t was an interesting day on the set of this movie A Dangerous Method, I guess, when Keira Knightley and Michael Fassbender shot the spanking scene. He plays Carl Jung, the shrink, so let’s not ask why his character was spanking hers. But here’s how Keira explained to Culture mag about the, ummm, dramatic preparation:
“We only had one or two shots maximum. It was a vodka shot to calm our nerves and away you go really. Then we had champagne. We drank quite a lot of champagne, actually. You can count on Michael to buy a bottle of champagne when one is required. The vodka and champagne is a good combination.”
Best line so far from the train wreck known as the Republican presidential primaries came from Cindy Adams, the N.Y. Post columnist, who says Texas Gov. Rick Perry, now withdrawn from the race, “was George (W.) Bush without the brains.”
Zooey Deschanel abruptly dropped her $2 million lawsuit against Steve Madden, the shoe guy, right on the eve of the court date. She was claiming that the company reneged on its promise to pay her $2 million for an endorsement, and that an affiliate marketed a shoe called the Zooey, without her approval.
Dropping the suit is mysterious, unless of course there was an out-of-court settlement. Neither side is talking, just as you’d expect after a deal on the courthouse steps. Oh, shut up: Sean Penn says that “turning one’s back on stardom might be the highest form of common sense … I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that it’s an obscene disease of celebrity that’s taken over far too much.”
Celebrity, he added, has “diminished the quality of life … for the culture at large, there is this kind of herd commitment.” He said this during one of the media interviews he’s doing, at the Sundance Festival, to plug his new movie This Must Be the Place.
No prize for detecting fatuity, ego, and lack of self-awareness. You can see that Heidi Klum is winning the spin doctor war: TMZ.com says Seal can’t control his anger (but doesn’t say what he’s angry about). The N.Y. Daily News says Heidi is “super-friendly” and “warm,” while “Seal is not.” Her dad told Us that the family is “very sad.”
Seal, meanwhile, is taking the high road, telling Ellen DeGeneres that Heidi is “still, in my opinion, the most wonderful woman in the world. “I think our priority was to remain civil and do this thing with dignity. We still very much love each other,” the kids are wonderful, etc.
People, meanwhile, has Nameless Insider saying the two were apart too often, for work. It’s a separation for “smooth jazz” guy Kenny G, and his wife of 20 years Balynda Benson-Gorelick. She filed the papers, citing the usual sadly opaque “irreconcilable differences.” She wants custody of 14-year-old Noah; they also have a grown son. The G stands for Gorelick.