Russell Crowe vs. Mel Gibson: battle of the Australian film stars? (Fight, fight, fight, fight ...!) During a recent interview on a Chicago radio station, Crowe taunted Gibson for making "The Passion," his controversial film about Jesus's last day. "Well, if what I've heard about it is fair dinkum [aka "true"] that he spent $25 million making a movie that's shot in Aramaic and Latin and he's intending to release it without subtitles, I think he's got to get off the glue," Crowe, clearly not one of Gibson's defenders, told his interviewer. "What's the point of making a movie where people can't understand what's going on? I don't understand that. If you want it for reality or whatever, I think, 'Wow, what an amazing idea,' but also what a waste of time if nobody can get what the point is ... Mr. Gibson, get off the glue!" That's sticking it to him, Russ. (Jeannette Walls/MSNBC)
Colin Farrell: proud papa ... long-distance-style. The randy Irish actor's on-again-off-again girlfriend Kim Bordenave gave birth Friday to a baby boy, weighing in at 7 pounds, 9 ounces. The baby, born in an L.A. hospital, has yet to meet his father, who was filming the movie "Alexander" in Morocco at the time of his birth. "Although Colin couldn't attend the birth, he had family members standing in and is longing to see his new son and couldn't be happier," Farrell's publicist told the press. "The three will be together very soon. They have yet to name the baby." (WENN)
As if Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't have enough on their minds, a man has been nabbed prowling around the family's Pacific Palisades home and has been charged by the LAPD with prowling, vehicle tampering, trespassing and petty theft after making off with some $400 worth of items he snagged from a family car. The accused, Richard Sathianathan, 32, is currently in jail in lieu of $50,000 bail and was alleged to have visited the gubernatorial candidate's property several times before he was arrested by private security and turned over to police early Sunday morning. (ABC News)
Money Quote
"Survivor" host Jeff Probst admitting that he held would-be rescuers back during a recent near drowning of a contestant to see what the person's teammates would do: "I was on the beach saying, 'Hold off, hold off.'"
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Is David Blaine the most reviled man in London? The stunt magician has been repeatedly harassed by random civilians who've shown up to gape at him as he naps, waves, surreptitiously changes his own diapers and eschews food suspended over the Thames river in a Plexiglas box. Currently on Day 11 of his 44-day endurance test, Blaine has endured chucked rocks, relentless drumming, flying golf balls, rotten eggs, hurled lemons, an attempt to cut off his water supply and stripteases by women of various shapes and sizes. One 41-year-old woman who was nabbed by security guards after ripping off her jeans and dancing beneath Blaine's box (he slept through the whole thing) explained: "It was a spur of the moment thing, me taking my trousers down. It's absolutely ridiculous to have this man dangling down in a box like this." Yes, we see the direct cause and effect there, ma'am. (This Is London)
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Michael Caine on why he won't do nude scenes: "F'r Crissakes, it's ridiculous to do a film with your bits hanging out. You hold yourself up to ridicule. Anyone ever see a Steve McQueen or Cary Grant doing that? The head of England's ballet company was once asked would he ever do a naked ballet. He said, 'No. Never. You want to know why? Because everything doesn't stop when the music does.'" (N.Y. Post)
Best of the Rest
Page Six: Princess Stephanie of Monaco marries Portuguese circus acrobat Adans Lopez Peres in private ceremony in Geneva; Spalding Gray struggling to cope with manic depression, suicidal tendencies, the aftermath of electroshock treatments, writing next monologue, tells GQ: "I sometimes think I'm self-destructive. But I don't want to be"; "Girls Gone Wild" mastermind Joe Francis on party girl Paris Hilton: "When she's sober, Paris is a pretty smart girl." Then again, he says, she's sober only on "Sunday night."
Rush and Molloy: Milla Jovovich claims to have rebuffed the advances of Mick Jagger, says, "It was like, 'Are you kidding me?' He's old enough to be my dad. It's disgusting. Please!"; Jagger admits that his reputation as a lover is highly overrated, says, "When you are said to be the [bleep] of the century, it's a matter of course that every woman is disappointed after the first night with you"; Christina Ricci on her recent turn on Broadway's one-off performance of "The 24-Hour Plays": "I went onstage and thought I was going to p---, vomit, s--- and cry, all at the same time"; "Queer Eye" fashion maven Carson Kressley on Donald Trump: "My God, that hair! It looks like some kind of craft project. It's like a grapevine wreath"; Padma Lakshmi admits she contemplated getting beau Salman Rushdie a "Queer Eye" makeover, but says, "He would kill me"; Norman Mailer turns 80, says he feels "less decrepit than I did yesterday," has party attended by Monica Lewinsky and Karenna Gore, among others; Ben Affleck heads to Miami, possibly to work things out with Jennifer Lopez; Johnnie Cochran weighs in on Kobe Bryant case: "I believe he will be acquitted."
Boldface Names: Maria Bello on sex scenes in which a man and a woman look lovingly into each other's eyes: "Who has sex like that? I've never had that sex." On the other hand, she adds, "I don't like a sex scene to be just about sex. Except when I'm watching porn. Which I do, from time to time."
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