03/19/2010 5:00 am
Culture
Liz Smith: Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes – Was There Another Woman?!
And also in Our Gossip Girl's weekend dish, Linda Fairstein's latest crime deluxe – Hell Gate at Gracie Mansion!
Sam Mendes and Kate Winslet © PR Photos
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WELL, only yesterday I was defending the Kate Winslet-Sam Mendes marriage breakup as having no "ulterior reason" – that is, no scandal, and no "other woman."
Now, according to the tabloids, it seems Sam was seeing somebody else, namely, actress Rebecca Hall of "Vicki Cristina Barcelona." So, this makes it look like the rabid British press was right after all.
But I don’t think so. Kate and Sam were just finished with one another. No scandal!
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WONDERING WHERE Angelina Jolie is right now? Well, she is on location in Venice, photographed in designer gowns being helped in and out of swaying gondolas for a movie to be called "The Tourist."
Unlike Miss Kate Hepburn, who fell backward into a polluted canal back when she did David Lean’s "Summertime" in 1955, Ms. Jolie has not tumbled into the water yet in the place where the funnyman Robert Benchley once telegraphed friends, "Streets Full of Water. Please Advise."
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NEW YORKER Anthony Haden-Guest, a fellow famous as the Tom Wolfe character Peter Fallow in The Bonfire of the Vanities (and also a champion in the "big guy" sweepstakes with women) has had a terrible blow.
After he moved back to London, his 30-year collection of valuables, papers, books, art, furniture and clothes has been lost to him because he didn’t pay his storage bill on time. Tony thinks his losses amount to about $1,000,000.
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Our invitations for the Literacy Partners gala happening at Lincoln Center on May 10 have already been printed with the prestigious names of authors David Finkel, Sara Gruen and Mary Karr – but we are happy to announce that the widow of the great Norman Mailer will also join us for the readings.
I reviewed Norris Church Mailer’s new memoir here the other day and A Ticket to the Circus is set for critical raves around April 8 or so. Delighted to have you on board representing Random House, Norris!
I say don’t miss this wonderful book. It’s full of gossip, inside stuff and sex, sex, sex. But more important it was written by one of the loveliest human beings in the universe.
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Writers continue to be some of our favorite people! I want to introduce now a nice Jewish girl from NYC who became the Queen of Texas Hold’em! Ellen Leikind has a terrific new tome titled PokerWoman: How to Win in Love, Life and Business Using the Principles of Poker. This work posits that poker isn’t just a game, it’s a metaphor for life. Women should take their place at the table.
During her "poker year," Ellen had a lightbulb moment. "I began to notice that poker has become the new golf in terms of offsite networking. Women are routinely shut out of the game, but they shouldn’t be." Nowadays, Ellen teaches poker at the 92 Street Y and her classes are routinely sold out in Manhattan.
Ellen says, "Perfect your poker face, with or without Botox. Learn to read ‘tells,’ the body language that reveals true unspoken thoughts and feelings.
"Play to win instead of playing not to lose.
"Learn not to be distracted with trash talk.
"Stop apologizing; you look like a loser."
Sounds to me like a real recipe for life in general!
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Luv You Liz, have a quick question,
I admit, when I am in pain, and get up in the middle of the night to read a new post from WOW while waiting for my meds to kick in, I am not always at my best. However, I usually get it, and may be awake enough to contribute a line or two…
But this has bypassed my brain of comprehension…
One of the major reasons I don’t buy tabloid trash is that 90% of everything printed is either a bold face lie passed on to them or they make assumptions without research. And if your a friends with a celebrity and you need broke the easiest way to get a few bucks is to SELL information to the tabloids, and from what I’ve read and heard they get paid really good, but it also depend on the person who’s secrets their selling. I’m really sure that no alien birth occurred on our planet.
Celebrities deserve their privacy, if they have something they want the general population to know they’ll either do it on a TV show (View, Entertainment Tonight) or a reputable news paper.
If it were for reports and their hunt for gossip or fishing for dirt on someone, people like Princess Diana for one wouldn’t be dead. Celebrities have to sneak out just to go to a mall, movie a local Red Lobster.
The media needs to back off and allow these people who make movies, write books, produce or act in a play alone. How many more have to either die in a get away from them or they become recluses to avoid having their lives all over the place.
When was the last time you heard anything about Jodie Foster, Brooke Shields, they know how to live a normal life and continue to work. Both ladies are talent and so talented they are able to keep 90% business out of the public reach.
I say leave them alone to live their lives and allow them the peace we all seek and they will share any news they feel is appropriate for the public.
I am in total agreement with you, Deniseann! I’m visiting my sister in L.A. next week and since I’ve never been, we were going to book one of those tours that takes you around the famous landmarks. I went to the website of the company that does the tours and I could not believe that they actually have a tour that takes you to all the stars’ homes. Their HOMES!! I love movies and I would love to see a celebrity, but that just struck me as very creepy.
Carrie, Sad to say, but you and I are in the minority, most people go a little nuts when they see an Actor, Singer, even Author’s and they bounce on them for an autograph or try and rip off their clothes. These folks in my book don’t have a life and need help.
I’d love to meet Sandra Bullock, Whoopi, Robin Williams and John Travolta in a heart beat, but if I saw them I wouldn’t have the courage to go over and ask for an autograph. I’ve met a few "Stars" during my Navy career and as the wife of a Marine. Don’t laugh, but I’ll never forget meeting David Cassidy when I was 17, I was at his concert and I fainted, I had a front row seat and the place was so hot you could hardly breath. He came off the stage with a cool cloth and made sure I was okay. That was the high light of my teen years. In fact I didn’t go to prom so I could go see David. I know that sounds nuts but I was 17.
I’m moving just outside Nashville and my sister told me how the various singers (of all ages) come up to you and ask how your enjoying the day, and ask how the food was, I can’t wait, I love country music.
There’s no way I could ever approach a movie star or singer, no way. My tongue would swell and I wouldn’t be able to talk, lol. But it would be nice just to see them out and about like everyone else.
Sandy, two of my favorite singers of my youth and still today are Neil Diamond and David Cassidy, I grewn up listening to them, but I like so many others as well. I dream of meeting Reba, or Keith Urban. I haven’t come across any type of music so far I couldn’t find an artist I didn’t like, Neil and David both made one movie each that was distributed to the pubilic, Neil’s was the Jazz Singer and David’s was 1776, and I saw them both when they orginally came out, but I wanted to watch them again, so I called around and searched the net, and found them. I watch them at least twice a yr now, their fun, silly at times, I’m still a fan of both. Where I’m moving I’ll see a lot of artist of both music and movies, my sister said no matter where she goes even to wally world she see’s country singers all the time. Guess you can’t get over your first crush even if it’s a singer or movie star.
Recently I read an essay by Francine Prose on Mary Karr. Her new book Lit: A Memoir is discussed along with the rest of Karr’s books which all deal with her horrendous childhood and subsequent problems. She can make horrific events seem grotesquely funny without minimizing the pain and fear they caused. Here’s a bit from her latest book:
When you’ve been hurt enough as a kid (maybe at any age), it’s like you have a trick knee. Most of your life you can function like an adult, but add in the right portions of sleeplessness and stress and grief, and the hurt, defeated self can bloom into place…Maybe all any of us wants is to feel singled out for some long, sweet, quenching draft of love, some open-throated guzzling of it––like what a baby gets at the breast….
Dear Phyllis,
You always have such an eloquent and timely remark, or quote for us. I love this quote and live this… we survive the horrors of the hurts, the betrayals, and abuses as a child, and then, if we want a life with fewer "trick knees" we get into therapy, and try our best to not only survive, but thrive. But there will always be the trick knees, the scarred hearts and souls, and often, physical damage to live with even with the best of help.
Humour, can be such a balm…and healing…and the respect of not minimizing the pain and fear… such a gift as this is to be cherished.
I will have to look up this work. As you often do, you have moved me and inspired me today. Oh darn, Now I have to go get a tissue… ! You cannot know how timely this is either, but it really, really helps me right now.
Thank you,
Catriona
Actually, the rumor is that Sam Mendes is fooling around with Rebecca Hall, the 27-year old daughter of Leslie Caron. And he’s nearly 20 years older than her! Guess poor Kate was just "too old" for Sam!
And regarding Peter Graves……I met him once and had dinner at his house with a bunch of other people. Yes, he was married for 60 years——but he was a bit "overly friendly" and "touchy-feely" with me. I turned him down. He was married and too old for me!