Dear Gossips,

If you think the Best Actor Oscar race between Michael Keaton and Eddie Redmayne is too close to call, will this change your mind? Michael Keaton is a Rabbit.

During the Year of the Goat/Sheep, only 3 signs out of the 12 signs are on a luck run. The Rabbit is one of them. No…      

Back in December, when we were going full on Celebatchy, a UK paper claimed that Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter had been house-hunting in LA, and they were looking to buy a rather grand eight-bedroom mansion (presumably for all of their amazing Cumberbabies). It sounded like BS, especially since Bendy is scheduled on back-to-back projects, all of which require him to be in England (probably). It’s not that I couldn’t see Benedict moving to LA, or having a home in LA, at some point in the future. It’s just that this one report seemed pretty weird. Well, at the BAFTAs, Bendy totally rejected the rumor that he’s moving to LA any time soon, telling The Independent:

“My friends are here, my family are here, Sophie is here; it doesn’t make sense to uproot my whole life… I can travel for work, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else full-time.”

[From Hollywood.com]

I think Sophie would probably move with Bendy if that’s what he really wanted, but it’s clear that he doesn’t want that, so… yeah. They’re staying in England. That’s their homebase. And it will probably keep him (relatively) sane too.

Oh, and Vanity Fair has been releasing videos of all of the stars in their The Hollywood Issue. VF keeps loading them onto YouTube, so you can see all of the videos here. Here’s one where Cumby says his first celebrity crush was Carrie Fisher/Princess Leia.

Photos courtesy of Joe Alvarez, WENN.

Here’s a photo of 2nd generation Scientologist Danny Masterson speaking at Youth for Human Rights International benefit last year. YHRI is one of many organizations used as a front for Scientology to suck in vulnerable new recruits. The whole org is staffed and financed by CO$ members. Shady.

Danny has a new interview in Paper magazine. He’s promoting nothing — his show, Men at Work was cancelled after three seasons — except Scientology. Really! The CO$ is couch-jumping mad about the Going Clear documentary premiere at Sundance. They’re trotting out their lesser known celebs for lip service, and it’s so much fun. I love it when Scientologists (like Juliette Lewis and Kirstie Alley) try to convert the masses and only reveal their cult mindset.

Danny comes out with E-meters blazing. He calls the CO$ “college of the mind.” Whereas Going Clear is “retarded” even though he hasn’t watched the movie. He trashes psychiatry and spouts the usual lies about how someone can follow their own religion and still be CO$. The full interview is awe inspiring. These are my favorite parts:

On Going Clear: “I heard about that documentary where they interviewed eight people who hate Scientology. Should be pretty interesting. I wonder if Sundance would allow a documentary of, like, eight people who hate Judaism. But you know, my religion’s fair game, I guess, ’cause it’s new. How true it is, I guess that’s up to the reader. If you’re going to write something and you don’t ask the people who actually do it, then what’s the f***ing point? We could all interview the KKK about what’s cool about being white, but we don’t. I don’t know; it just seems retarded to me.”

Who was L. Ron Hubbard? “He’s a f***ing guy who wrote awesome sh*t that I love studying. That’s who he is. He was a very famous author. He basically spent his entire life studying every great religion, found everything that worked, found things that didn’t work, took the stuff that worked, started like questioning it and grilling it and drilling it, going over and over until he could find the things that worked every time, guaranteed. And he was like, ‘Holy sh*t, here’s a new discovery I’ve just made. What does everybody think about it?’”

On meds: “You will not find a Scientologist who does not f***ing hate psychiatrists. Because their solution for mental and spiritual problems is drugs. So let’s talk about putting a Band-Aid on something that’s just going to get worse and worse and worse. But it’s like, if you study that man is an animal and nothing more than that, and you basically have this f***in’ manual that has, what, 5,000 disorders in it, that you just bill your insurance company — ‘Oh, you have PMS disorder, you have caffeine-addict disorder, you have mathematics disorder; here, take Prozac’ — what the f*** is that? Scientology handles those things, those mental problems that people have. It gets rid of them. It gets rid of them by that person doing it for themselves. That’s the solution to depression, not f***in’ Prozac and whatever other pill that makes the kid then walk into a goddamn school and kill other kids.”

The bottom line: “I work, I have a family and I’m a spiritual being who likes to understand why things happen in the world and want to learn more so that I can have them not affect me adversely. So if that’s weird, then, well, you can go f*** yourself.

[From Paper Mag]

Such language! Danny’s also angry at Paul Haggis, who famously wrote a scathing resignation letter after disagreeing with the cult’s opposition to gay marriage. Danny calls Paul’s exit “stupid” and rambles on forever. This guy is a pill, and his wife, Bijou Phillips, is the same way. She’s given interviews about how depressed people should “get over it.“ To borrow Danny’s favorite word, “f*** Scientology.”

Photos courtesy of WENN

Here are some photos from last night’s Berlin Film Festival premiere of Fifty Shades of Grey. I was going to bitch about the studio using the Berlinale as a premiere launch for this terrible movie, but I’m pretty sure that the Berlin Film Festival organizers don’t mind that much. Sure, they’re screen your terrible film. Who cares? Fashion notes: Dakota Johnson is wearing a relatively simple (and buttony) Dior gown which I shockingly do not hate. Sam Taylor Johnson is wearing Stella McCartney and I don’t hate that either. What is the world coming to?! I’ll even admit that Dakota and Jamie Dornan look very nice and matchy standing next to each other. E.L. James even looks nice too.

Dakota and Jamie also did a photoshoot with W Magazine, but I’m not going to publish those photos because they’re pretty p0rny. You can see the NSFW pics here. Dakota’s facial expressions totally ruin it, although Jamie isn’t helping a sister out. He looks bored to tears in every single photo. Dakota just looks… blank. Like a doll with terrible bangs.

Meanwhile, E.L. James has a new interview with the New York Times and some of the quotes are absolutely priceless. You can read the full piece here, and here are some highlights:

Why she fought so hard for her vision of the story: “I was thinking about the readers…I understand what it’s like to be in fandom. I had to fight for a lot of things really hard. And I did.”

The hardest part about adapting her book for a film: “My biggest concern was making sure that the sex was really classy and tasteful. It’s very coyly written in the books. Women don’t like salacious slang. So that was really important to me, to keep it tasteful.”

Fighting for particular details to be included: “Well, the Red Room (of Pain), for example, wasn’t red at first. But it’s things like this, within any creative process, when you’re the auteur of a whole universe, and then, you’re spreading it out … it’s not always going to be aligned with how you saw it. But beneath it all, I was just hoping that we’d have something that the fans would be happy with.”

There’s more to the story than sex: “Absolutely! But you guys, the media, are all about the sex. The fact is, it’s a love story, and women respond to the love story. The fact that there’s a little bit of kinky sex in there is sort of like an added bonus. It’s just become sensationalized, because it’s like … Oh my God, women like sex. Yes we do, thank you very much!”

The book is successful everywhere… “Except in Japan. It’s doing OK in Japan, but women don’t talk to each other there. They’re so private about what goes on in the bedroom. That was interesting.”

[From The NY Times]

The audacity of this woman to refer to herself as “the auteur of a whole universe.” Good God, woman. This is just poorly written Twihard fan-fiction. And this whole section: “…making sure that the sex was really classy and tasteful. It’s very coyly written in the books. Women don’t like salacious slang.” ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Here are some photos of Angelina Jolie arriving at LAX with her youngest children, Vivienne and Knox Jolie-Pitt. Angelina apparently brought Knox and Viv to London with her for a few days, while she participated in interfaith discussions about sexual violence against women in conflict, and announced the creation of the Centre on Women, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics.

It’s always interesting to see how the kids get split up with their parents for various events, outings or trips. With six kids, there are lots of different combos. I feel like we mostly see Shiloh hanging with Zahara, or Shiloh hero-worshipping her older brothers. I think Viv and Zahara might be close, because I suspect Viv and Z are both girly-girls. Or does Viv just hang with Knox most of the time? Do they have that special twin bond? I’ll say this – Knox always reminds me so strongly of Brad. Knox is just miniature Brad, only Knox is more gingery.

Meanwhile, Angelina’s dad Jon Voight told Vulture that Angelina should have gotten nominated for an Oscar for directing Unbroken:

This was supposed to be Angelina Jolie’s breakthrough year as a director. But while her biographical World War II epic Unbroken recently drew Oscar notices in three categories — including Best Cinematography — she’s glaringly absent among the list of Best Director nominees. Among those irked by the snub is her dad, Jon Voight, who stood up for her at Clive Davis’s annual pre-Grammys gala in Beverly Hills on Saturday night.

“I wish she had [been nominated], because I think she deserved it,” he told reporters. “I think her direction is astounding, really astounding, and if she wasn’t my daughter, I’d still say, ‘I want to work for that one.’ She’s a great actor’s director — the pace of the film, the size of the film. Unbelievably difficult stuff that she accomplished.”

[From Vulture]

As I’ve seen more of the nominated films this year, I’m not mad that Angelina didn’t get nominated for Best Director. I do think the nomination for The Imitation Game’s Morten Tyldum was sort of a throw-away though – TIG was adequately directed, the same as Unbroken, so why did Tyldum get nominated and Jolie didn’t? Is it because TIG is British-y and fancy and Harvey Weinstein wields a crazy amount of power? So, if we took out Tyldum, who should go in that place? Selma’s director, Ava DuVernay.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

These are photos of Ben Affleck, 42, taking his daughters Violet and Seraphina out to karate class and shopping for Valentine’s presents. Violet is holding a fuzzy red pillow which The Daily Mail claims is for her mother, Jennifer Garner. Cute! I also like how the girls are in karate. My son used to take karate and it teaches kids discipline, self esteem and of course self defense.

Affleck looks super buff and you know that he’s trying to show it off in that tight shirt. He’s also much more clean cut than we’re used to seeing him. His hair is short and he’s not sporting any of the facial scruff that he usually has. I like this look on him, he looks much younger when he’s clean-shaven like this.

He is of course in shape for his role as Batman in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, out in 2016. Affleck won’t be able to slack on his fitness or diet routine anytime soon. There are two sequels coming out in which he’ll reprise his role, The Justice League Part 1 in 2017 and Justice League Part 2 in 2019. I wonder if he ever thinks of all the years he’ll tied up in this franchise and questions whether he’s up to the challenge. I bet that Damon’s re-commitment to Bourne helped convince Affleck that he could also do an action franchise. Those two are close and live right down the street from each other. Damon used to say, years ago, that he was getting too old for Bourne, but he’s got a new film coming out in 2016 too.

Affleck was just announced as one of the presenters at the Oscars on February 22. I hope that his wife, Jennifer Garner, comes too and I hope they pose together on the red carpet, but that’s probably a pipe dream.

photo credit: FameFlynet

Here are some photos of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian out and about on Tuesday and Wednesday in NYC. Kanye is in town because he’s launching something or another. Anyway, we’re still talking Kanye’s temper tantrum at the Grammys, or more specifically, in his post-Grammy interview with E!. A lot of people thought Kanye was just joking when he rushed the Grammy stage as Beck was trying to collect his trophy for Album of the Year, but in the E! interview, Kanye name-checked Beck directly, saying that Beck needed to give his trophy to Beyonce and basically saying the Grammy producers need to show more respect to “real artists” like himself, Beyonce, Jay-Z. Rather than respecting Beck. Well, Kanye went on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show yesterday to explain/apologize. Some highlights:

Why he stage-rushed Beck: “You know, I felt like just the whole Grammys, right when that happened, everybody was looking at me, and then people started screaming, ‘Kanye! Kanye! Go do it!’ Okay, that didn’t really happen, these were voices in my head. So the voices in my head told me to go up, and then I just walked up, like, halfway up the stage.”

He didn’t intend to disrespect Beck: “You know, what I really wanted to do is just joke around with what had happened before [with Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs], but I just really didn’t want to take away from Beck’s moment or the time he’s having to talk, because, you know, the Grammys, they play music really quick no matter who you are and everything. So I didn’t want anything to take away from his screen time. So I just walked back down because, you know, it was kind of a joke, like the Grammys themselves.”

Kanye likes Beck: “Well, first of all, Beck is one of the nicest guys and one of the most respected musicians in the game. So there’s nothing that I would want to do as a fellow musician to disrespect him in any way.”

He likes a jolt of truth: “The weird thing is — and I don’t feel like I have the right to take away from people’s moments, but the reality of it is — it’s almost like a chiropractor. You know, you just get a little crook out, like, ‘Wow, this crook has been there!’ It’s just a little jolt of truth, right? And then, you know, everyone feels better after the fact, or everyone sells way more albums after the fact, and then Kanye just goes on being an a–hole to everyone.”

His comments about Beck on E!: “Well, you know what happened? It’s because I sat there and I kind of let that [smolder] and I was asked my opinion and I was given a platform. And when given a platform, it’s very hard, as we know — and I’m going to talk in third person like I’m a crazy person — but it’s very hard for Kanye West to not be very true and vocal to what he feels… [But] I think it came off the wrong way, and that was a mis-wording on my part, because obviously Beck is one of the most respected artists and respects artistry. But I felt — and this is my opinion and he’s his own man and he’s not wrong and we’ll still go play basketball and stuff [unless] he doesn’t want to do it — that even though the Grammys sometimes give awards to people who you wouldn’t think should win in the category, as a respect to artists, we mention the other artist’s name in our speech…”

[From E! News]

Wait, is Kanye saying he plays basketball with Beck?! Just my opinion, which I feel like I’ve written a million times this week: I didn’t think it was bad or disrespectful that Kanye stage-rushed Beck. Beck was into it, it was funny and self-referential, and even Prince laughed. What bothered a lot of people (including Shirley Manson!) were Kanye’s comments on E!, where he really did disrespect Beck’s music and Beck as an artist. And that’s why Yeezus should apologize to Beck directly. As for the voices in Kanye’s head… I’m pretty sure he’s joking. Right? Right.

Oh, and Kanye also talked about Taylor Swift in this interview. He claims Tay-Tay told him that he should have stayed on stage with Beck and that Taylor saying that to him was “the irony of my life!” He also claims Swifty “wants to get in the studio, and we’re definitely going to go in.” He stated, with regards to Swifty: “I don’t discriminate. I don’t have an elitism of music because of how many Grammys or, you know, the amount of ratings you get on an album.”

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

Why are there so many conspiracies surrounding Prince William and Duchess Kate’s flight back to England after their luxury vacation in Mustique? Some say Will and Kate flew out of Mustique last Friday, some say they didn’t fly back until Sunday or Monday of this week. It wouldn’t be so tricky if William wasn’t the president of BAFTA, and it wouldn’t be so notable if William hadn’t skipped out on ALL of the BAFTA celebrations last weekend. There was even a pre-BAFTA celebration last Saturday night at Kensington Palace and there was no royal host. William didn’t attend the BAFTAs either. My theory was that William just extended his vacation through a third weekend, but the Daily Mail’s gossip guy claims William just had a “prior commitment.” WHAT?

Given that he is President of Bafta, his home Kensington Palace was used for an official party on Saturday and his Eton College classmate Eddie Redmayne was named Best Actor, Prince William might have been expected to put in an appearance at the prestigious film awards. The Duke of Cambridge’s absence from Sunday’s ceremony was, however, the talk of the Baftas.

‘A lot of people were surprised he didn’t turn up to anything or even put his head round the door at the palace on Saturday,’ says one source. ‘Part of the attraction for the Hollywood stars was the chance to meet William and Kate.’

Instead, William recorded a tribute to his predecessor as president Lord Attenborough, who died last year, with the video played to guests at the ceremony. The 32-year-old Prince attended last year’s jamboree when he presented the Bafta Fellowship Award to Dame Helen Mirren, who played his grandmother in The Queen. Like a preening actor, he posed for ‘selfies’ with admiring fans and high-fived rapper Tinie Tempah.

William returned from a luxurious two-week break in the Caribbean four days before the Baftas. He and Prince George were staying with the Duchess of Cambridge’s parents, Mike and Carole Middleton, in Mustique and he is known to be loath to disrupt his holidays with his in-laws, to whom he is very close. When William finished his six-week tour of duty as an RAF helicopter pilot in the Falklands in 2012, for example, he chose to fly to the Alps immediately for a skiing holiday with the Middletons. He did not return for the memorial service marking the 10th anniversary of the deaths of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, which was attended by most royals.

The Prince has not carried out a single engagement this year. He is currently three-quarters of the way through the 14 exams he must take to gain his Air Transport Pilot’s Licence, which he needs before he can take up his job as an Air Ambulance pilot in Norfolk.

A Kensington Palace spokesman tells me: ‘Sadly, the Duke was not able to attend this year due to prior commitments.’

If anyone knows what those ‘commitments’ were, please do get in touch.

[From The Daily Mail]

Wow, so much shade within just one gossip piece, right? How is it that William could have returned “four days before the BAFTAs” and we didn’t learn about their return until Monday? How is that there was a star-studded Kensington Palace reception on Saturday and William never even popped by? It would have literally taken him a minute to walk to the reception. And the official line from KP is that he had “prior commitments”???? What, he just had to see Jecca Craig?

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

Somehow I missed the memo on the scarfy aspects of Cuba Gooding Jr.’s fashion taste. Johnny Depp would feel right at home in this outfit, and it sounds like they share a love of alcohol too. Back in 2012, CB covered a story about how Cuba shoved and punched a female bartender at a New Orleans bar. This incident followed news of Cuba’s drunken NYC bender and a child-tossing incident on GMA.

Since then, Cuba’s 20-year marriage has collapsed. Page Six has a new tale about Cuba’s bizarre night on the town in Manhattan. The Oscar-winning actor (ha) showed off his abs to some models. Then he laid hands on a hotel employee for “bad service”:

The Jerry Maguire star was with pals, spies said, including director Paul Haggis at the Soho hotel late on Monday night when he invited another table, that included Danish model Ammalie Overbeck and Dutch beauty Bo ‘t Jong, to join him. Once they joined him, Gooding was “pulling up his shirt to show the women his abs.” But when he wanted to order more drinks around midnight, a witness said he became inexplicably frustrated with a hardworking waiter, hopped over a banquette and got in his face.

“He grabbed a waiter by both shoulders and gave him a verbal shellacking,” said a source, adding the waiter was found by two other members of Gooding’s group “sobbing” in the rest room. “The server was saying, ‘I wanted to be an actor — but maybe I’m too sensitive for this!” a spy related. Gooding’s pals explained that the Selma star’s going through a divorce. (His ex Sara Kapfer filed for divorce after 20 years of marriage in April.)

Back at Gooding’s table, spies said he then announced he wanted to engage in a sex act we can’t print in a family newspaper. The young models “seemed quite shocked” and turned off, so Gooding turned his attention to another woman.

[From Page Six]

Cuba’s rep has already denied this story, but Page Six has spoken of his exploits on other occasions. In December, Cuba was “like a freshman at a college party” and telling women his name was “D*ck McWilly.” This guy is a total mess. I don’t know why filmmakers are still hiring him. He had a role in Selma, and he’s playing O.J. Simpson in the upcoming TV series American Crime Story. (Not that playing O.J. is something to be proud of.)

This poor waiter. Cuba was out of line in grabbing the guy. He was probably drunk, which is no excuse. Oh, and LMAO at the idea of Page Six as “a family newspaper.” Whatever Cuba said must have been really raunchy if they couldn’t print it.

Photos courtesy of WENN

Here are some photos of Charlize Theron and Sean Penn out and about with Jackson last weekend. They were looking especially loved up, and just like a happy family. Sean does seem especially happy these days, like Charlize has given him a new lease on life. They’ve been back in LA for several months now, after spending a good chunk of 2014 in Africa filming a movie together. The tabloids kept claiming that Charlize and Sean argued and fought a lot while they were overseas, but those reports seemed false once they came back to California, looking stronger than ever. But now Radar/The Enquirer suggests that Sean was getting “romantic” with Charlize’s stunt double. Epic.

Sean Penn seems smitten with his stunning fiancée Charlize Theron, but a bombshell new report in The National ENQUIRER reveals that the veteran actor recently spent several “romantic” nights with a knockout beauty on the set of their new movie. Theron and Penn teamed up for the film The Last Face, but on-set spies tell The ENQUIRER that Penn spent a few evenings reading poetry to a stunning blonde — who was not Theron. Now that woman, Theron’s stunt double Fleur van Eeden, has opened up to The National ENQUIRER about their “romantic” nights together.

“I find Sean very sexy still, even though he’s older,” the 30-year-old told the magazine.

Theron, 39, stars in the movie, which Penn directed. But the actress was miles away when Penn, 54, invited van Eeden to listen to him recite his poetry around a bonfire at a remote campsite.

“Charlize didn’t come. I was alone with Sean and a few crew [members]. It was awesome,” van Eeden divulged. “They put up a tented camp for the crew, and offered Sean the guesthouse. But he refused and insisted on sleeping with us.”

“One night we all stood ’round a bonfire, and suddenly Sean said, ‘I want to read you my poems, my private collection. Would you mind?’ It was phenomenal – awesome – under the big starry sky. He’s a great poet, a very deep, romantic guy.”

“For five nights, he read us five poems at a time. I was entranced,” she said. “He’d written them over the years, and they were very deep – about his life and losses. He’s so romantic, and sad as well.”

[From Radar]

….AND? Is that it? Sean went camping with Charlize’s stunt double and a few crew members and Sean took Fleur aside to read her poetry? I mean, were they having sex while he recited the poetry? Granted, it doesn’t look (or sound) good and Sean’s sexual history definitely suggests that there’s something going on, with this woman or someone else. But it sounds like he really was just reading poetry to this lady. OMG SCANDAL.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.