Hotmail
by Kat Giantis
MSN Entertainment
Jan. 27,
2005
Tara Reid has launched another salvo in her valiant campaign to rehabilitate her table-dancing, wild child image, with her latest PR efforts focusing on her heretofore-unknown high IQ.
"I am a very smart girl, and people don't realize that," the bare breast-brandishing starlet declares to the New York Post, which snarkily titles its article, "Look How Smart I Am!" "People think I am America's party girl, which is just stupid. I have done 24 movies and I am creating my own TV show."
Reid's demand for her intelligence to be publicly recognized comes ahead of the release of the video game-inspired horror flick "Alone in the Dark," in which she plays a genius scientist (hey, quit laughing) opposite Christian Slater.
"I think people are going to believe me in that character and see I am capable of diversity," she says of the role, which requires her to stretch her acting chops by donning nerdy glasses and wearing her hair in a tight bun.
As for the future, Tara, 29, hopes to one day settle down, perhaps with a gold, bald guy named Oscar. "It would be the ultimate dream for me to win an Academy Award, be in love and have kids," she says wistfully (come on, knock off the giggles). "Then I would say, 'Life is great! I have done everything I wanted.' I keep trying to get closer to that. I also think when that happens, people will finally leave me alone."
As you try to wrap your brains around how, exactly, an Oscar will help Reid achieve a life free from scrutiny, we should probably point out that her public relations makeover might be more successful if she just stayed home with a good book every now and then.
People magazine reports she was recently spied at the Manhattan hotspot Butter "walking a bit unsteadily." She reportedly piled into a booth with some pals and, when not snuggling up to an unnamed dark-haired man (she was most recently linked to hockey star Sergei Fedorov), had her companions in stitches every time she "dropped some food -- or her head -- onto the table."
Lopez's Simple Tastes
Just how serious is Jennifer Lopez about toning down her diva act? Turns out she didn't even demand the removal of a specific color of M&M in a recent list of backstage requirements at the NRJ Music Awards last week in France.
According to Us Weekly, Mrs. Marc Anthony's down-market requests included sour-cream-and-onion potato chips, nacho cheese Doritos, M&Ms, chocolate chip cookies (soft, not hard), white bread, American cheese, caffeine-free Pepsi (she's a well-paid shill for the company), Snickers, and Hershey bars.
Heck, toss in some Red Bull and Cheetos and you've got a typical night at the Federlines.
Still, high-maintenance habits die hard, and Lopez does have a few standard celebrity wants, including white lilies (without the pesky green leaves) or roses (white or red), grapefruit Jo Malone candles, plus a TV, VCR, portable boombox, and DVD and CD players.
But this list is tame compared to Jennifer's diva-licious dressing room demands from a few years back, when she required white everything, including curtains, couches, walls, flowers, candies, and tables, along with three -- count 'em, three! -- different flavors of Snapple.
Jen's desire to demonstrate a kinder, gentler image may have played a part in her decision to ditch her current talent agency. Variety reports the serial committer, who is gearing up for the March 1 release of her album, "Rebirth," and the May 6 bow of her comedy "Monster-in-Law," has rejoined ICM after unsuccessful hook-ups with Endeavor (she dumped them twice) and CAA.
By the by, Lopez isn't the only celebrity who needs her cravings satisfied while backstage. The London Mirror reports Snoop Dogg's rider for his recent star-studded gig at the Sundance Film Festival included doughnuts, cashews, peanut butter sandwiches, Starburst and Skittles candy, Corona beer, Moet champagne, Hennessy cognac, and a Sony Playstation.
According to the paper, there was also another, less common, item on Snoop's list, although its inclusion isn't surprising given his well-documented recreational activities. Care to venture a guess? Here's a hint: It might explain why the aforementioned munchies covered the range from sweet to salty to sour.
Liz Starved for Success
With all the pressure placed on actresses to maintain a figure that falls somewhere between trim and twiglike, we know we should be oozing with sympathy over Elizabeth Hurley's revelations about her battle with the bulge after the 2002 birth of her son, Damian.
But honestly, we're having a hard time mustering anything more than a wee bit of schadenfreude. Why? Because this is the woman who once said of seminal bombshell Marilyn Monroe, "I'd kill myself if I was that fat ... She was very big."
Hubris can really bite you on the butt sometimes.
Liz, 39, tells the London Daily Mail that her once again lithe frame is the result of an extreme diet plan that limits her to just one full meal a day.
"Eating very little breakfast, not too much more lunch," she says of her scant caloric intake. "Then only tiny little snacks in the day. But really boring snacks like a banana or six raisins. The only meal I have is dinner."
According to Hurley, "It's horrible if you have to lose a lot of weight. I remember thinking I had done so well and thinking, 'I look so thin again' -- and when I weighed myself I was still 25 pounds overweight. That was a really depressing moment."
The actress, whose recent box office profits have sadly been as empty as her stomach, says she doesn't rely on popular diet plans such as Atkins (or, apparently, a work-out regimen) to maintain her famous frame. Instead, she's sticking with the tried-and-true technique of deprivation.
"I'm on a good old-fashioned low-calorie diet," Hurley explains, stomach growling loudly (all right, maybe we're projecting a little). "I'm going to bed hungry."
Oh wait, here comes that sympathy ... Darn!
Usher Too Aloof to Hoof?
Usher doesn't "do" pavement. That's the word from the London Mirror, which reports the Grammy-winning crooner had his chauffeur drive him from a movie screening to a nearby after-party. Total distance traveled: about 200 yards.
According to the paper, Usher left the Monday night screening of his short film "Rhythm City, Volume 1: Caught Up" in London and made a beeline for a club that's just a couple minutes' walk away. But it seems he had no intention of hoofing it down the street with the riff-raff.
"People were pretty shocked to see him piling into his Rolls-Royce Phantom, especially as it took three times longer to drive than to get there on foot," a mole tells the paper.
Usher's aversion to perambulating with the public apparently was just the start of his diva 'tude. His security team purportedly demanded that the people politely lined up in the cold outside the club clear out in order for him to make his big entrance.
Later in the evening, says the paper, the "Confessions" singer made his way to another hotspot, where he danced on chairs while downing vodka Red Bulls. The bill for the evening was reportedly a "modest" $9,500.
The spy tells the Mirror that Usher capped off his night by dropping trou and mooning innocent bystanders before retiring to his hotel suite "with around 20 girls."
Quickies
Did Jennifer Garner know "Elektra" was going to bomb? Us Weekly recently caught up with a surprisingly unguarded Michael Vartan, the actress's "Alias" co-star and ex-squeeze, and asked him what he thought of the flick. "I heard it was awful," he's quoted as telling the mag, revealing the person he heard that from was Garner herself. Explains the crinkly-foreheaded looker, "She had to do it because of 'Daredevil.' It was in her contract." While Vartan's rep is mum on the article, Garner's mouthpiece tells the Chicago Sun-Times she's "very happy" with the audience-repelling film.
They said it wouldn't last ... and they were right. Kate Moss, 31, and musician Pete Doherty, 25, are kaput after less than two weeks of togetherness. The London Sun reports the supermodel dumped the former Libertines frontman by text message. "He's just too wild," Moss was quoted as telling a friend of the self-confessed drug addict. "I can't take any more of it." The breakup comes just days after Doherty told ITV's Orange Playlist, "... I've really found love with Kate. I think it will last." No word on what Doherty plans to do with the 'K' he prematurely inked on his arm in Kate's honor.
David Letterman had a secret way of thanking Johnny Carson for the jokes he sent him. The New York Daily News says the "Late Show" host would express his gratitude by doing a Carson-inspired golf swing during the monologue. Esquire scribe Bill Zehme, who conducted Carson's final interview, also reveals to the paper that Dave sent Johnny a check for every gag. "Johnny would endorse the check with a smart-ass remark for Dave to read when the check came back to him ... ," he says. (Do banks still send out canceled checks? Would Letterman even see them? Are we overanalyzing a sweet story? Moving on ... )
Hear that? It's the sound of the nation's English teachers breaking down into sobs. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Will Smith's upcoming fact-based rags-to-riches story has been given a title: "Pursuit of Happyness." The flick revolves a seemingly spelling-impaired investment banker.
In other casting news, Drew Barrymore has signed on to warble her little heart out in "Lucky You," says the Reporter. The sweetie-pie actress will play a struggling singer who falls for a high-stakes poker player, essayed by "Hulk" thespian Eric Bana. Curtis Hanson ("8 Mile," "L.A. Confidential") will direct the film, which is set to begin shooting in March in Las Vegas.
Someone alert the "South Park" guys. Paris Hilton, whose skills as a pet owner were brutally mocked on the Comedy Central cartoon, has acquired a sibling for Tinkerbell, her briefly MIA Chihuahua. The New York Daily News reports the "Simple Life" celebutante has adopted a Rottweiler from an animal shelter. "She loves animals," Paris' rep tells the paper. "She got him on Monday, and he's just a baby." Rumor has it he's already learned to bark out the phrase, "That's hot."
Janet Jackson's mom feels Justin Timberlake got off way too easy following last year's Super Bowl kerfuffle. "What I didn't like is there wasn't one person on that stage. There were two people," Katherine Jackson tells "48 Hours" of her daughter's skin-baring, FCC-baiting performance. "After a while, there was only Janet Jackson. That's all there was. Janet Jackson." Despite her defense of her little girl, Mrs. Jackson admits she wasn't thrilled with the bodice-ripping act: "I called her and I told her, I said, 'You know what? I'm the first to tell you: That shouldn't have happened.'"
Gwen Stefani has placed some unusual demands on her ever-present entourage, the Harajuku Girls. The New York Daily News says that even though the doll-like hangers-on speak perfect English, they're contractually barred from conversing in anything but Japanese.
