Dustin Hoffman may have been joking when he called Hugh Grant a "prick" at the Empire Film Awards in London the other night, where he picked up a lifetime achievement award, but he appears to have been quite serious when it came to matters political.
"I believe that [the Bush] administration has taken the events of 9/11 and has manipulated the grief of the country and I think that's reprehensible," he told his fellow luminaries in the audience. "I don't think, like many of us, that the reasons we have been given for going to war are the honest reasons.
"If they are saying it's about the fact [that Iraq has] biological weapons and might have nuclear weapons and that gives us the liberty to preempt and strike because we think they might hit us, then what prevents Pakistan from attacking India, what prevents India from attacking Pakistan, what prevents us from going into North Korea?
"I believe -- though I may be wrong because I am no expert -- that this war is about what most wars are about: hegemony, money, power and oil."
What's more, Hoffman said, he suspects most politicians of lying to save their booties most of the time.
"If I was asked what is the most important aspect of being a politician, I would say getting reelected," the actor declared. "And when that's the goal, then all bets are off with the truth."
To paraphrase Hoffman's angry "Midnight Cowboy" character, hey, he's talkin' here, he's talkin' ...
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To put it bluntly
"To me, it's just, she's my mommy. She raised me and popped me out of her ... you know?"
-- Kate Hudson on her famous mother, Goldie Hawn, in the Toronto Sun.
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When to pick a nose
Natasha Richardson apparently has Barbra Streisand to thank for her successful career as a romantic lead.
It was all about the nose.
"I'd never considered changing my nose. It was just part of me and any issues I had about myself were to do with my weight," Richardson says of her once-prominent proboscis.
But then she realized she might be getting overlooked for parts because of it.
So she asked her mom, Vanessa Redgrave, what she thought about her seeing a plastic surgeon for a little nasal trim, "and she said, 'Don't be silly, darling -- look at Barbra Streisand.'"
That did it.
"I thought, 'Bloody hell. I'm not Barbra Streisand,'" Richardson says.
And don't tell her people who need nose jobs are the luckiest people in the world ...
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Almost enough to make you feel sorry for the guy
"Today I feel more betrayed than perhaps ever before, that someone who had got to know my children, my staff and me, whom I let into my heart and told the truth, could then sacrifice the trust I placed in him and produce this terrible and unfair program."
-- Michael Jackson, condemning Martin Bashir's documentary on him, "Living With Michael Jackson," in a statement to the press.
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Juicy bits
What the world needs now is hip-hop Burt Bacharach? Dr. Dre apparently believes so. The septuagenarian tells the U.K. Sun he's planning to contribute a little Bacharach flava to a new album from the rapper/producer. "He gave me these drum beats and told me to do what I like," the famed songwriter tells the paper. "These won't be like usual songs. These are like compositions." No, I don't know what he means by that either.
All's fair in Love and air rage. Virgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson has offered to have his airlines fly Courtney Love back home, despite her recent in-air "potty-mouth" dust-up with flight staff, after the two spent a little time chatting at the fundraiser for London's Old Vic theater the other night. "Virgin Atlantic was built thanks to the rock industry, so I like to think we are a bit more understanding than most airlines," Branson told the press. "Courtney was a little out of order on the flight over and apologized to me. We are looking forward to flying her back to L.A. ... Perhaps Virgin's new slogan should be 'Rock stars swear by us.'" Or is that ... at us?
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