Newspaper Page Text
f.
■iflf
V
Q, What has
* happened
L to actress
A Dana Delany?
Nancy Hamrick
UlSi Sparks, Xev.
Delany, 51, 8
becomes a *
housewife, a
Tony Bennett, Emmy- and Grammy
winning crooner, has another talent
painting. 'As long as I can remember, I
have wanted to do two things: sing and
paint” he tells us via e-mail. In a new
book, Tony Bennett in the Studio: A Life
of Art and Music, his artwork is used to
illustrate reflections on life. It has been
quite a life, with friends like Bob Hope,
Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington. One of Bennett's favorites
is a portrait of Ellington. “I painted pink roses behind Duke's
image because every time he wrote a new song, he would send
me roses to let me know he had composed something new."
Q. What are the newest movies starring
’ Gerard Butler, the handsome
Scot from 300 and The Phantom of
the Opera"! Irene Foster, Glendale, Calif
We talked to his people, and Butler
has four movies coming. On Dec. 21, W
he has PS. I Love You, co-starring ■
Hilary Swank. Butler, 37, plays a de- wtf *
ceased man who has left a series of love . :
letters for his widow. Gerry (as he pi-efers
to be called) also just wrapped his lead
role in Guy Ritchie's Rockvßolla.
He's in production on Situ '.s Is- V
land, with Jodie Foster and
Abigail Breslin, which is due in
April. And he has just begun an
other stalling role in a thriller
called Game.
2
USA WEEKEND • Nov. 2-4,2007
By LORRIE LYNCH
Walk the red carpet
at Wednesday's
CMA ceremony with my
Who's News Blog
at blogs.usaweekend.com.
Weil be live with the stars
in Nashville at 7 p.m. ET.
The show begins at
8 p.m. ET on ABC.
She’s the newest
desperate house-
wife, and she plans a
lengthy stay on Wisteria Lane; she
'V signed a six-year contract. A
\ yeai- ago, as you know, we
J talked with Delany about
I her role in the drama Kid
s napped, which, unfortunately,
1 didn’t last. But that won’t be
I a problem on ABC’s Desper-
I ate Housewives, which is going
I strong in its fourth season.
I BENNETT |
Butler has no dearth of jobs^
News
To ask a question, e-mail whosnews@usaweekend.com or click on “Contact Columnists' at our website. Include name, city, state.
Just imagine
what would
happen if Jan
. walked into
The Office look
ing like Melora
Hardin, right, who
plays her. Hardin,
40, has been one of jv
Hollywood's hard fj
workers for decades, p
She began perform- J
ing at 6 and made *
about a dozen pilots
before The Office. In
this season, her char-
acter, a former execu- I
tive, "is trying to see '
her homemaker side."
How did she handle liv-
ing among the also-rans of
showbiz for so long? "I was
lucky," Hardin says. "I was a
cute kid, an attractive teen-
ager and an inter
esting adult. So I al-
ways worked and enjoyed i I
myself even when things
weren't really flying." A
married mom of two, she
is also a dancer and singer; A \
her third album is slated
for next year. \ ’X
When singer-songwriter An i DiFrancogave birth to herfirst 1
child, Petah Lucia (9 months), she decided she'd compile her
first retrospective album. Canon, which came out Sept. 11. "I
never had time to stop and reflect and look back and put
together something like a 'career retrospective,' because I
was always plowing forward," says DiFranco, 37. "The baby
interjected a little pause in my life." She tackled another
project long on her back burner: a book of her poetry m
called Verses. "These are poems I wrote with the inten- is!
tion of them being spoken word, because that's my
job I travel around and put on shows so that's the
context I write for. To print them was disconcerting." n Vj
Contributing: Baht Mills, Nancy Mills, Kathy Rowings, Jennifer Straus, Jon Tollestrup
I S
' ”1
Q, Does heartthrob
* Joaquin Phoenix have
a girlfriend? Also, where has he
been since 2005's Walk the Line!
Peggy Cook, Long Beach, Calif
Phoenix, who doesn’t have a gill
friend, has been making movies,
and he’s all over big screens
now, playing two more tortured
men. In We Own the Night, he
manages a nightclub fi-equented
by the Russian mafia. In Reser
vation Road, he plays a father
whose son is killed by a hit-and-
run driver, and he hunts down the driver. “I can’t enjoy
things unless they’re intense,” says Phoenix, 33, explaining
why he seeks emotionally difficult roles. “Otherwise, I’m
bored to death. If you -were a surfer, would you want to surf
2-foot waves or 10-foot waves?”
HARDIN
CELEB GOSSIP
onYOURCELLPHONE
As a talk-show host, Charles Grodin got stars to spill per
sonal details. Now he has them sharing mistakes. His new
book, If I Only Knew Then, is a collection of essays by ac
tors such as Goldie Hawn and Robert Redford, in which
they reveal a lesson learned the hard way. Not everyone
approached was eager to share. "One good friend, a very
famous person, and I were having a nice, cordial dinner.
I brought up the subject, and he said, 'Out of the question,'"
says Grodin, 72. How did he get more than 80 to agree?
"They knew that I wasn't making any
money on this," he says. All proceeds
go toward Help USA, a non-profit that
aids the homeless and other people
in need.
TEXT 44«6(41NF0)
WITH SUBJECT
BUZZ
PHOENIX
THIS WEEK'S
BIRTHDAYS
11.4.07
Sean Combs 38
Matthew
McConaughey 38
11.5.07
Tatum O'Neal 44
11.6.07
Ethan Hawke 37
Sally Field 61
11.7.07
Joni Mitchell 64
11.8.07
Courtney
Thorne-Smith 40
Bonnie Raitt 58
11.9.07
Vanessa Minnillo 27
NickLachey 34
11.10.07
Brittany Murphy 30
Ellen Pompeo 38
DiFranco
takes a
look back.
DELANY: JACKSON LEE. STARMAXINC; BENNETT: DAVID LONGENDYKE. GLOBE PHOTOS; BUTLER: JEN LOWERY. STAHTRAKSPHOTO. HARDIN: BARRY TALE SNICK, IPOL/GLOBE PHOTOS; PHOENIX Al LSTAR/GLOBE PHOTOS DIFRANCO. ANDREW GOETZ, CORBIS