Julia Roberts: Turning to J-Lo's
Ex-Guru?
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| AP |
| Julia Roberts. |
I was hoping to tell you that Julia Roberts
is getting a divorce. Or is pregnant. Or both. Alas, neither is true. Simply,
Roberts is happy. Rats! She's happily married, and she's in a good mood. She
isn't pregnant. (Marcia Gay Harden is, and she's happy
too.)
Julia, with an Oscar under her belt and the box office at
her beck and call, is on top of the world. At the premiere of "Mona Lisa
Smile" last night, Roberts who really looked stunning made a big effort to
greet her fans, mingle with the hoi polloi (the little people), and spend some
time with the large cast of this sure-fire hit.
"Mona Lisa Smile" is not going bring in the "Master and
Commander" crowd. It's a chick-flick, a date movie, and one that will pack
theatres. That's the way it goes.
When finally I got my time with her, I asked Julia who
had a queue of well-wishers cooling their heels to tell me one secret about
someone in Hollywood.
"Everyone's gay," she said. She laughed. She was kidding.
Standing with her: Benny Medina, the man who made "J-Lo" a
household word, wearing a cashmere sweater and a smile.
"Are you managing Julia now?" I asked.
She laughed. In fact, knowing Roberts, she's likely
managing him.
The cast of "Mona Lisa Smile" was all in attendance at the
very swell, very packed party at the Plaza Hotel. Julia
Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dominic
West, Ginnifer Goodwin, and the great Marian
Seldes were all busy complimenting and hugging each other. Harden, a
shoo-in nominee for Best Supporting Actress from "Mystic River," greeted
Tim Robbins, a shoo-in nominee for Best Supporting Actor from
the same movie. Jeff Bridges moved around the most calmly, as
befits a big star with nothing to prove.
I also ran into Patrick Dempsey, who's
defied the odds of a teen star. He has matured, and is now ready, at 37, for
leading man status. And Joan Lunden (who has six-month-old
twins at home), "Station Agent" director Thomas McCarthy,
freshly minted Columbia Pictures co-president Michael Lynton,
Time Inc., editorial director John Huey, TV anchor
Dan Abrams and his cousin, Virgin Records honcho Josh
Deutsch, were just a few of the familiar faces in the crowd.
Julia's long time former agent, Elaine
Goldsmith-Thomas, who is now her producing partner, was there of
course with her lawyer husband, Dan Thomas. It was their
eighth anniversary; they were married at the Plaza. Talk about dedication.
Who was missing? "Clive Owen said he'd be
here," a disappointed Roberts said of the co-star of her next film,
"Closer."
In the game of who's more powerful in Hollywood, you'd
think Roberts would have been stationary, accepting visits from her supporting
cast. But it was Julia who suddenly crossed the great divide of the Plaza's
Palm Court and came to say hello to all the other ladies. She nearly devoured
Seldes. Then Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Stiles and Goodwin went
into a huddle where they gossiped in a whisper for a full five minutes.
Finally, I asked the girls if Julia was a good teacher.
"We're gossiping!" Julia said. In the movie, she plays the
girls' teacher, even though no one in history ever had a teacher that looked
like Roberts.
"She was a good sister," said the more diplomatic Stiles,
who then introduced Roberts to her father.
"She was the lynchpin in the group," Roberts said to
Stiles' dad as if giving a parent-teacher report. "We just loved her. She's
incredibly talented."
Now where, you might ask, is Roberts' husband,
Danny Moder, and where are they spending Christmas? It turns
out that Moder who was a camera man when Roberts met him but was director of
photography, second unit, for "Mona Lisa" is away working on another
Revolution/Columbia film, "The Forgotten." But he and Roberts will spend the
holidays, Julia says, together with her family. How
completely...uh...normal.
