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Matt starts praising Scarlett at 2:24
Scarlett Johansson was on The Today Show this morning to promote We Bought a Zoo, which is out in the US on December 23. Scarlett was wearing a royal blue sleeveless dress with black tights and black pumps. Her hair was styled in matronly shoulder length curls that looked dated to me. Anyway Matt Lauer pretty much kissed Scarlett’s ass the entire interview. You could tell that she was flattered by him, but it was a little cloying the way he kept heaping praises on her. It was all about how Scarlett handled her divorce and her nude photo scandal so well, and how she’s such a professional on set and not a diva. I wouldn’t call dating Sean Penn dealing well with a divorce, but it’s true that she hasn’t talked smack about her ex and has been gracious about Reynolds on the record. She knows what to say in interviews.
Matt: Many of the directors who’ve worked with you go out of their way to say how eager and willing you are to take direction. There are a lot of actresses at your payscale who aren’t as gracious.. why are you like that?
Scarlett: I think that making films is about collaborating. That’s why I love about it. It’s never about going in there and being rigid about what your ideas are… it’s open to interpretation and I always appreciate that kind of collaborative process.
Matt: This has been an interesting year for you… Obviously you got divorced, there was a photo hacking scandal. What have you learned about yourself in this year? And what have you learned about the business you’ve been in?
Scarlett: I’ve been really fortunate. I’ve found that I have had, even in times of crisis, a lot of love around. People have come out of all different dark corners to support [me]. I think I’ve been much more tolerant and much more patient.
Matt read this quote from Interview: “Johansson is coming off one of those years that young actresses seem to have frequently these days, but which she had, until now, miraculously managed to avoid. . But Johansson’s response to all of the added—and unwanted—attention she has received for her personal life has also been atypical. Instead of cloistering herself away or lashing out at the paparazzi, she pressed ahead with her business with a kind of unflappable grace.”
Scarlett: I just like the word unflappable. I find that there is a community on film sets and in this industry… it would seem kind of cutthroat, but to me I’ve been in the industry for 20 years and it has that kind of familial feel… When I’m at work I can’t pay attention to anything else but the job at hand.
I guess Today just doesn’t use sperm-brow Ann Curry to conduct fawning celebrity interviews in that dim style of hers. Somehow I feel cheated when it’s Matt Lauer kissing celebrity butt – he’s supposed to be the hard-assed one. Scarlett sounds smarter than most, though, I’ll give her that. Plus it’s probably true that she handled all those scandals very well, at least in her public responses to them. I wouldn’t go so far to praise her as Interview or Lauer did. We heard rumors that she was dating several questionable guys post divorce (and most recently Joseph Gordon Levitt although he’s awesome). Even if all those were casual or just rumors, she was definitely with Sean Penn for a while. But of course Matt Lauer barely mentioned her personal life, because Scarlett is so professional and hardworking. They should have just had Ann Curry interview her and act all faux concerned about how she was coping with the hacking scandal and being single.
I always have the feeling that she’s a major bitch. I also don’t think she’s all that smart — she sounds like she wants desperately to be seen as smart (and not just a nice pair of boobs).
P.S.: And I will never forgive her for what she did to Tom Waits’s songs. NEVER.
Word Eve, that Waits album was just awful. I hope she’s left the singing behind (although the acting isn’t much better).
I really don’t think that in 5 years ScarJo will have that much of a career left. She was always more about being hot than a good actress. The “younger” generation like Mulligan, Stone and Kunis will get the parts she used to be up for while Hathaway will continue to get the plum “older” roles.
I didn’t even listen to it. A friend of mine, who’s a huge fan of Waits (just like myself) told me, while giggling: “She butchered his songs — the album is a complet and utter disaster” and he went on to say that it was especially bad with “Yesterday is here” (one of my favourite songs of all time). After knowing that, I refused to listen to her attempt at singing.
And you know what I think? She chose Waits songs because she wanted to be seen as a “hipster” who enjoys “indie” singers (therefore she’s smarter than other pretty girls, get it, get it?).
Bitch, please.
If she was truly his fan she would know that there’s only one person who can sing his songs and that person’s name is…Tom Waits.
Yes, I think Lainey outed her as the woman in the blind item about the lady in the bathroom who complemented Scarlett’s dress and Scarlett replied “Is this where I’m supposed to tell you you look good?” or something like that.
Yes Ziggy you beat me to it, she only wants men around her flirts, no girlfriends, not nice to other women, I was shocked how lainey dropped that one on us
I always got that vibe from her but it was never articulated well enough until I read that blind. Then it clicked.
Matt doesn’t need to kiss her ass, Scarlett already thinks she’s god’s gift to the acting world. Unfortunately for her she isn’t and I will eat my left foot if she ever wins an Oscar.
I guess everyone else has forgotten ScarJo before she married Reynolds? She’s was the poster child for the casting couch actress. Rumors abound that she slept her way to the top (and dated some weird ones along the way like Del Torro and Leto).
Marrying Reynold’s was the best thing to ever happen to her image. It took her from that Lolita-esque slut image she had, to a bonnafide Hollywood actress (who doesn’t sell herself or her relationship). Let’s see how long that lasts (with her revolving door of men I doubt for long).
Here’s the link to that BI http://www.laineygossip.com/Articles/Details/19625/Ladies’-Room-Encounter-with-That-Girl
Agree. She’s totally overrated. She is like Lady Xerox. She pretends that it’s all about the art but all she is doing is action/cartoon hero crap movies.
I always had the feeling that she did the singing (if you want to call it that) because of Alanis. It’s almost like she had to prove that she too could sing. I bet it burned her ass that Alanis wrote a song (or more than one) about their relationship.
The funniest part is that in an interview RR let the interviewer look at his iPod and his wife’s (at the time) songs only had two plays. LOL Sad when even the husband doesn’t buy you as a singer.
With all the photos that we saw when she was with Sean Penn, she looked so much like she was in the early stages of pregnancy – anyone remember those? I guess eating a few meals produces a food baby in some of these thin actresses, but I seriously thought it was true with her.
She’s pretty, but she doesn’t knock me over with her beauty. Charlize Theron was on Today last week and was dazzlingly beautiful, for instance.
Its all about the access. These interviewers can’t ask “tough” questions or they will lose access to the famous guests. Plus, if there are PR people involved, they can pull all their other clients off that show citing a surly interviewer who makes the client look bad.
It really does lead to such boring fluff pieces. What did we learn here? That Scarlett Johansson has the same terrible hair as Katharine Heigl and is apparently quite gracious. Thanks Matt.
She’s not dumb and she is gorgeous but overrated as an actress. She started off so well (2003) but slipped when it came too making bold choices in films in my opinion.
Also, there are many beautiful generic actresses out there. If they weren’t beautiful, they wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to appear in films anyway.
It could have been worse especially with Ann Curry who acts like “mother to the stars”. Whatever you may say about Scarlett, at least she owned up her shit regarding taking nude pictures of herself. Instead of lying like Blake “that’s not me in those naked pictures of me” Lively. LMAO. you ain’t fooling anyone Blake.
Whatever……she is no big deal.
Maybe Matt Lauer wants to be her next boyfriend? We all know she likes to date creepy, older men.
I think they didn’t cover her personal life because there is very little interest.
Yes, her destruction of Tom Waits’ song is epically bad – nasally talk singing while slapping your hand to your thigh completely out of rhythm isn’t singing. And she’s no brainiac by any means; just because you use the term “intellectual” hardly means you are one – what are her scholarly or academic creds; she’s like most actresses of her gen; affecting a pose because becoming the real thing requires too much time,effort,ability and gets in the way of being a celeb.
I like her, and given that she’s not the world’s greatest actress, I’d be inclined to think that she probably gets cast because she’s a tolerable human being who’s genuinely quite easy to work with. I don’t recall stories about her being a bitch, or any “I’m too sexy to be taken seriously” moaning to Elle magazine.
I almost wish David Fincher had cast her in TGWTDT because it would have been so perfectly Hollywood to try and make Lisbeth Salander sexy and so perfectly wrong!
That would’ve gone down in history as Worst Casting Ever and Fincher would never be forgiven.
Can’t put my finger on it but she’s always rubbed me the wrong way. I haven’t seen any movie with her that I’ve thought she was anything exceptional.
Yow – the cuteness has been sucked out of her, judging by that screen shot!
she is gorgeous but a very stiff actress. woody allen got a good performance out of her in “match game” or whatever that movie was with jonathan rhys meyer. other than that she is not impressive.
She’s hatefully competitive with other women, and has been since her teens (the infamous interview where she said older men need younger women – women who are not ‘dried up’ sexually). She’s infamous for ice-queening any woman around her if there’s a man around her, too.
I hate that she has a career. She’s a terrible actress, and a real cooze. Lauer was imagining his dick between her lips or her tits, which is what I think is meant by the gloss ‘takes direction eagerly.’ I bet, right, Woody?
She did not say that?? (checks) Do you recall what interview?
From what I’ve seen that comment is referred to as far back as 2005. I wonder how she feels being replaced by a younger woman? Do the echos of “dried up” ring in her ears?
The first time I heard her speak in an interview, one word came to mind – vapid. She has consistently lived up to that since.
Why would Matt Lauer ask her tough questions? She’s not a politician, she’s not all drugged out like Lohan he can kiss her a$$ if he wants. I like ScarJo and and if she’s bitchy so what, so am I, so are many of you who make bitchy comments about her and other celebs.
You mean Matt didn’t rake her over the coals for dating! My God, he should be fired!
She has handled the scandal well. Can someone tell me why people rave about her looks? She looks like a plain version of the stunning Charlize Theron to me.
Is it just me or does it look like she’s had some work done? Her face just looks off…