You might remember Will Smith playing drunken superbeing Hancock alongside Charlize Theron’s cranky blonde one last year . They lived, they loved, they busted up a lot of buildings. Anyway, there’s going to be a sequel. Wake us when the gratuitous CGI goes away.

With Peter Berg set to return as director, two new writers hired to pen the script and star Will Smith consulting on the story, all the key players seem to be falling into place.

Yet we haven’t actually heard for certain that Smith and co-star Charlize Theron will definitely reprise their roles. In a conversation before he heads to the Toronto film festival with a Wayne Gretzky documentary, Berg confirmed for MTV News that both Smith and Theron will certainly be returning for more “Hancock” hero-dom.

“Everybody’s going to come back for a sequel,” Berg said in response to a question about the two megastars.

[From MTV]

Smith and Theron, who played ageless superbeings who lost their powers when they were in the same vicinity (cue eye roll), haven’t exactly put their John Hancock on the dotted line just yet. But Charlize is excited about riding Smith’s…train. Noting, “‘Riding the Will Smith train is a really nice train to ride!’”

Jada Pinkett-Smith is said to feel the same way. The new storyline will reportedly introduce a third superhero into the mix, which also included Jason Bateman as Charlize’s non-powered husband.

Over a year ago it was reported that Will Smith and Martin Lawrence were interested in making another “Bad Boys” movie. Because the blow-‘em-up awesomeness of the first one and the all over craptasticness of the second one didn’t satiate their palates. Fourteen months later and there’s still little progress in terms of commitments from the film’s original stars and directors. Why? Well it turns out back in the day (and by “back in the day” I mean 1995) studios didn’t use clauses requiring the main stars to appear in sequels. They sure do now though. Regardless of that, Smith and Lawrence are said to still be behind the idea but haven’t come close to making anything official until they see a script. Same goes for uber-famous director Michael Bay.

I’ve got a hypothetical, one of those “tree falling in the woods”-type scenarios, to run by you. Can there really be a “Bad Boys 3″ if Jerry Bruckheimer, Michael Bay, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence aren’t involved? I say no.

That might just be a possibility however, as Peter Craig is busy putting together a script for Columbia Pictures while the franchise’s key players wait to see the results, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This isn’t unusual of course, though newer series’ get around this problem by locking the most important names into contracts spanning multiple movies. “Bad Boys,” which first snapped to action back in 1995, was conceived before it became common practice in Hollywood to write out franchise plans before the first movie hits theaters.

While THR reports that anyone who matters has expressed an interest in returning to the series, money will likely be a problem. Will Smith and Michael Bay especially will require some hefty contracts, giving how brightly their stars seem to be shining lately. And since bad boys Smith and Lawrence have already danced at this party twice before, I wouldn’t be surprised if some new blood were poured into the mix.

[From MTV]

Peter Craig, the film’s head writer, is Sally Field’s son. Which relates to nothing other than I’d really love it if somehow they managed to get her in the film for something totally inconsequential. Only for the unnecessary strangeness of course. When I was 14 I thought this was the coolest, best movie ever. One summer my little sister and I watched it every single day, along with Speed. As far as action movies go, I think it could have stood the test of time decently if they hadn’t made a sequel. Of course it’d be great if they could resuscitate the franchise with a really great third film.

In related news, the Rambo franchise is coming out with yet another sequel. Sylvester Stallone will be directing and starring in it. The film’s plot “revolves around Rambo fighting his way through human traffickers and drug lords to rescue a young girl abducted near the U.S.-Mexico border” according to Variety. I’m assuming a lot of things will be blown up in the process, and Stallone will be forced to flex what’s left of his still-formidable muscles. Lots of army-print attire will also be worn, along with wife beaters and torn up bandanas around the forehead. But other than that, it’s going to be entirely brand new.

Here’s Will Smith outside the Ed Sullivan Theater for the ‘Late Show With David Letterman’ on June 15th. Images thanks to WENN.com .

Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have insisted that their new private school, The New Village Academy, is not a Scientology school despite the fact that it uses some of Scientology’s unproven educational methods and textbooks, including “Study Tech,” a system developed by the cult’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Five out of seventeen of the teachers at the school are known Scientologists, and the language on the school’s website, including it’s motto “Spiral Up,” borrow heavily from the Scientology lexicon. Smith has consistently said that it’s not a Scientology school and has even spoken to protesters from the group Anonymous, many of whom were impressed by how approachable and earnest he seemed. According to Smith he’s just using a variety of educational methods and seeing what works. “You can take different parts of things you like and put them all together,” he explained.

Radar Online has an exclusive that Jada recently fired the head of the school, experienced educational administrator Jacqueline Olivier, primarily because she disagreed with the use of Scientology’s Study Tech. Study Tech has never been independently verified as effective, and many educational experts say that it teaches the basic tenets of the cult to unsuspecting children, and is essentially religious education in disguise. Olivier’s replacement, Piano Foster, has unsurprisingly taken Scientology courses and is not likely to question the use of Study Tech:

Jacqueline Olivier – the woman the famous husband and wife enlisted to set up their Calabasas campus – was axed from her $200,000 a year position via a telephone call from the Matrix actress.

“Jada phoned Jaqueline and told her that they had ‘decided to go in another direction’ with the school,” an insider told RadarOnline.com. “As head of the campus her position was becoming untenable as she did not agree with Study Tech and felt uncomfortable with it.” Olivier “thrashed-out” a severance package with the couple and “it’s understood that she signed a confidentiality agreement with regard to her time at the school.”

Calls to Olivier were not immediately returned but it is understood that she has taken-up another position within the educational recruitment field.

The school head and the superstar couple were said to have clashed about the school’s mysterious Study Tech curriculum which was devised by Scientologist founder Ron L. Hubbard. While the school’s official website simply reads “Coming Soon!” under Head of School, RadarOnline.com has learned that Piano Foster is the new woman tapped for the role.

“They have appointed somebody else who is more ‘in-line’ with their thinking as to how the school should be run,” the source added.

When contacted by RadarOnline.com, Foster confirmed: “I officially took over on July 1, 2009, and I’m looking forward to the challenge. I’ve been working in education for the past 20 years at various public and charter schools so I feel I’m ready for the job.”

Foster remained tight-lipped when asked about her famous employers or any other controversies surrounding her school.

When The New Village Leadership Academy opened last September it attracted several demonstrators who protested outside the main gates that it was a front for Scientology teachings. Will and Jada had previously been home-schooling their two children Willow, 7, and Jaden, 9, at their nearby $20 million Calabasas mansion. The couple signed a deal to lease the campus for $889,000 for a three year period while re-naming it and picking up all other additional costs. Both their kids attend the school whose motto is Spiral Up! – tuition ranges from $7, 500 to $12,500 for pupils from pre-kindergarten through grade 6.

[From Radar Online]

People have the freedom to teach their children any religion they please and to follow any educational method they deem appropriate. Educators and schools have an obligation to be transparent when it comes to other people’s children, and to let parents know if they follow a religious curriculum. There are sure to be parents who send their kids to this school thinking that it’s a secular school endorsed by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, a couple who has so far avoided controversy mainly because they deny having a connection to the “church” of Scientology. Now that they’ve fired the head of their school for disagreeing with those teachings and have replaced her with a Scientologist, I guess we know how central Scientology is to their school’s curriculum.

[Thanks to Greg for the tip.]

Will, Jada and their children Willow and Jaden are shown at the premiere of The Day The Earth Stood Still on 12/9/08. Credit: PRPhotos

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but Jada Pinkett Smith annoys the hell out of me. She’s not a very gifted actress, and I find both her performances and her personality to be “too hard”. I’m not talking about those lesbian rumors, and I’m definitely not saying I need women to be “soft” or “girly” to like them. It just seems like Jada is a difficult person to like or admire, or even relate to. She’s always talking about how great her life is, and how she and husband Will Smith are still hot for each other. She talks about their sex life constantly – so they’re either having sex constantly, or she’s very insecure and she overcompensates by giving too much information.

So it’s just more of the same with Jada’s new interview in Shape Magazine. Page Six has the early text of the interview, and they have a similar line of thinking on Jada’s constant TMI:

The more Jada Pinkett Smith brags about her incredible sex life with Will Smith, the more it makes us wonder whether she doth protest too much. Why the sales job? What are we buying?

Jada’s most recent over-sharing comes in Shape magazine, where she gushes: “When you have three kids, you’ve got to take your opportunities when they come. In a limo, on the way to the Academy Awards this year, Will started looking at me in this way that drives me wild. We started kissing passionately, and the next thing I knew, well, let’s just say we missed the red carpet and I ended up with almost no makeup on.”

[From Page Six]

On the Shape site, they only have interview excerpts, but Jada is still talking non-stop about her crazy sex life. Maybe she really is insecure? Or maybe she really is that hellbent on selling us something:

This shift has also created a sense of balance in Jada’s relationship. “Will and I are yin and yang,” she says. “He’s all sky, vast and bright and soaring, and I’m all earth. I’m here to ground him, and he’s here to help me fly.” Case in point: When Jada put her acting career on hold between 2004 and 2005 to go on the road with her metal band, Wicked Wisdom, as part of the Ozzfest tour, Will not only supported her, he and the kids also went along for the ride.

While family is the couple’s main focus, Jada makes sure she and Will’s love life stays, well, lively. Besides doing her daily Kegels (“It keeps the sex hot,” says Jada), she takes time to nourish their relationship. “Last week we were stressed out, so I packed a picnic and took Will to a place we hiked to on one of our first dates. We sat and reminisced on that time in our life. Then we went home and made love. Thank God Will has simple tastes. Even the littlest thing for him is like, ‘Wow!’?”

[From Shape]

I’ve heard Will do the TMI thing too, so it’s a family thing. Still, Will does it much more sparingly than Jada, and when Will is doing it, I tend to buy it. Is he a superior actor, or are he and Jada telling the truth about their awesome sex life? If it’s so awesome, why rub it in our faces? If it’s so awesome, doesn’t that mean it’s private and personal? Maybe I’m being way too hard on Jada. All I know is that I wish I didn’t know so many intimate details of her sex life.

Jada and Will are shown on 6/15/08 outside The Late Show. Credit: WENN.com

Will Smith has worked long and hard to firmly establish his reputation as the prince of Hollywood. And he’s probably considered the nicest guy there, right after Tom Hanks. Certainly some rumors and innuendos have floated his way, mostly related to whether or not he and wife Jada Pinket-Smith have a traditionally monogamous marriage. Oh, and the occasional Scientology-related thing here and there. But for the most part, it seems like everyone loves Mr. Smith. Well, everyone except Janet Hubert, who played the original mom on “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”

Hubert’s written a book called ‘Perfection Is Not A Sitcom Mom’ that’s going to be released next year, and in it she says that Will was not the nice considerate guy he makes himself out to be. He was a diva on the show from the very beginning. If a guest star was too good and ran the risk of stealing the spotlight from Will, they were fired. No one but Smith was allowed to go on “The Tonight Show” for the first season. And then there was season four, in which Hubert was unceremoniously let go and her part recast, without any explanation or acknowledgement to the audience. And that’s bugged me since the fifth grade, so I’ve held a grudge on Hubert’s behalf.

In one excerpt from the tome, given to BV Buzz exclusively, Hubert writes: “Smith had people around him who made sure no one outshone him. I was happy to see Don Cheadle become the quality actor that he is, and often wondered how he made it past one episode, as Hilary’s boyfriend, being such a fierce actor. No one could be on ‘The Tonight Show,’ that first season, except Will. And I mean no one.”

“I recall the lovely and incredibly talented Countess Vaughn coming to guest star. Oh my God! The day of table read, she was pee-in-your-pants funny. The writers were howling, we were howling, so I knew she was history – banished into the cornfield. Many years later, after she had her own show, I had to tell her when she asked me why. ‘Miss Janet why did I get cut from the episode,’ she asked? Simply, my darling, you were too good,” she recollected.

[From Black Voices]

Hubert likens the negotiations the news that she was being fired as akin to a murder. First they offered her just 10 episodes, when the standard was 22-26. It would have meant a pay cut of over $100,000 a year, and Hubert had a three and a half month old son, a new house, an unemployed husband, and had just started a new business, signing a three year lease on an exercise studio.

“‘That’s not all,’ Michael [her agent] said. ‘They don’t want you to work on any other shows. You can only do two guest starring roles.’ What? Who? I stammered. I couldn’t breathe. What do we do, Michael? What do we do? ‘We pass,’ Michael said. ‘This is a dirty deal, and they know it.’ OK, I trust you, I said. Michael had been my agent for more than 20 years. ‘OK sweetie, I will call you back,’ he said.”

…”My mind was going in a million places. OK, I thought, they will come back; this is how they do it. They always come back. I started into the kitchen where Rayna – my friend, housekeeper and nanny was. She was doing dishes as baby E was enjoying a swing. I knelt down, kissed his head, and waited for the next round of negotiations. They never came. The next time Michael called he said, ‘They are going to recast your role.’ There was a beautiful stained glass window that I designed in the bedroom, and the windows were open, so my neighbors probably heard me scream. And that beautiful window probably has many cracks in it. Time of Death: approximately 3 pm. The real Vivian Banks was murdered,” the excerpt closed.

[From Black Voices]

Okay so the writing style is a bit overdramatic, but the point is certainly made. This was a massive financial and career setback for Hubert. And the implication seems to be that Smith was in some way responsible for it. She doesn’t directly say that he wanted her role cut back, but it seems like, if nothing else, he didn’t help her out.

Thanks to my freakishly restrictive parents, I was only allowed to watch two shows at that point in my life – Blossom and Fresh Prince. As a result, I’ve seen just about every episode – I’m not kidding here – at least two dozen times (thanks to reruns and strong Canadian T.V. signals). So I really think it’s safe to say that I am the world’s foremost expert of “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”

I can absolutely recite any episode right now. Just give me one. The song? Too easy, something harder. Anyway, I can say with absolute 100% authority that the show was not nearly as good once Hubert left. While she was a very good actress, the woman they replaced her with was absolutely beyond dull. She had no personality or character and the role just went flat. And frankly I just could never forgive the show the insult of assuming I wouldn’t notice some brand new woman walking around, calling herself Aunt Vivian, when clearly she was a sucky imposter.

Will Smith, you’re starting to lose some public favor. Frankly you’ve been losing mine since 1993. I think it’s time you make things right with Aunt Vivian. And let her throw you out the front door. That was a DJ Jazzy Jeff reference for you there.

Jada Pinkett-Smith is out there promoting what looks to be an epically awful television show, HawthoRNe. Jada gave a recent interview to Redbook (story via the National Enquirer), and she’s trying to give us ladies some tips about how to spice up our sex lives. Some of Jada’s tips? Take your man to you’re a friend’s house and have sex in the person’s bedroom or bathroom. I’m sure some people will disagree, but bathroom sex just makes me feel gross. And getting freaky in someone else’s bedroom, while temporarily hot, is extremely rude. Jada also suggests going to his office and playing your man’s naughty secretary. File this under “Advice I Got From Cosmopolitan When I Was Thirteen”.

Will Smith pals may want to think twice before inviting him and the missus over for truffles when they get a load of what Jada Pinkett-Smith confessed about their kinky trysts.

Jada confessed to a ladies glam mag that the mega-watt couple like to sneak off to get their sexy on when visiting other people’s homes.

“Be sneaky… your girlfriend’s house at a party. The bathroom. A bedroom,” Jada confessed.

Other sex tips to keep the mojo cooking in the marriage?

“Think of places outside that are comfortable to have sex. Does he have access to his office? Have a fantasy date. Be his secretary!” Jada divulged.

“(Do) anything it takes to keep the flame alive.”

[From The National Enquirer]

Jada and Will famously have a really tight marriage, despite all of those rumors to the contrary. So, is this what it takes to have a good marriage? Bathroom sex and getting dirty on your hostess’s duvet? What is this, college? Because that’s the kind of stuff that reminds me of bad college hookups. Like getting felt up on someone’s nasty futon, or having your first kiss with a guy after a game of bathroom beer pong (don’t ask, it’s gross). There’s something to be said for being an adult, and having sex in your own bed, on your own sheets. But the naughty secretary thing, that is fun.

Will and Jada are shown outside the Late Show on 6/15/09. Credit: WENN.com

Jada Pinkett Smith is married to the most popular movie star in the world (according to box office returns) and has a successful career in her own right. She says in an interview with the LA Times that she never intended to become a Hollywood star, however. The interview is meant as a promotion for her new TNT show HawthoRNe, produced by and starring Jada as a head nurse in a Richmond, VA hospital. The show is groundbreaking in its own right, as is one of only a few prime-time dramas to star a black woman. However, Jada doesn’t like to think that she is “starring” in it – she prefers to think of it as an ensemble cast.

“This is scary for me. I’ve never liked being at the center,” continued the Baltimore native, whose first big industry break came on the ’90s sitcom “A Different World.” “I know this is being marketed as the Jada show, but it really is an ensemble. I’ve never looked to be at the center because I feel stuff like that traps you.”

Appearing in the series, which premieres Tuesday, also shows her willingness to tame her wilder side, an exploratory offbeat nature that has led her to pursue more unconventional projects such as fronting the heavy metal band Wicked Wisdom, as well as writing and directing a provocative film, “The Human Contract.” (It is being released this month on DVD.)

Working on a TV show as a sympathetic, warm nurse is at the extreme end of the spectrum from “The Human Contract.” But it marks a step toward her wish to reach a wider audience. That drive has brought a new dynamic into the Smith household, according to her husband.

“Jada has always been more of a wanderer,” said Will Smith. “She is where she’s going. I’m never where I’m going — once I get there, I’m already bored and ready to go somewhere else. She’s now opening up her ideas and goals to scrutiny, and that can be a very new and painful place to be. She is learning how to trust her team, to collaborate.”

Her new role has reignited spirited discussions with her husband about her preference to blend in. “My husband has been baffled by this forever,” she laughed. “I remember him asking me, ‘Jada, what do you want? I don’t understand why you don’t want to be the biggest actress in the world.’ But I never came to Hollywood for that. I really, really don’t like boxes. I’ve only wanted to do what I want to do.”

[from LA Times]

Jada and Will are not only different in their career goals, but also in their parenting. Jada jokes that during the three-month filming for “HawthoRNe,” Will had to be Mr. Mom to their three kids. That meant eating chocolate for breakfast and staying up as late as the kids wanted. But once she’s home, she says, the old rules are back in place. Considering the system that she helped set up for her school in LA, I’m guessing she doesn’t let her kids eat chocolate in the mornings.

Before taking on the titles of producer and star of the TNT drama “HawthoRNe,” which debuts on Tuesday, Jada sat down with her famous family to make sure they’d be OK without her.

“I said, ‘Listen, there was a show I’d love to do and it will be three months that you might not see Mommy a lot,’” she told CNN. “And they’re looking at me like, ‘Really? What does that mean?’”

But she said more daddy time with Will means a break from mom’s rules for Willow, 8, and Jaden, 11.

“So they get to eat chocolate for breakfast and go to bed whenever they feel like it for those three months while I’m working,” Jada said. “So, it works out, and they know that the rest of the year, I’m off.”

But Jada’s not too far from her family – the show is filming in Inglewood, Calif., close enough to the Smith home for Will to make a cameo on her show.

“He’s an extra in one of the episodes, so just see if you can catch him,” she said. “He’s walking by, doing a drive-by, and we could hardly afford that. It was a very costly walk-by.”

[from Access Hollywood]

As for Jada’s new show, Hawthorne, the reviews are in and they are bad. A reviewer in the Washington Post said that it is “a show in need of emergency care.” According to the critics, everyone plays exactly the character you think they would: the male nurse is insecure about his gender; the patients are either annoying are far too sweet; the doctors are way too high up on their horses to know what’s going on; and Jada’s character’s mother-in-law is too mean. There’s also Hawthorne’s rebellious teenage daughter to consider. Of course, the Washington Post reviewer was also comparing it to another new nurse show, Nurse Jackie, starring Edie Falco, which is getting rave reviews.

It doesn’t sound like Jada’s show is much longer for the airwaves. In the meantime, she has her new movie The Human Contract to promote, as well as practice with her heavy metal band, Wicked Wisdom.

Jada, Will, Jayden and Willow are shown on 12/9/08 at the premiere of The Day The Earth Stood Still. Credit: PRPhotos

Photo taken by my neighbors

Will Smith thrilled fans at the Berlin premiere of Seven Pounds on Tuesday night by shaking hands and signing autographs in the freezing cold. Smith has received a lot of praise for his friendliness and patience with fans and last night was no exception. Our neighbors’ sons went to the premiere and said that Smith took the time to shake everyone’s hand and sign a book for them. They were thrilled to meet the star and had a lot of fun. It was just 9° F last night in Berlin last night. Good for Smith for braving the cold to greet fans!

Smith, Rosario Dawson and Gabriel Muccini also posed by a snowy Brandenburg gate earlier in the day. Presidential elect Barack Obama spoke to a crowd of over 200,000 just down the street from that location in July. We may see see Smith play Obama on film at some point in the near future. Obama himself joked to Entertainment Tonight that he’d spoken to Smith about it, saying “Will and I have talked about this because he has the ears!” Smith is an Obama supporter and told Oprah after the election that he was hugging his family and crying when Obama won. Given Obama’s historic victory and popularity, we may see a dramatized account of his life sooner rather than later.

Seven Pounds has not received the best reviews and is generally considered a real downer of a film with a complicated plot. It’s about a man who is suicidal and decides to change the lives of seven strangers to amend for his role in a tragedy. The film was released on December 19 in the US and has grossed $62 million worldwide. It’s done passably at the box office and is not likely to diminish from Smith’s massive draw.

Smith was just named 2008′s top grossing movie star and from the way he works the crowd with a smile you can’t help but think he’s earned it.

The close up pictures of Smith are courtesy of our neighbors. Other photos credit: WENN

Will Smith once said that he’s a student of world religion, and he’s sure putting his money where his mouth is. Will and wife Jada’s most recent tax return was just made public, and the couple gave an admirable $1.3 million to charities, including lots of religious groups. But Will didn’t just stick to one religion – he covered lots of them, including a cult! That’s right, over $100,000 was donated to various Scientology causes.

Just-released tax returns for movie star Will Smith’s charitable foundation show he and wife, Jada, gave $1.3 million in donations last year to a variety of religious, civic and arts groups. Smith’s biggest single contribution was, as usual, Yesha Ministries of Philadelphia. He gave the born-again Christian based organization run by Reverend James Robinson a whopping $250,000. That’s a hefty raise from the $140,000 he gave them the previous year. Another $200,000 went to a Christian ministry outside Los Angeles called Living Waters.

He also gave a combined $122,500 to the Church of Scientology, broken into these donations: $67,500 to the New York Rescue Workers Detoxication Fund, $50,000 to the group’s Celebrity Center in Hollywood and $5,000 to ABLE, another Scientology offshoot. Smith and his wife have also supported a private school called New Village Academy they opened this fall in suburban Los Angeles that uses Scientology learning concepts.

The star of movies like “Hancock,” “I Am Legend,” and the upcoming “Seven Pounds” also donated thousands of dollars to a Los Angeles mosque, other Christian-based schools and churches, and to the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Center in Israel…

The newest federal tax filing for the Will Smith Foundation covers 2007, and there is no donation to New Village Academy. So far there is no listing with guidestar.org, the website that tracks charities and not-for-profit institutions, for New Village. That seems odd since it was announced more than a year ago that Smith had given them a $1 million endowment.

[From Fox News]

So that’s at least $122,500 to Scientology, with a possible $1 million more, depending. Fox is right (rarely do I say that): the lack of any mention of New Village Academy is very odd. It makes me wonder at what point in the year Will and Jada made each of the donations, and if they changed their mind about the school. Though they’ve been fuzzy with the details, from most reports Will and Jada founded the school, so it seems unusual that it’s not on their tax returns.

While I’m never a fan of Scientology or supporting cults, I have to give Will some serious credit for spreading his money around to lots of religions. That really is admirable and shows a lot of compassion as well as an open mind. Now if only he could put that Scientology money towards a group that didn’t kidnap and murder members that wanted to leave, it’d be even better.

In related Will Smith news, his newest film “Seven Pounds” is getting torn to shreds in reviews. One Rotten Tomatoes reviewer called it, “An unintentionally ludicrous drama of repentance as an extreme sport.” Ouch.

Thanks to Defamer for the tip.

Here’s Will and costars at the premiere of “Seven Pounds” in L.A. on Tuesday. Images thanks to WENN.

Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have a joint interview in this month’s Essence Magazine in which they talk about their marriage and how they make it work. Will, 40, and Jada, 37, have been married 11 years and have two children together, Jaden, 10, and Willow, 8, and are raising Will’s son from his first marriage, Trey, 16.

Will told Ellen Degeneres this spring that divorce was not an option for them and he repeated that claim to Essence. The two spoke in general terms about the pitfalls and benefits of marriage and they came across as very committed to their family and to each other.

Jada on Will’s immaturity when she first met him and how they grew together
“Trying to be with somebody who you know doesn’t deserve it is too hard,” Pinkett Smith said when recollecting about the early stages of their relationship. “I knew you deserved it, but it had more to do with your relationship with your God and yourself than with me. I thought, Okay, this dude just wants to be a good dude. When we got together, both of us were going through rough times. I loved the relationship you had with your grandmother GiGi and the commitment you had to Trey. I remember watching how you dealt with Sheree [Will's ex], which was admirable, and I thought, If this is how he treats somebody who he ain’t really feeling, imagine how he’ll treat somebody he loves. I know that was hard for you. I could see that you were struggling. Most people would have been trying to figure out, How can I pay this person back? But you were always thinking, What is the right thing to do? It took me a long time to get on that page. I felt like you were strong where I was weak, and then in some instances, I could offer you strength. We were like puzzle pieces.”

Jada on sex
“Sex is a very, very important factor for me, especially when you’re talking about being with somebody for the rest of your life,” she added. “It worked out nicely.”

Jada on being vulnerable and getting hurt by your partner
“I wish there was a formula that said, ‘If you follow this right here, you will have a successful marriage,’ but it’s so different for everybody,” she also said. “In order to have a good relationship, I think you’ve got to give yourself. There’s so much beauty in having that vulnerability and openness, but it’s also a double-edged sword because nobody can hurt you more than the person who’s closest to you. Your partner knows all your buttons, and there are times when it feels like things are unforgivable.”

Will on “removing divorce as an option”
“When you’re married, you can no longer hide from yourself, which can be excruciatingly painful,’ Mr. Smith chimed in. “The secret is removing divorce as an option. Anybody who gives themselves that option will get a divorce.”

Will says he’ll take a half year off
“I’ve lived a totally unbalanced life, and this has been the first time that I’m actually shutting movies out for five or six months so I can really focus and spend some extended time with family and friends,” he revealed. “I’m just starting to believe in the idea of balance, but you’ve always been the one to keep the ship from falling over. I found balance when I met you.”

[From Essence Magazine, print edition, December 2008 via BlackVoices]

I wonder what Jada was talking about when she said that “there are times when it feels like things are unforgivable.” She could have meant fights in which Will said just the right thing to get to her. Our spouses know us better than anyone that sometimes works both ways, as Jada mentiones.

I like these two a lot and they’re really growing on me after some skepticism. If they are closet Scientologists they’ve become pretty skilled at hiding it. Will personally spoke to protestors from the group Anonymous in front of his new private school this summer and told them that he wasn’t starting a Scientology school and was just incorporating some of L. Ron Hubbard’s Study Tech, which he said has helped his son. The people he talked to say he seemed earnest about it and that he was believable and upfront when he said he wasn’t a Scientologist. The ties with the cult are about the only thing that comes to mind that’s negative about this couple, and they seem to be trying to appease their friend Tom Cruise while remaining distanced from Scientology.

Will is promoting his film Seven Pounds, which is out in the US on December 19. Jada has Madagascar 2 out now.

Jada is shown at a photocall for Madagascar 2 in Madrid on 11/25 and at the London premiere of the film on 11/23. Will is shown with fans at the Seven Pounds premiere on 11/17. Will and Jada are shown at the Madagascar 2 premiere in the US with Willow and Jaden on 10/26/08. All photos credit: WENN