wowOwow - The Women on the Web

03/18/2010 5:00 am

Culture

Liz Smith: Kate Winslet Divorce Scandal! (The Scandal Is – There Is None!)

Also from Our Liz, Sean Hayes, at long last, 'out.' But – who cares now?

"A WOMAN is like a teabag, you cannot tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water!" One of my all-time favorite quotes from one of my all-time favorite First Ladies, Nancy Reagan.

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THE BRITISH press has gone overboard and crazed in the matter of the divorce upcoming between their English-born Oscar winner Kate Winslet and her distinguished husband, director Sam Mendes. They can’t find even a hint of scandal to accompany the artfully managed (by Miss Winslet) split.

This is partly because Kate has always been a very independent-minded woman. She lived through and survived five Oscar nominations where she lost to others over and over again. (The sixth time she won for "The Reader." In the same year, 2009, she was highly touted for "Revolutionary Road," directed by her estranged husband.) And she had already lived, before that, through the excesses and superblast of James Cameron’s big hit "Titanic." She also survived the death of her young love Stephen Tredre, and a failed marriage to director Jim Threapleton.

The point is this girl is very savvy press-wise. She is up to her own ambitious greatness from an undistinguished but very professional theatrical family and she knows the ropes and when to keep her mouth shut. She is one of the most self-possessed women I have ever interviewed and she escaped from that little chat with me to plow her stroller down the streets of Greenwich Village to get her baby boy, just like any other determined, busy young mother. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had diaper pins on the front of her low-key little blouse like Debbie Reynolds back in the day of the Liz ‘n’ Eddie split!

But here’s something interesting that is being printed regarding Kate and Sam. He is quoted after directing her: "It was very exhilarating to finally work with my wife and I saw a side of her I just didn’t know … (I was) interested in depicting the pivotal point in a marriage when you have to throw in your towel and say, ‘This is actually my life.’ What happens when you think you’ve done it wrong?"

In her Oscar acceptance speech, Kate said conversely, "I am so lucky to have a wonderful husband and two beautiful children who let me do what I love and who love me just the way I am."

I was a bit amused at so many of the headlines that say of the Winslet-Mendes split that it is "a Hollywood story." These two creatures are British to the bone and, by adoption, they are downtown New Yorkers. Hollywood is a way station for them. I have to stand with the friend who was quoted that their split is "sad but true. There was no other party involved. There really is no story!"

Those ink-stained wretches in Great Britain will keep pushing, however, hoping to find one.

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ASK A question, get a pageant. That’s what happened when I passed on the new issue of The Advocate to my longtime assistant, Denis Ferrara. The cover promotes a chat with "Will & Grace" actor Sean Hayes. The magazine touts it as "The Interview You’ve Waited Ten Years For." (Mr. Hayes, who opens soon on Broadway with Kristin Chenoweth in "Promises, Promises" finally "comes out." Though he says, rather irritably, that he was "never in.")



Denis read the interview, harrumphed, and then said, "Sean Hayes says he has contributed ‘monumentally’ to the gay movement." He paused. "Perhaps in some alternate universe, where Stepin Fetchit was a big help to African Americans."

I asked Denis what he meant. (I only ask Denis what he means when I’m not booked for the next three hours.)