Here’s a photo of Courtney Love trashed out of her mind while exiting the Chateau Marmont on 1/13 because she always keeps it classy. That’s just a precursor for this warning to brace yourselves, for there’s a new “tell all” book about Courtney (aptly titled Courtney Comes Clean) that has been penned by The Fix and is based upon a year’s worth of in-person, phone, and e-mail correspondence with Love, most of which she probably doesn’t even remember.

The book goes into depth about Courtney’s struggles with addiction, her issues with men, and more on the money troubles that we’ve heard so much about already. Below, I’ve included some excerpts wherein Courtney blames a lot of her own crap on other people, including such celebrities as Winona Ryder and Andy Dick, but the book also apparently includes call-outs aimed towards Tom Cruise, Sean Penn, Scarlett Johansson, Kirstie Alley, Harvey Weinstein, Madonna, Oliver Stone, Brett Ratner, and Clive Owen. What could she possibly have against Clive Owen? Obviously, Courtney has tried (and possibly succeeded) to smash with both Stone and Ratner, but Clive wouldn’t give her the time of day. Maybe that’s what she’s upset about, but who knows? Only Courtney, and she’s probably already forgotten. Here are those excerpts:

On her “sobriety”: “I think of myself as sober,” she says, although she admits that her daily regimen of pills wouldn’t pass muster at an AA meeting. “When you’re used to heroin and cocaine, a few pills doesn’t seem like the end of the world. As they say in AA, it’s about progress, not perfection. I mean, abstinence is a nice idea, but I don’t know if it’s right for everyone. Especially for someone who was nursed on a steady diet of Valium and Ritalin from the time I was seven, thanks to my fine mother. I don’t do street drugs anymore. My medications are all legally prescribed by prominent physicians. I’m entirely legal. But the truth is, I’ve never claimed to be anyone’s role model. I’m not Mother Theresa. All I’m trying to do is stay alive.”

On losing it at Pam Anderson’s roast: “That Roast wasn’t a great moment for me. I was doped and dazed, and had lipstick smeared all over my face. I may have even been drooling. But it was all Andy Dick’s fault. He handed me a fat pill right before the show and said, ‘Courtney, here, take this–it’s like Vicodin without the aspirin.’ Winona Ryder slipped me a similar pill a few years ago. I’m such an addict that I just swallowed them both, without asking what they were. So thanks to Andy Dick, I ended up getting addicted to benzos again, which went on to plague my life.”

She’s tight with Sam Lufti:
 Love has dismissed many loyal staffers in recent years, including Marie Walsh Dixon, a veteran associate who decamped to work for Frances Bean. Other employees are suing her for unpaid wages. In their place, she has turned increasingly to Sam “Osama” Lutfi, a 37-year-old sober coach who has played an increasingly prominent role in her day-to-day affairs. A swarthy Svengali who once allegedly worked as a private investigator, Lutfi first rose to prominence in 2007 while representing Britney Spears during her much-publicized breakdown. Lutfi insists he has no formal relationship with Love, whom he describes as a friend.

She’s not a Chelsea Handler fan: “I may not like what you stand for, but I do believe in sisterhood,” she [told] Handler, who had recently taken up with Love’s ex-boyfriend, hotelier Andre Balazs. “You don’t want to put gratitude in the hands of a man who doesn’t accept you for who you are and never, ever will…No one in New York City, not even Trump, is despised more! I’m here to serve! Get help and work on your addiction/trauma, Chelsea! The kids call what you’re doing fame-whoring. [Y]ou’re too dumb to get it! Yes I know he’s telling you to take the high road and I’m telling you to take the f&#@ing high road you low-life. GO 2 REHAB!”

Inspector Courtney on fraud: In 2008, Courtney complained to the press that various corrupt lawyers and accountants had cheated her out of $250 million. By 2010, the figure had ballooned to $1 billion. In her quest to unmask the alleged thefts, she engaged a “twitter army” of volunteers who took to the Internet and examined property records to track down suspicious leads. But while some of those volunteers have backed up her claims of fraud, her distractions and failure to pay her employees have stood in the way of real progress.

The crack really helped too: “The strange thing is, while the crack screwed me up in a lot of ways, it improved me in certain others. I’ve never been good with numbers, but when I was on crack I could do math really, really well. I became a f&#@king whiz at calculus.”

Oh wait, Courtney screwed herself: “Shortly after Kurt’s death, the lawyer who was representing me called and said, ‘Courtney, you have over $7 million coming to you, but you need to give me your Social Security number.’ [I couldn't] remember my Social Security Number, so I had to lie and make one up. My mother, saint that she is, had a million husbands. My brothers and sisters were adopted by one stepfather, then by another. Thank God I was emancipated when I was 15, but ever since then I’ve wandered through life wondering who the fuck I am: Courtney Michelle Rodriguez? Courtney Michelle Menelli? Courtney Love? Courtney Cobain? It’s like, I don’t even know my f&#@ing name! How am I expected to know my Social Security number?”

[From The Fix]

That part about the social security number is particularly interesting because it illustrates that Courtney has dug her own financial hole from the very moment that Kurt Cobain died, and if she’s hanging with Sam Lufti, Courtney is just begging to get ripped off in the future. Of course, Courtney probably thinks that Sam is just “misunderstood” just like she is, but I find it amusing that he is the one trying to downplay their relationship. When Sam Lufti doesn’t want to be professionally associated with you, well, you catch my drift.

The Fix also includes a lot of excerpts on its website about Francis Bean’s deposition that resulted in her emancipation from Courtney. Francis alleges that Courtney took drugs “for as long as I can remember” and often fell asleep while smoking, which lead to her nearly burning the house down on three separate occasions. Francis also claimed that her cat was killed by Courtney’s hoarding habit and that her dog died after ingesting some of Courtney’s pill stash. At one point, Francis also had to deal with talking her mother out of jumping from a balcony, and she grew understandably weary of listening to Courtney rage about fraud on a consistent basis. For us, it was exhausting just to read Courtney’s fraud-related rants on Twitter, but Francis was apparently dealing with a bunch of screaming and paranoia about it in real life. Poor Francis — thank goodness she got away from that mess of a mother.

Courtney Comes Clean is available for download here.

Here’s photos from Courtney with tweaked lips last July at a Valentino-associated museum launch party.

Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News and WENN

I can’t help but root for Winona Ryder in her hopeful career resurrection. She gave a very (intentionally) disturbing performance in Black Swan and is a truly talented actress even though, inevitably, she’s “not the ingenue anymore.” Still, I think she can keeping doing the Hollywood thing so long as she steers clear of future mindless projects like The Dilemma, which not only possessed no redeemable value (unless you consider a Kevin James/Vince Vaughn buddy movie to be culturally enriching) but also underperformed at the box office by failing to earn back its budget. In short, the acclaim following Winona’s turn in Black Swan has helped her earn back a few of her former stripes (and seriously, she was punished far too long for one shoplifting incident, whereas Lindsay Lohan keeps getting chances). To maintain this good will, Winona will have to be very careful about what projects within which she participates. For the moment, she’s erroneously selected a James Franco movie:

James Franco will star with Winona Ryder in The Stare, a Jay Anania-directed film that is the first project funded by Waterstone Entertainment, a new producing/financing company formed by producer Jeff Kalligheri and Texas real estate developer and producer Steve Bowen.

Watersone gets started with The Stare, a drama in which a playwright (Ryder) finds her mind beginning to warp as she struggles to launch her next production. She’s plagued by dreams and visions of being watched, but can’t decide if she’s at the center of a manipulative plot or simply losing her grip on reality. Franco plays one of the performers in the playwright’s production. The film will shoot May 6 in New York. Franco is producing with Jolivette, with Kalligheri exec producing with Steven Garcia, Rich Hill and Eric Amadio. Franco previously starred in Shadows and Lies for the film’s writer-director Anania, a teacher of Franco’s who heads the directing program at the graduate film school at NYU.

[From Deadline]

This can’t turn out well, for Franco himself has abruptly fallen from “critical darling” status to “moody, pouting diva” after he thumbed his nose at the Academy with a lackluster Oscar hosting gig and subsequent social media tantrums. In light of Franco’s recent revelation of his true colors, I think it’s a serious mistake for Winona to star alongside him at this turning point in her career. She needs to back out of this one and hold out for brighter pastures, which (if anything else) do not include Franco’s self-referential, cutesy ways that everyone has had enough of for now except, just maybe, on “General Hospital.”

Photos of Ryder at the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards courtesty of Juan Rico/Fame Pictures; Franco photos courtesy of WENN and Franco’s now-defunct Twitter account.

I have no idea why the photos from the premiere of The Dilemma are so completely crappy. My only guess is that the film is extremely bad, to the point where no one even wants to promote it, and none of the half-decent photographers were called for the red carpet. Anyway, here’s the best shot we have of Jennifer Connelly (who plays Vince Vaughn’s wife in the film) and her growing baby bump. I don’t know who did the dress – the color looks nice on her, although I’m not a fan of whatever is going on in the shoulders. It makes her look hunched. However, Jennifer looks so lovely with some extra weight, doesn’t she? Her face fills out and she just glows. Surprisingly, though, her hot husband Paul Bettany wasn’t around. Boo!

By the way, you want to see how crappy this movie is going to be? Here’s the version of the trailer after they took out all of the “that’s so GAY” stuff.

Ugh. More photos – here we have the mess of Winona Ryder. The dress is fine – spaghetti-strapped cocktail in black, pretty standard-issue, but the hair and the CRAZY EYES kind of ruin the look.

Vince Vaughn… well, at least he’s not wearing a rug, right?

I had forgotten that Kevin James and his wife were expecting. His wife is gorge.

And Channing Tatum, who plays “the other man” in the film, the one who is boning Winona. I have some affection for Channing, because I think he’s just a sweet ol’ Southern boy at heart… so I’m not judging him for being in this movie. Plus, he looks like the best part of this crapfest.

Ron Howard, you should be ashamed of yourself for making this movie.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I kind of love that Winona Ryder has been doing so much press for Black Swan, and for her upcoming role in The Dilemma, which comes out shortly. Our Winona is no longer a cover girl – at least for the major magazines. But she’s been making some appearances in several magazines lately, and she’s in the new January issue of GQ (full piece here). Winona says much of the same stuff she said to Elle. But I’m lapping it up anyway. The best parts are where she tells a really awesome/horrible Mel Gibson story, and when she alludes to her pill addiction. Here are the highlights:

The Mel Gibson story: “I remember, like, fifteen years ago, I was at one of those big Hollywood parties. And he was really drunk. I was with my friend, who’s gay. He made a really horrible gay joke. And somehow it came up that I was Jewish. He said something about ‘oven dodgers,’ but I didn’t get it. I’d never heard that before. It was just this weird, weird moment. I was like, ‘He’s anti-Semitic and he’s homophobic.’ No one believed me!”

On her role as the fading star ballerina in Black Swan: “I thought it was a cool parallel,” she says. “Being replaced by the young thing. I know that definitely happens in Hollywood. It’s harder to find good roles, and suddenly there’s new girls. I’m at that age I’ve been warned my whole life about.”

All she’ll say about Johnny Depp: When she does allude to the elephants, it’s in passing, as if I wouldn’t know they’re there—she says things like “My first relationship was very public” (you don’t say!) and bats a set of eyelashes as dark and lush as marabou dipped in squid ink, then moves on, and if it’s a gambit it’s working pretty well so far, honestly.

On being out of touch: Ryder has been talking about certain aspects of contemporary culture that confuse her, as if she’s a time traveler—which she kind of is! From the last century! She’s still figuring out how to work her iPhone. She talks about TMZ but calls it TZM. She doesn’t know who Justin Bieber is.

On pill addictions and rehab: She says she’s never seen a reality-TV show, and she seems genuinely puzzled and horrified by the existence of Celebrity Rehab. “I mean, who would want to go through that, on TV?” she says. We spend a few surreal minutes explaining Celebrity Rehab to Winona; the paradoxical way Dr. Drew helps patients mind-warped by fame with everything that’s wrong with them except their desire to be famous; the ongoing struggles of Jeff Conaway, who played Kenickie in Grease, then resurfaced in Dr. Drew’s clinic, undergoing chew-your-arm-off withdrawal from painkillers in front of VH1′s cameras. “Yeah,” Winona says, “those things. I think they’re more powerful than people think. People think, ‘Oh, heroin’s the hardest,’ but pills can be… ” Didn’t you have sort of a moment with those? “I did,” she says, “but it was—I broke my arm in two places.” (This was in 2001, on the set of the Adam Sandler movie Mr. Deeds.) “For about a month, I had to take it. But then I just kept taking it for, like… maybe three more weeks. But the thing I do remember is that once my arm was okay and they were still there, you kind of like… ”

More on the pills, and the shoplifting incident: What I want to say is, Wait a minute. According to a probation report archived at the Smoking Gun’s Web site, when Ryder was arrested, police found a syringe, bottles of Demerol and diazepam, six Valiums, forty Vicoprofens, two Vicodins, two Percocets, a Percodan, and a morphine-sulfate capsule in her purse. In 2002, a Dr. Feelgood type named Jules Lusman had his license pulled by the Medical Board of California after an investigation determined that he’d “prescribed or administered controlled substances without good faith exams” to clients like Courtney Love and “E. T.,” which was short for “Emily Thompson,” Ryder’s prescription-pad alias. In an August 2007 Vogue cover story, Ryder actually blamed the whole shoplifting situation on pill-related “confusion.”

On Meryl Streep and aging in the industry: “It’s hard to imagine a time where Meryl Streep wasn’t the first choice for everything,” Ryder says, “but I was reading some article, and she said something like, ‘Yeah, when I was around 38, 39, I turned to my husband and said, “Should we just call it a day, or should we try to kick the can down the road?” ‘ It was so weird to me to think about movies without her in them. But a lot of great actresses have chosen that.” She’s thought about it. She wants to have kids. It’s the only thing that scares her about getting older, the thought of missing that window, and the other side of it: “If I wanted to have a family now, would I be able to come back to work in a couple of years?”

[From GQ]

I love the Mel Gibson story. I love that she told it. I love that she’s a gossip about other celebrities, but she’s still reticent about her own junk. I even kind of love the way she blows off her pill addiction. For the record, I think she’s probably clean now, and for Winona, I believe that it’s her business and if she doesn’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. I’m tired of people still beating up on her over the pills and the shoplifting. It’s been nearly a decade – let it go.

Photos courtesy of GQ. GQ‘s slideshow here.

As you probably know by now, Winona Ryder has a smaller, supporting part in Black Swan. Winona plays the principal dancer who is on her way out – Natalie Portman’s character replaces her. Winona is supposed to be very, very good in the film, and she’s benefiting from the good reviews. She’s in the midst of some kind of career comeback, only this one will probably stick. Anyway, Winona has being press in support of the film, and she gave an interview to Elle Magazine, in addition to doing a somewhat creepy black-and-white photo shoot for the mag as well (full interview here, and the slideshow is here). Here are the highlights from the interview:

Elle on Ryder’s performance in Black Swan: Ryder can’t be on-screen for more than 20 minutes—her role lands somewhere between cameo and supporting actress. And yet, as pallid as ever, with impossibly dark eyes that dominate her valentine-shaped face, she manages to make her presence seem big. The movie wouldn’t have the same palpable tension without her. It might be that the metacasting—a real-life former ingenue playing a former ingenue—is simply effective. But there’s a potent alchemy at work that is Ryder’s alone. When she appears in Black Swan, it’s impossible not to be awash in nostalgia for her charmingly twisted, compulsively watchable films (even in Beetle Juice, her all-in-black teen ghost whisperer made Ryder a heroine for legions of goth-positive girls). That, combined with her stirringly executed performance (there’s a scene in which Ryder takes a nail file to those perfectly hollowed out cheeks that will haunt anyone with a heartbeat for days), makes it difficult not to want more of her. Even Aronofsky, who had Ryder on set for less than two weeks, felt the pull of her legacy. “There’s one scene with her, where I think I did 20 or 30 takes, which is a lot,” he says. “But the reason I did so many is because I couldn’t believe that was all [the time] I was going to get with Winona Ryder. I really just wanted to keep working with her.”

On her upbringing: Her upbringing undoubtedly shaped her: Her parents, stalwarts of the San Francisco counterculture, hung with Allen Ginsberg and John Lennon. Ryder’s father, Michael Horowitz, is a rare-books dealer and Timothy Leary’s archivist. “My dad just gave me [Leary’s] watch for my birthday,” she says. “It’s called the Borel Kaleidoscope; it’s, like, this interesting kind of watch that when you look at it, you can stare at it forever—it moves in this weird way.”

On reading real books: She’s a voracious reader (both Mom and Dad are writers) and begins a lot of her sentences with “Have you ever read that book?” As an avid collector of first editions, she’s a big believer in “paper and pen” and writing letters, and has yet to use the iPad Ron Howard recently gave her after wrapping this month’s date movie The Dilemma.

On the Internet: “I don’t use the Internet, but apparently you can find out everything on it,” she says sounding genuinely bewildered. “I have my e-mail on my BlackBerry, and that’s about it. I’ve never read a blog, ever. I feel like it’s taking away that great anticipation of seeing a movie. It used to be you’d hear, like, Al Pacino was making a movie, and you wouldn’t know anything about it. And nowadays, you know it all, like how much [the actors] are being paid. I would hate to see a picture of me and the caption reads, ‘Is she worth it?’ ”

On her disappearing act from film for a few years: Ryder sees it as a self-inflicted dry spell. “If I don’t relate to the [project], even if it’s something that I should do, it’s hard for me to say yes,” she says. “I’m the type who’d rather not work than work on something I’m not into. I’ve done that a couple of times, and I feel like I can totally see it in my performance.”

Can she say which films? “No, but it’s kind of obvious.” She laughs. “I mean, there’s a couple of times that I did it, for the, you know, paycheck. Even when I was younger—I remember I did this movie that wasn’t good, called 1969. I totally did it ’cause I could get out of school. I can see it in even great actors’ performances, when they’re phoning it in.”

Aging as an actress: “I did relate to Beth [in Black Swan] on a certain level,” she says. “Just that thing of, you know, when I’m told I’m not the ingenue anymore. And now I’m 39. I remember when I was younger, I couldn’t wait to be older, because I was always the kid on the set, I was always younger than everyone else. And now I’m older than a lot of the people I work with. I’ve been doing this for 25 years, which is so strange. I was watching TV, and there was this oldies-but-goodies film fest, and Lucas came on. I was like, Oh my God, I’m an oldie!”

Winona chased the part in Ron Howard’s The Dilemma (with Vince Vaughn): These days, she seems more willing to explore new territory and isn’t afraid to hustle for something she wants. This month, Ryder plays Kevin James’ cheating wife, who’s caught in the act by her husband’s best bro Vince Vaughn, in the Ron Howard comedy The Dilemma. “She definitely chased it,” Howard says. “She was really willing to come in and read with Vince, to see what it all felt like. And it was great when somebody of her stature volunteers that sort of thing. We pretty much cast her on the spot.”

On meeting men who used to crush on her: “I remember being at this bar called Tosca in San Francisco, and I met this guy one night. He was really cute, and we were talking, and then, like, he just said something about how he had always had a crush on me. And I was suddenly mistrustful about why he was talking to me. I wanted to be just a normal girl flirting with a normal guy. It’s like you meet people, and they know this stuff about you. It’s why you want to meet somebody who’s in the same business, only because they understand more. But you don’t necessarily want to be with another actor.”

On having babies: Ryder says she’s not seeing anyone seriously now but has thought about what course her career might take when she, “knock on wood,” has kids. “I would at least take a couple of years off.” Just don’t expect her to disappear altogether.

A Sean Penn story: “I remember when I was about 18,” she says, pausing for a moment. “Sean Penn made a bet with me. He had just directed his first movie, and he’s like, ‘By the time you’re 30, I will bet you $500 that you’ll be sick of acting.’ I’m still waiting to collect, because I’m not.”

[From Elle]

It is kind of amazing to think that Winona was “punished” by Hollywood for that shoplifting incident, when so many people have done so much worse and still had sizeable careers. Was it just the shoplifting incident, or was there more to it? I’m a fan of that era of gossip (late 1990s/early 2000s), and I seem to remember that Winona’s issues weren’t solely about kleptomania. That being said, she does seem lucid and happy and “together” now, so more power to her. I’m happy to see her again.

Photos courtesy of Elle. Elle’s slideshow here.

Winona Ryder has a supporting part in Black Swan, and she’s given a surprisingly good interview to USA Today in support of the film. Winona is 39 years old now…she turns 40 in less than a year. Sigh… we’re all getting so OLD. Anyway, Winona sounds really good in this interview. There’s still a hint of the super-cool chick from the early 1990s that could do no wrong, but mostly she’s just kind of humble and reticent and interesting.

In person, she’s all jagged locks and wide brown eyes, her voice soft and dreamy. But on-screen, as a former “little princess” of a prima ballerina put out to pasture in Black Swan, Winona Ryder is all thunderous, seething fury.

The two-time Oscar nominee, who has been mostly under the radar for the last decade, makes the most of her time on-screen as Beth Macintyre, the former wunderkind of a Manhattan ballet company now relegated to toasting her replacement (Natalie Portman).

The similarities to her own career trajectory aren’t lost on Ryder. The actress broke out as a wispy, idiosyncratic child actress who starred in Beetlejuice, followed by Heathers, The Age of Innocence,Reality Bites, Little Women and Girl, Interrupted before hitting a prolonged professional dry spell.

“I had this great run when I was a teen and in my 20s, and then things got harder. That’s why I kind of love the parallel in Black Swan. It’s absurd that these girls have to retire so young. I just turned 39 the other day. And it’s like, ‘Wow, in a year I’ll be 40,’ ” Ryder says with a sigh and a smile.

Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky can’t quite grasp that the perennially young Ryder is hitting middle age.

“She’s so youthful-looking,” he says. “I liked the idea of finding someone iconic, and Winona was the first idea to pop into our heads. Here’s an actress with huge chapters ahead of her, but people remember her when she used to be very much like Natalie Portman. I liked the meta-casting idea.”

He says Ryder brought professionalism and years of ingrained knowledge of moviemaking to the low-budget, no-frills shoot.

“She befriended everyone. She seemed very down to earth and aware of where her life and career was. She’s easy to talk to. She has a childlike innocence and purity,” says Aronofsky.

And her career appears to be on the upswing after a series of flops coupled with attention for the wrong reasons. A decade ago, Ryder was arrested on shoplifting charges; she was sentenced to probation and community service after a media circus trial.

It’s not a topic she wants to rehash, preferring to focus on her renewed passion for her day job. In addition to Black Swan, Ryder co-stars in the romantic comedy The Dilemma, out in January and directed by Ron Howard.

“After these movies, which were a real gift to me, work breeds work. There were a few years where the only thing I was getting offered was (slasher movies). I wasn’t offered Saw, but those kinds (of movies), or really stupid comedies,” she says. “Right now, I’m trying to be kind of choosy. There’s a few things on the horizon.”

Ryder is firmly old-school, still reading actual books by Philip Roth.

“I still love something tactile and tangible, turning pages. I got this iPad for my birthday. I can’t imagine reading a book on it. I just can’t imagine looking at a screen and not turning pages. Books are so beautiful to me,” she says.

Indeed, Ryder seems entrenched in the ’90s, back before she could Google herself — not that she does.

“I don’t have a computer. I don’t go on the Internet. I keep hearing that you can find out anything, which is kind of too bad. Now everyone knows the salaries and the budgets and the troubles. It does take the mystery out,” says Ryder.

She’s content to spend her non-working time in her part-time home base of San Francisco, where she hangs out with artists and musicians.

“There’s a lot of cute writers up there. I gotta bag me a husband!” quips Ryder.

[From USA Today]

She sounds pretty good, doesn’t she? Is Winona still crazy? Is still a klepto? Does she ever sit around wondering if she should have stuck it out with Johnny Depp or Matt Damon? So many questions.

In another interview, Winona talked again about working with Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted. Previously, she’s talked about not being jealous of Angelina, and of how Angelina “conquered” her beauty. Now Winona says that she was disappointed when Angelina “kept her distance” while filming: “I remember thinking, ‘Oh we’re going to turn out to be great friends’. But I think she needed to be able to look at me just as the character Susanna, not as Winona, so in a very respectful way she just kind of kept her distance. I saw her at one of the awards shows but I haven’t really seen her since. I remember in the press junket for Girl, Interrupted she would just be so open about her problems and then I would come in, and everyone would think I was so boring.” Ah, back when Angelina was crazy. Good times.

Photos courtesy of Fame.

Winona Ryder finds herself in a strange position in Hollywood. Once one of the most in-demand actresses, the 38-year-old finds herself taking what amounts to odd jobs in independent films and the occasional studio picture. She’s not a lead actress anymore, but I’m not sure she even wants to be. My full disclosure is that I once loved Winona with a passion. At one point in my teenage years, Winona was my favorite actress, the woman whose pixie-like beauty and killer body I wished was mine. I grew out of it – but I still have problems seeing Winona as the screwed up person she most likely was and is.

To promote her supporting role in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (also starring Robin Wright Penn, Alan Arkin and Blake Lively), Winona sat down for a cover interview with Blackbook Magazine (full interview here). I don’t think the cover shot or the rest of the photo shoot are anything spectacular, honestly. Her shag haircut is cute, but she looks a little like a deflated Robert Smith (from The Cure) in some of these pictures. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Winona on whether she‘s an icon: “What makes someone an icon? Is Nelson Mandela an icon? Is Václav Havel an icon? Is the alien from Alien: Resurrection an icon? I don’t know what the requirements are… I would never consider myself anything like that.”

Winona on rarely giving interviews: “It’s weird, the whole concept of an interview. To hold someone accountable for what they’ve said or done when they were younger is bizarre. We evolve, we change—at least I hope we do.”

Winona on her rare forays to public events: “I hosted a benefit for this theater company one night with Courtney Love. We got photographed on the way in. It was kind of a nightmare.”

Winona‘s TMI on her Aunt Flo: “I’ve just been told that news will break next week that I’m pregnant,” she says laughing, “which is impossible.” And just to make sure she has been understood, Ryder adds, “Because, you know, I’m on my… ” Her left hand circles the air just south of her phantom baby bump.

On Heath Ledger’s death: When discussing the death of her friend, actor Heath Ledger, she wonders, “What happens to you when you die? Does your energy dissipate? Is there something whole about your soul that keeps going?”

On separating art from the artist: “I was once published under a different name for a short story I’d written,” she says, so shy that it becomes difficult to hear her. “I wanted to know what it felt like to have people enjoy something and not know it had anything to do with me.” But wouldn’t the recognition validate the work? “Well, I can’t listen to Wagner because he hated Jews. I can’t read Émile Zola—I mean, I love Émile Zola, but he had some scandals that were kind of scary—and I worship Woody Allen, but he had his thing, too. I struggle with the age-old question of how to separate the art from the artist.”

On her 4-year relationship with Johnny Depp: “Things changed for me when I met Johnny… This weird thing happens when you’re written about in magazines, where you start to think, This is who I am. This is how I have to be. I felt restricted and pressured into being the way people perceived me. It was hard for me to find my footing. The Johnny thing made me really afraid of the press because, even though it was about him, I was beside him the entire time.”

On getting along with her exes, Johnny and Matt Damon: “Matt Damon couldn’t be a greater, nicer guy. I’m really lucky that I’m on good terms with him. With Johnny, it’s like we’re good, but we lead very different lives. I was out at a bar with a friend who said, ‘Do you realize that in America you’re never going to be able to meet a guy who knows nothing about you? Everyone will have preconceived ideas about who you are.’ I got so bummed out. I’d never really thought about it that way.”

On her 1990 stay at a psychiatric facility: “I remember waking up one morning,” she says of her breaking point. “I looked in the mirror and thought, Am I going crazy? So I checked myself into a hospital where I stayed for a few days. I was surrounded by people who had been molested and abused. I felt like they hated me, didn’t know what the f-ck I was doing there and wanted me to get the hell out because what the f-ck did I have to complain about?” A smile builds across her face when she adds, “When it was my turn to talk in group therapy sessions, I was like, I’m just really tired because it’s hard to be famous.”

On Angelina Jolie winning an Oscar for Girl, Interrupted: “I never had any bad feelings about Angelina. And I was hurt that people thought that. Everyone assumed I was really jealous because I thought this would be my vehicle. We said from the very beginning that the actress who played Lisa would probably win an Oscar, because it was the big, great, showy part. But I always related to Susanna.” In a way, Ryder was responsible for jump-starting Jolie’s career. “I fought very hard for her to have that part, and I never really felt like I got the chance to know her.” Did Jolie ever personally thank her? “I feel like it won’t read in print very nicely if I say that wasn’t really her style,” she says. “But she seems to be a completely different person now.”

Winona on her career prospects: “One of the worst things you can be is mediocre,” she says. “I get offered a lot of studio things—you wouldn’t believe some of the stuff I turn down that then gets packaged with two movie stars. I’m getting a lot of horror movie offers, too, but I just don’t like the ones where you have to cut off your own arm to escape the killer. Or,” and here she imitates the nicotine-soaked baritone that plays over trailers for budget slashers, “What if people did horrific things to your daughter and then they were trapped inside your house?”

[From Blackbook Magazine]

Winona talks quite a bit about The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, but I found that part of the interview rather boring. Winona refuses to talk about her 2001 shoplifting arrest and all of that drama, but she doesn’t do it a nasty way, so I give her credit for being able to keep her junk together and still be relatively classy about the incident. All in all, I found myself liking Winona again… well, maybe I just find her interesting. I love how she has no problems talking about her exes in interviews, when they never talk about her. Oh, Winona… you’re crazy, but I’ll still watch your old movies and love you. Heathers 4 Eva.

Blackbook images via CoverAwards

Winona Ryder wants everyone to know she could have won the Oscar for 1999’s Girl, Interrupted, but she chose not to, handing the award off to Angelina Jolie. Winona doesn’t actually say that, she just kind of insinuates it, in a nice way. This comes from an interview Winona did with Empire Magazine (story via US Weekly). About the film that won Angelina her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing Lisa, the sociopath, Winona says that “At one point they asked if I wanted to play Lisa and I said, ‘No, I want to be Susanna.’” Susanna being the lead character, Susanna Kaysen.

Winona also claims that she knew that “whoever” played Lisa would get the attention, because it was such a meaty, dynamic role. I actually buy that – Winona was not only the star who made sure the film got made, Winona was the executive producer. She knew any publicity, any award for the film would be good, so seemed very gracious towards Angelina at the time, and now. Winona also says she bad for Angelina because Angie “was battling her looks because she’s so beautiful… She wanted very much to be taken seriously and not just judged on her looks. And she conquered that.”

Winona Ryder says she has no ill-will toward Angelina Jolie, who received most of the praise for their 1999 mental hospital drama Girl, Interrupted.

Although Ryder was the film’s lead (and executive producer), Jolie’s performance garnered more buzz and landed her a 1999 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

“I knew from the outset that whoever played Lisa was going to get all the attention,” Ryder tells the July issue of Empire Magazine. “At one point they asked if I wanted to play Lisa and I said, ‘No, I want to be Susanna.’”

“But there was no resentment,” Ryder went on. “When it came out, people almost felt bad for me. But I expected it all along. I was really happy with the film, and really proud of it.”

If anything, Ryder said she felt bad for Jolie.

“At the time I worked with her, she was battling her looks because she’s so beautiful,” she said. “She wanted very much to be taken seriously and not just judged on her looks. And she conquered that.”

Ryder also confirmed a sequel is in the works to her 1988 cult film Heathers.

“Whatever you hear, there is a sequel in the works. I swear to God,” she told the magazine. “But for some reason the writer Dan Waters and director Michael Lehman don’t want to talk about it. I’ve been wanting to do a sequel forever. There is a story, and Christian [Slater] has agreed to come back as a kind of Obi-Wan character.”

[From US Weekly]

What is with all of these women who think beauty is something horrible to be overcome professionally? There’s been a rash of it recently, as if it’s the new thing to say in interviews, “Oh, I wasn’t hired because I’m so gorgeous” or “Every producer tells me I’m not plain enough to play this part, woe is me.” Beauty really isn’t a curse, no matter what all of those pretty girls tell you. They love being beautiful. They’re just trying to make everyone else feel better.

I don’t even get the “she was too beautiful” argument about Angelina during that period of her life, either. During that time (let’s call it the end of The Drug Years), Angelina wasn’t so gorgeous. She looked strung out most of the time – it worked well for her character in Girl, Interrupted, but for a few years, the girl looked rough. Whoops, I mean, “acting”.

Thanks to AllMoviePhoto for these pictures from Girl, Interrupted.

Winona Ryder is Elle-UK’s June cover girl (story via People), and the interview is a little wacky. Maybe “wacky” is the wrong word… I guess I’ve always considered Winona a strange bird, and it’s weird hearing her talk about some of the issues she’s had with boys and fame. My view of Winona was formed before all of that shoplifting stuff, and it’s hard to describe how hot, cool, sexy, and “It” Winona was in the mid to late 1990s (to me at least). I don’t really think Winona’s a bad person, she just comes across as screwed up in this interview – screwed up and drowning in self-pity. She talks about her “first real break-up” and how it sucked really hard. She doesn’t say the name “Johnny Depp” but who else could she be talking about?

For the past seven years, Winona Ryder has lived mostly out of the spotlight.

Now, with a role in Star Trek and the release of another movie – The Private Lives of Pippa Lee – opening in Europe soon and in the U.S. in the fall, the actress, 37, is talking about the strain of being in the public eye.

Ryder, who was engaged to Johnny Depp after co-starring with him in 1990′s Edward Scissorhands (they split when she was 19), says one of her first big challenges was dealing heartache during the height of her fame.

“I had just done Dracula and Edward Scissorhands. I had just had my first real break-up, the first heartbreak,” she tells Pippa Lee director Rebecca Miller, who interviewed her for the U.K. edition of Elle, out Wednesday.

“And I think it was really ironic because, like, everybody else just thought I had everything in the world, you know, I had no reason to be depressed, everything was sort of at its peak, but inside I was completely lost.”

“I remember feeling, ‘I can’t complain about anything, because I’m so lucky, I’m so lucky.’ After that I realized I needed to take time off more [regularly].”

These days, Ryder says, she has more balance in her life. In the last five years, she says, “I have really tried to develop a whole life so when I work I can come home to something [else].”

She adds, “I would freak out when I wasn’t working yet I was exhausted, so I had to learn to take care of myself.”

Ryder says she admires Kate Winslet for her ability to have it all. “During the Oscars, I was thinking about how she totally has that thing, she has her family and children and life and she seems really together and solid – and yet she can completely devastate you on the screen.”

Ryder hasn’t lost the edginess that made her the Generation X poster girl. She tells the magazine that she always thought it was “cooler to be interesting than to be pretty” and that, she “never wanted to be beautiful, I never wanted to be a cheerleader.”

[From People]

Oh, Johnny. I think he’s one of those guys who is really difficult to get over. Neither Winona nor Kate Moss seemed to ever be the same after they had a taste of Johnny and his magical age-defying non-existent beer gut. After Johnny, Winona dated Matt Damon and a string of random indie singers/musicians (she was totally doing that before cough, cough copycat Drew Barrymore). I wonder why Winona didn’t quit the industry when she had the shoplifting trial – she obviously thinks she’s so fragile, it’s a wonder she didn’t pull a Greta Garbo. But I am glad she’s having some kind of comeback – she was always a talented, underrated actress. Although I still haven’t forgiven her for Little Women. Winona was the lamest Josephine March ever.

Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp are shown in the header at the Golden Globes in 1994. Credit: Bauergriffinonline. Winona Ryder is shown alone on 5/4/09 and 4/30/09. Credit: WENN.com

Once you’ve been caught stealing, it’s natural that if something of value in your possession goes missing, people are going to look at you a little sideways. This is currently the situation Winona Ryder finds herself in after having been convicted of shoplifting in 2001. Some pricey jewelry, worth over $125,000, that was last known to be in Ryder’s possession has come up missing.

Ryder was loaned the diamond bracelet and ring by a high end jeweler to wear at her appearance at a Marie Claire party. She was also given a dress, shoes and other accessories for the evening. Initial reports had Winona claiming she had given the jewels to the front desk at the hotel she was staying in to be put in a safe. The hotel said there was no surveillance footage showing Ryder or anyone who worked with her giving anything to the desk. Because of this, people were blaming convicted shoplifter Winona.

Much to Ryder’s relief, I’m sure, TMZ says they have the real, and very different, story.

In fact, we know what happened. The morning after the event, around 6:00 AM, Winona checked out of the hotel. No one from Marie Claire was around to collect the stuff, so she left everything in her hotel room.

Our sources confirm the bracelet and ring did indeed turn up missing — the dress and other stuff weren’t taken. We’re told Winona never said she had taken the jewels to the front desk, and whoever planted the story may be covering up for someone who had access to the room after she left.

[From TMZ.com]

This is the sort of thing that is going to follow Winona forever. Which, if it’s a set up like TMZ believes, makes her the perfect target for that sort of thing. There’s something very frail and melancholy about Ryder. She proved her frailty earlier this week when she forced a medical landing of an airplane at Heathrow after taking too many Xanax on a flight from Los Angeles to London. She seems like she needs some help and direction, and has for quite a while.

Winona Ryder is shown wearing the loaned items that later went missing at a Marie Claire party in Madrid on 11/20/08. Credit: WENN