out partying with other women. By January, Jada was said to have visited celebrity divorce lawyer Laura Wasser. So there wasn’t just one story that these two were having problems, there were a series of stories in different (mostly tabloid) sources that suggested it was true.

In April, Jada denied that there was any trouble with her marriage, and chalked the rumors up to their busy work schedules. Some subsequent photos with Will gave the impression that they were back together.

Now Jada is repeating that claim in a new interview with Essence (the same one where she said she doesn’t eat for pleasure.) She says she’s not getting a divorce:

“It’s rumored that we’re getting a divorce. But no. We’re not getting a divorce. Where am I going to go? That’s my boo. It’s like he’s another part of me.” [Essence via ETOnline]

Is that nice or is that basically saying that she’s stuck with him and doesn’t know what else to do? “Where am I going to go” sounds like she can’t imagine life without him, but not like it’s a particularly romantic vision. Does that make sense? Whatever happened between them it sounds like they’ve worked it out and are moving forward. I’m rooting for them. Maybe they’ve finally learned to stop talking about their sex life with the press. We saw how that worked out for Heidi Klum and Seal.

Also, I have to say that Jada looks even more alien-like on the cover of Essence, but a lot of that is probably Photoshop.

Essence, February 2005:

These are photos of Jada yesterday on her Can-Am Spyder Roadster, a three-wheeled motorcycle basically. These things look cool, but even used ones are predictably expensive. Credit: FameFlynet

In the immediate aftermath of Tom Cruise and Katie’s split, many people were like, “Er, why weren’t the tabloids on to this?” Well, I think they were. Granted, TomKat didn’t get as much attention as Brangelina and the Unholy Triangle, but Tom and Katie were featured regularly in all of the tabloids, and often the stories were of the same “Tom is crazy, Katie is brainwashed” variety. While I do think you can “slam” the tabs (and Radar and TMZ) for not being on top of some of the details of the TomKat situation in the weeks leading up to Katie’s divorce filing, I don’t think it’s fair to say that the tabs were completely clueless.

So, why am I discussing this now, in a post about Will Smith and Jada? Well, didn’t most of us think that Will and Jada would announce their separation before Tom and Katie? I certainly did. While I realize Will and Jada want the storyline to be “We’re working things out,” for the past year (and longer), the tabloids have been reporting on and on about their marriage problems. It’s said that Will is pretty much over it. It’s said that he’s screwing around. It’s said that she is too. It’s also said that these two have closer ties to the Church of Scientology than most people believe.

So what about these photos of Will and Jada looking very much together at LAX? Are they really working things out? Is this a photo-op designed to “prove” that they’re doing well despite the tabloid reports? Is this a reminder that at least one Hollywood couple is in it for the long haul? Or will I be using these photos in a few weeks when yet another divorce/separation announcement comes?

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

I often think about how lucky I am that my only kid is a boy. I see little 12 year-old girls in booty shorts and makeup, and I feel a sense of gratitude that I’m not the one trying to hold that child down, wipe off the makeup and put her in some long pants. Maybe I would not have the authority as a mom to get my daughter to actually listen to me, and that scares me as much as the prospect of having a child who would try to leave the house like that.

So I have some sympathy for mothers of daughters, since I know I was a pain in the ass and I have no idea what that was like to deal with. For instance, I pierced my own nose when I was 18. My parents just kind of shrugged and figured I was old enough. What would I do if my 11 year old pierced her nose, her bellybutton or her tongue, like Willow Smith appears to have done? As a mom, I get the same urge to take this out of that girl’s mouth and tell she’s grounded if she even thinks about wearing metal in her mouth that isn’t from the orthodontist. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe kids need to do dumb stuff like this in order to learn. Maybe you need to pick your battles with kids. To me, this seems like one worth fighting.

My questions are: Did Willow really pierce her tongue or is she just clutching a necklace in her mouth or something? And, do her parents know about it and did they approve it before she did it? Willow dresses creatively, and we know she has the ok from her parents for that. We also know they regularly treat her like an adult. The Smiths claim they’re not Scientologists, but they sure act like they are. (And Scientologists believe kids are just little grown ups and should make their own decisions.) So do they think it’s fine that Willow pierced her tongue? If she really did this, she would presumably have to get their permission since she’s under 18. She’s a little pop star, I guess she gets free reign to do what she wants. She seems to want more of a childhood though, judging by some of the things she said lately about fame. I can see letting your kid shave their hair or dye it a bright color, but a piercing goes too far for me.

Update: as many of you have pointed out, there are fake magnetic tongue rings available. Hopefully this is what Willow is wearing and this isn’t permanent.

Another update: I just spent way too long digging through Willow and her buddy here, Bobbie DeBarge’s twitter and instagram accounts. I guess Willow originally posted this on her instagram. I found more photos on Bobbie’s instagram of them showing off their “piercings,” and some of them included the hash tags #fake #justhavingfun. So these are just two kids goofing off with magnetic piercings. Here’s another pic:

Other photos are credit: WENN.com

Photo credit: WENN.com