Did you guys get a chance to read the full Vanity Fair “interview” with Julia Roberts for the April issue? It sucked. Hard. We covered the first excerpts from the story here, and you can read the full cover story here at VF (but only if you have the VF app!). When I got my issue, I was kind of disgusted by what passes for a Vanity Fair cover story these days – VF is in the unique position to really do in-depth, expansive, interesting celebrity profiles of the crème de la crème of Hollywood. But instead of, oh, having Julia Roberts sit down with a talented celebrity journalist for a long-winded interview, the VF dude put Julia with her friend, director Mike Nichols, and she and Nichols just sat around for an hour, kissing each other’s asses. Nichols hasn’t even directed Julia in YEARS. To be fair to Julia, VF has been doing these weird, sycophantic, “let’s send the celebrity’s friend to fake-interview them” cover stories a lot lately – it’s like they’re afraid to have a real interviewer just ask a celebrity real questions.
Anyway, it seems that Julia’s VF story pissed off someone else too – Mike Nichols’ wife, Diane Sawyer. Diane versus Julia!!
Diane Sawyer is furious over Julia Roberts’ shockingly intimate relationship with her husband, iconic director Mike Nichols. Julia flirted openly with the still-dashing 80-year-old director during a recent interview for Vanity Fair, calling Nichols a “father figure.” Julia told Nichols, “You know, my father died when I was nine years old. Mike, I am so beholden to our relationship. You really are a father to me, and I’m so grateful to be in your love and good care all these years.”
When Diane read that, she flipped out, revealed an insider. “Diane couldn’t believe it,” said the source. “She felt that Julia was really playing up to Mike, and it made her cringe. Yes, Julia and Mike have worked with each other and are friends, but they hardly have a father-daughter relationship. Diane thought Julia was really laying it on thick!”
Nichols directed Julia in “Closer” and “Charlie Wilson’s War”, in 2004 and 2007 respectively.
The source said: “Diane travels around the world for work, and she’s away quite a bit so she guards her relationship with Mike like a hawk. She doesn’t like anyone – much less Julia Roberts – trying to be overly familiar with her husband. She’s fit to be tied!”
[From The Enquirer, print edition]
Now… do I believe this? Eh. I believe its essence. I believe that Julia was really pouring on the charm and yes, she was flirting with Nichols throughout the whole piece. She’s JULIA!! That’s who she is. She flirts with every man, married, single, gay, straight, whomever. She has to hold every man’s attention. It’s her “thing”. Now, I think Diane Sawyer knows this about Julia. Diane and Mike Nichols are couple-friends with Julia and probably with Danny Moder too (God knows). Diane and Mike have come out to support several of Julia’s projects, and I believe that everybody gets along in a work-friendly kind of way. I don’t see Diane as the type of woman to be super-pissed at Julia being Julia. But I bet Diane rolled her eyes at the VF story. And I’m surprised Mike Nichols didn’t roll his eyes at that “father figure” line.
Photos courtesy of WENN, VF.
I’ve never understood the appeal of Julia Roberts.
Me too!
Make that three.
Amen.
I agree! She comes off like a total f’n BITCH in every interview, and her ‘acting’ consists of widening her crazy eyes and that horse mouth
One of the Aus entertainment media doyens (has been in the biz for 30 years) always answers “Julia Roberts” to the question of which celebrity the public would be suprised at being nasty in real life. His direct quote was “she’s a b****. Don’t be fooled by the American Pie appearance”. We don’t mince words over here.
Make that four! ^_^
Five!
Six
Me neither. And no guy I’ve ever dated thought she was remotely pretty.
I loathe Julia. She is not a nice person. I must say, though, Diane Sawyer is a very pretty woman.
Agree w/ you…Diane is both beautiful and classy.
Can’t stand this over rated vapid dolt. She has a huge (unjustified) ego just like the goop. I do love Diane Sawyer who is intelligent and beautiful.
Yeah, me too.
Cannot stand to watch her on screen.
I think h**l would freeze over before Diane Sawyer even thought twice about Julia Roberts. There are few words adequate to describe the brilliance of Diane Sawyer and I hardly think it even crosses her mind to be upset over someone as vapid as Julia Roberts.
Diane looks amazing. 66 years old and she easily looks years younger. I can’t imagine Mike looking twice at Julia when he has Diane.
This story is the biggest bunch of crap I have ever read.
Sadly, there are believable pieces to it however:
Julia needing the ego-stroking attention of men and to talk all about me, me, me, sounds pretty realitic…
NO WAY is JR banging an 80 yr old with dentures.
And NO WAY is Diane Sawyer pissed.
I know, right? The most ridiculous part of this story is that apparently, gossip mags think it’s believable to suggest that two gorgeous ladies in their 40s and 50s would bitchfight over an 80-year-old man. Please.
EDIT: Hm, I just googled Diane Sawyer and as it turns out, she’s a lot older than I thought (i.e. in her 60s rather than her 50s). But still.
Exactly what I thought. And that dude isn’t even old man hot like Clint Eastwood, which would maybe make this story make sense…he just looks his age.
Old man hot! LOVE IT
I like Julia as an actress but her fakeness in interviews makes you just roll your eyes. Don’t think Diane flipped out at all.
Ha! I’ve heard for years that Nichols is in the closet. This sounds like trumped up PR.
Oh yes i can’t wait either to jump into a 80 years old’s bed! it’ll be a big enough shock when it’ll be my time to do it, when i’ll be like 90 and i’ll still look for younger boys 🙂 so i don’t believe any of this.
oh pllleeeease Diane get over yourself your pathetic!
when you watch her being interviewed by a man it’s rather shameful. her over the top flirting and desperate need to be found attractive to men is a real turn off for me.
i don’t doubt she is one of those women who will flirt with anyone’s boyfriend/husband openly.
I agree.
I had a friend like that. She would flirt with everyone’s guy and say she was “testing him for you to see if he would cheat on you”. Uh-huh. It had NOTHING to do with your pathetically low self esteem and needing to see if every guy liked you better.
Bitch.
That’s always been my impression of her, too. I also think she pursued Brad Pitt hard (remember The Mexican?) but she could not manage to snag him.
Nope, she was too busy stealing Danny Moder away from his wife on the set of The Mexican 🙂
I’ve heard that rumor actually that she chased Brad on the set of The Mexican and was pissed that he ended up with Angelina later on which is why she supposedly publicly dissed her. I think it could be true. She seems the type that absolutely HAS to be the center of attention and the way she treats people from Danny M’s ex-wife and the writer of EPL shows that(barring her from the private party @ the premiere). I also remember a while back just after Penelope Cruz gave birth there were rumors she was carrying on with Javier Bardem.
JR is so over rated as both an actress and a “personality”.
Julia is a player and she likes to create some image of herself as the ultimate insider. She is powerful but not like she was in the 90s. Diane probably rolled her eyes about the lie part of it but not because she thinks Mike and Julia are thinking of sleeping together. Diane is much more fascinating and accomplished.
I agree, she seems to try to make herself seem super close to whoever is of the moment, I remember her hanging all over Denzel the year he won his Oscar, Tom Hanks, Javier Bardem, etc.
I doubt Diane is threatened at all, but I could definitely see her being annoyed by her in general.
Obnoxious name-drop alert! Julia Roberts is a friend of a friend and I’ve spent plenty of time around her socially, so here’s my take: She sucks. In this case perception really is reality–she not only openly flirts with any male in her line of sight (including my husband), she trashes the women around her in the process. There’s a reason she’s not a girl’s girl, it’s because she truly needs to put other women down (and grabbing their significant other’s attention is part of the process) to feel good. It’s bizarre that someone with such experiences and an interesting life needs to resort to such petty, predictable tactics to validate herself, but there you have it. She’s not a good friend, and a perfect example of Matt Damon’s theory that celebrities become social retarded at whatever age they found fame. True story. I don’t think she and DS are fighting over an 80 year-old dong, but I don’t think that’s the point: JR has no respect for the intimacy of other’s relationships and takes what isn’t her’s because she can.
she probably thinks she can do all this because she’s Julia Roberts so she thinks your husband can be her fling whenever she feels like it because she is ‘more important’ than you. no seriously i never liked her and now you’re giving me a very good reason to dislike her even more. we all just forget sometimes that celebrity are normal people too and it’s more than enough thinking of her on the toilet just like a normale person, because you know, they do that too, just like us.. probably using the same cheap toilet paper we use!! 😀
Yeah that’s just how she landed her husband isn’t it? Ick.
train, that is interesting and pretty much what i would have thought of julia. i am curious, though – does she do the big horse laugh in private, or is that an onscreen affectation?
Oh yeah, she harnesses the power of that thing whenever there’s a lull in the attention being paid to her. It’s painful.
@Train, yes thanks for chiming in w/that one. I really do like to read the “friends of friends” stories, and what you said about her seems to ring true w/me for some reason.
I dunno what it IS about Julia, but I certainly don’t “get” her appeal. I mean, she’s not ugly by any stretch, but to me she looks like an evil witch, and I don’t get her appeal. Her features are not too feminine to me.
Anyhoo, appreciate what you said, & I, for one, think it rings true.
Interesting theory of Matt Damon’s. It seems to explain Julia and it certainly explains his ex, Winona Ryder. It doesn’t seem to fit Jodie Foster to me though. To me she seems very adult.
yeah, but jodie seems like she was born an adult–maybe it was her hyper-intelligence. anyway, i used to like julia way back in the ‘mystic pizza’ days: she seemed so fresh-faced and natural and gangly and her vulnerability on screen endeared her to me. then in the mid-90s right around the time she became a tabloid dahlink is when she started to grate on my nerves. she belongs in that leo thread about smelly celebrities if rumors are to be believed. was in that thread for all of a minute before i said ‘i can’t’ with these smelly-butt apologists…
I totally believe this.
After all, Julia’s husband was married and expecting a baby with his then-wife when Julia pursued him relentlessly (and his poor wife ended up miscarrying while Julia wore t-shirts putting her down).
Last year, Julia was rumored to be in an affair with Javier Bardem when his wife Penelope Cruz was pregnant.
I think Diane Sawyer is perfectly justified in being pissed off at Julia. Granted, Julia likes ’em younger than Diane’s husband but the bottom line is she has no respect for marital vows and has a history of using people.
I didn’t know she was pregnant and miscarried: Poor Vera.
I guess that puts this Moder fellow at ‘almost as bad as Loudon Wainwright’ unless that wasn’t their first baby, then it would be a dead heat. Still, nothing challenges the ‘Rik Mayall, you piece of human garbage. Why, Lord Flasheart, why?’ level of mind-obliterating disloyalty.
LOL! Spot on! I totally see her that way! I was so glad when Benjamin Bratt left her and married Talisa Soto. I never understood what he saw in her. He didn’t seem like the kind of man who would cater to her insecurities. I hate that mouth wide open horse laugh! She always seems like the bitch who dated your ex and then felt the need to tell you about their wild sex life. Whatever she has, it’s old and wrinkled now.
The “still dashing 80 year old”? I am not really all over people who are aging but COME ON!
I know! He is hardly dashing – and not only because he is 80! He was never what I would consider dashing!
He has a fantastic personality. He used to do comedy years ago and was one of the funniest men in the business. A lot of times funny is better than good looking.
I used to love her. But not since she was presenter when Denzel Washington won the oscar (I think) and before she read his name, she was “I love my life”, like it was all about her. I realized then, she is so full of herself she thinks she is more important than Denzel winning an oscar. Get over yourself.
I read the interview and one tidbit that had me rolling my eyes was Nichols’ referring to her performance in Mystic Pizza as so genius. I enjoyed that movie (still do, to be honest), but please, genius? Hardly.
The one funny thing was when Julia mentioned how her kids don’t know “who she is” and they tried to brag to some friends about how their mom is “Julia Robinson.” I could totally see that and I thought it was refreshingly self-deprecating of her to share that.
Still I agree that she’s mostly insufferable and a frightening flirt.
Julia has a tendency of making it always about her. If you’ve ever watched her around other male celebrities she’s ALWAYS all over them. She’s way over-the-top narcissistic.
YES! And don’t you hate they way she always refers to her co-stars by their 1st name? Oh George (Clooney) this and Brad (Pitt) that and Denzel and Jimmy (James Gandolfini) etc.
I am glad someone picked up on the fakery of that VF profile. I read the profile and could only think to myself WTF? How did this crap get published? Who would be interested in reading this BJ?
Kaiser – the real story here is not Julia “hitting on” 80 yr old Mike Nichols. The real story is her self absorption and narcissism that was evident in that interview.
New low for VF!
Agreed.
i doubt julia is banging him or trying to…if she is stepping out on her marriage, she has younger fishes than this 80 yr dude to catch lol
Why is this a story? The guy is 81. Sounds like a contrived story by PR peeps to give everyone involved some attention.
I totally believe that Julia is MagPie! She has to flirt with everyone because that’s part of her “I love boys” charm.
I used to adore in spite of all that I heard about her, but the things she did to get Danny don’t sit well with me at all. Don’t like homewreckers.
Julia represents narcissistic woman very well. This is a trait of theirs. Also the Cheshire smile classic. Oh and the read books don’t watch TV crap
Every word of your comment is so dead on.
I think Diane could take Julia
🙂
Don’t hate me, but I love Julia Roberts ::: runs and hides :::
Is it me or does anyone else see her career options being limited as she gets older? I know she’s going to be in The Normal Heart and August: Osage County, but she’s not the main star of either film. How long can she make her career last without opening a film?
Diane Sawyer looks younger and prettier than Julia Roberts so I do not believe it.
What acttess DOESN’T have limited options as she ages? She’ll probably play Kiefer’s mom if she lives long enough, and then his grandmother.
My Baba (Ukrainian grandmother) has always said, for as long as I can remember, that Julia Roberts is a wh*re. I quote, “That woman is a wh*re”. My Baba is one of the most intelligent women I know.
Love
ROFL at “80 year old dong”
She lives life in a bubble even by actor standards. Rupert Everett has a great passage in his memoir about how they would finish filming My Best Friends Wedding on a Friday afternoon. She’d put on a BATHROBE & slippers, step into a limo, then onto a red carpet onto a private jet, fly across the country to NYC to be met by limo & carried to apt–3000 mikes without getting dressed or her feet touching the ground!
Oh that’s a good one, and true of so many of them. Fly commercial with your kids and then talk to me…
love Rupert:)
If saying to someone that you value the father/daughter relationship you have with them equals flirting, then damn…I had no clue what a nasty filthy thing flirting was. Gross. Because when I tell someone they are like a father to me, that naturally implies I want to bang them. Of course.
Overblown story.
Thank you!
“..You really are a father to me, and I’m so grateful to be in your love and good care all these years.”
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who thought it was the was covered interview ever in VF. I turned the page thinking it would start…and then it was over. I’ve seen more journalism in National Enquirer stories than this piece of cotton candy fluff.
And I really thought “ewww” with some of those “daddy” comments too. JR just hasnt been my cup of tea for a very long time.
Diane Sawyer is still pretty smokin’. I bet she’s real worried.
Diane’s hubby (in second pic) looks exactly like a wax statue. A bad wax statue at that. Diane, on the other hand, is just as lovely as ever.
Long ago when she was starting to be famous and dating Kiefer Sutherland, a friend of mine who worked at a trendy clothes store witnessed her horrid behavior. With her huge entourage around her, she was barking demands at shop workers, talking loud and obnoxious, saying, “Oh I need to call Kiefer,” glaring at my friend who was near the phone. He just looked at her, waiting for her to say please. She did say, “May I?” Same time period, it seemed everywhere I went I’d see her and Kiefer driving (in a convertible), he looking regretful and Julia clearly pissed, staring at him hatefully. She must be a nightmare girlfriend/wife.
Kiefer rocks:)
I think Kiefer dodged a bullet. 🙂
That old dong must be made of gold, cause damn HE IS GROSS…and not just cause he is 80…
I do not believe the unflappable Diane Sawyer is threatened by Hollywood’s “Petty” Woman.
I love Diane as much as I loathe Julia big mouth Roberts. When she used to show up on Oprah the mutual ass kissing made me vomit profusely. I’m sure Diane is so worried about Julia taking her man LOL. I totally believe Julia makes every encounter about HER. She practically shoved Denzel off the stage when he won the award.
Yeah I can see Julia doing all of that crap. She’s a shameless flirt when it benefits her or when she knows it will make somebody mad. OR when she just wants to amuse herself. She’s an idiot. I hate her.
I started hating her when that pic of her walking from her car that was parked in a handicapped spot came out. America’s sweetheart my as#.
In what universe is telling a man “you’re a father to me” flirting?
When her daughter is older, Julia is going to be flirting with her boyfriends. You know it’s gonna happen!
It’s really hard to believe this story. I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s kind of common knowledge that both Mike and Diane are on the closet and have a marriage of convenience. So I don’t understand why Diane would have a hissy fit of jealousy because of a silly article.
Also, calling a man “a father figure” is not flirting. Not in my world, o_O
Maybe all of you who seem to hate her so much can try imagining her as a nine year-old child with a dead father. Because inside, she will always be that.
Oh, please. I NEVER KNEW my father but I have never resorted or stooped to behaving like that.