What's all this about Sharon Stone being a pot-smoking, panty-eschewing power monger who slept her way up the Hollywood food chain?
"Sharon's knowledge of power was elemental, primal, learned in modeling sessions and casting couches and in the back rooms of shadowy, back-lighted discos in Milan and Buenos Aires," Joe Eszterhas writes in his upcoming book about Clinton-era Hollywood, "American Rhapsody," recently excerpted in Talk magazine. (Perhaps you wondered why he isn't involved in "Basic Instinct 2"?)
And while one former Stone agent told the "Basic Instinct" scribe that the common thinking around his agency was, "Put Sharon in the room alone with the director and she'll close the deal," the writer apparently discovered the actress' naked ambition on his own turf.
In order to get one of her sex scenes rewritten, he says, Stone played on Eszterhas' baser instincts. "Sharon was straddling my back with her legs, moving up and down [and] I noticed she wasn't wearing any panties," Eszterhas recalls.
Stone, for her part, has apparently taken time away from her new adoptive baby to peruse Eszterhas' portrayal of her and dub it "hilarious."
"I knew he was funny," she said, "but I didn't think he could write comedy."
Guess she never saw "Showgirls."
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Serenity now!
"I am going to be a great old man ... I got stories; I do tricks. And you can tell what I am going to look like when I am old."
-- Jason Alexander on aging gracefully in the upcoming Us Weekly.
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Hanging it up
Another Hollywood marriage has bitten the dust: Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid have announced plans to split after nine years.
The couple's publicist said the breakup is "mutual and amicable" -- and happened about six weeks ago. (No word on how they'll handle custody of their 8-year-old son, Jack Henry.)
In the meantime, the British tabloids have been rife with rumors linking Ryan with Russell Crowe, with whom she's shooting a film in London. The two have reportedly been spotted giggling together all over town.
I'll have what she's having.
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Praise the Lord and pass the TP?
"The only reason I'd bring a Bible [to the island] is if I needed toilet paper."
-- "Survivor" contestant Rudy Boesch, on why he voted for his religious teammate, Dirk Been (who calls the show a "blessing from God"), to be booted on this week's episode.
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Mathers-Briggs test
Eminem's lawyers have to be the busiest guys in the business. Now, it appears, even the rapper's own mother wants to see her son in court.
Q Online reports that Deborah Mathers-Briggs is suing the singer she named Marshall Mathers for $10 million, claiming he's defamed her character.
Her beef? The line "My mother smokes more dope than I do" from "My Name Is," as well as other derisive comments Eminem has made about his upbringing.
Maybe Eminem really stands for marauded by mom ...
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Juicy bits
Take it from Robert Downey Jr.: Prison life is no picnic. The actor, serving three years for drug possession, tells Vanity Fair that being cooped up in a cell with four other inmates, working in the kitchen for pennies and living in constant danger of assault is causing him to sink "deeper into my depression sessions." He tells the magazine, "Sometimes I'm just dead, living in a fucking warehouse." And it's not clear where to put the emphasis in that sentence. Downey says he'll "never confirm or deny" that he has been sexually assaulted, adding that he "would never tell you the worst things that have happened to me." I, for one, can live without knowing.
Is Scotland Yard getting a little something on the side from Posh Spice and David Beckham, or what? Just one day after making an arrest in connection with threatening letters sent to the famous couple, the police have announced that they've arrested three men -- including one British Airways baggage handler -- they suspect may have lifted Posh's four matching Louis Vuitton suitcases at Heathrow Airport in April. The arrests were made after two homes were raided -- and a "small quantity of clothing was recovered [that] has been identified as coming from the stolen luggage." What these allegedly sticky-fingered fellows were doing with Posh's dinky duds is anybody's guess.
Prepare for Kathie Lee overload. The New York Post reports that Kathie Lee Gifford's departure from her "Live With Regis and Kathie Lee" seat will stretch out over five days, culminating on July 28. But wait, don't touch that dial, because you'll also find Gifford on "Late Show With David Letterman," "Good Morning America" and "The View" that same week. Sheesh, how many cute stories about Cody can one woman be expected to come up with?
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