Antonio Banderas is 54 years old now, which is hard for me to believe. It seems like only yesterday that he was hitting the sheets with Angelina Jolie in Original Sin. I don’t mean to discount his many other mythical roles, and he’s a talented voice actor too. He made a fantastic Puss in Boots, and he’s reverting back to kiddie fare for a bit. Antonio’s promoting his role as the only live-action character in The SpongeBob Movie. He played his pirate role part across from brooms and tennis balls, and then the special effects guys added his co-stars after the fact.

Antonio sat down for an interview. He reveals himself to be a closet SpongeBob fan, which is cute. Dakota Johnson comes up in conversation, and then Anthony talks about aging in Hollywood. He admits things are much harder for women than men, who can go the silver fox route. All of this dovetails nicely with Kristen Scott Thomas’ recent discussion on aging and takes the opposite view of clueless Russell Crowe.

Why he did this movie “My daughter [Stella, Banderas and Griffith’s 18-year-old] and I love SpongeBob, and I’d be a fool to turn down the chance to share the screen with such an iconic presence.”

On stepdaughter Dakota Johnson: “We all knew in the family that she’s a great actress, and surprisingly not only a good dramatic actress, she’s very good with comedy,” notes Banderas, who says he hasn’t watched Fifty Shades yet. “We’re very confident that she is driving her career properly.”

On aging gracefully: “If you take life in a natural way and you accept the passage of time, which is impossible to stop – never pretend to fight the impossible and the certainties that come with existence. I try to be as natural as possible. I understand though, especially [for] women, the tremendous pressure that they receive in a place like Hollywood, where thousands of new girls arrive every year all fresh and new, and when you’re getting to a certain age, they can feel the push of these things … It’s more cruel unfortunately for women than men. There’s a social convention that allows men to grow older and not be so criticised and pushed about beauty, and for women it’s different. It’s ridiculous, but that’s the way that we created image around ourselves.”

[From Nottingham Post]

This is a solid analysis from an actor who’s witnessed the effects of aging — upon himself and in the Hollywood workplace — firsthand. Antonio’s also paid close attention to what his ex-wife, Melanie Griffith, went through during various stages of her career. They couldn’t make it work as a married couple, but he’s said he’ll always love her. Antonio’s correct about how aging is “more cruel” for women, and this isn’t just a Hollywood issue. It’s a societal construct. Women are expected to stay wrinkle free with lovely hair, but men are allowed to go grey. It sucks.

Here’s something different. Antonio’s preparing to start fashion school. For real! Antonio will attend London’s Central Saint Martins, where Alexander McQueen, Zac Posen and Stella McCartney all learned the ropes. Antonio says that fashion school is “something that has been on my mind for a long time, and I need knowledge to take steps in that territory in the future. It makes me feel actually very young to put the elbows on the table again and try to understand another reality.” He plans to continue acting but wants to eventually launch his own line. To think, a celebrity who wants to learn a new trade instead of simply placing his name upon a line. Antonio’s no Yeezus.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN

Pop superstar Britney Spears covers the latest issue of PEOPLE with her sons Preston, 9, and Jayden, 8, and opens up about her hit Las Vegas show and new beau, producer Charlie Ebersol, 32.

“I’m the happiest I’ve ever been,” Spears, 33, gushes to the mag.

Britney currently stars in Planet Hollywood’s Las Vegas show, which has grossed nearly $50 million in ticket sales in a little more than a year. But her greatest passion is her kids.

“My kids come first in my life, bottom line,” says Britney, who co-parents the boys with her ex-husband, Kevin Federline.

“Homework is a priority,” she says. “We have a reward system that helps motivate them: if they get so many As, they get one toy a month.”

The proud mom went on to gush about both of her boys.

“Preston is very opinionated, very expressive, and if he doesn’t like something, he’s going to tell you,” she shares. “But he has a huge heart, he’s a good kid and he has manners … Jayden is sweet, very soft-spoken, kinda funny. He’s adorable — a momma’s boy.”

The boys have started doing regular chores, including washing off their plates, taking out the trash and helping the family’s three dogs.

“Preston just asked for a high allowance – like $10 a week or $20 a week – but we’ll see!” she says.

As for her new beau, he also helps out with the kids – and the boys really like him.

“They relate to him really well and they have fun together,” says the mom-of-two, who started dating Ebersol about six months ago. “He’s refreshing to be around and really light-hearted.”

Britney has new single, a collaboration with Iggy Azaelea, dropping on May 5.

“[I’m in a] real good place,” she says. “I’m very blessed.”

I don’t even know what to say about this Deadline article that went viral as soon as it was published yesterday evening. The article is called “Pilots 2015: The Year Of Ethnic Castings – About Time Or Too Much Of Good Thing?” But it could really be called “Where aren’t there more white people on television? WAAAHHHH!!!” You can read the offensively bad article here.

First, some background: several main networks and cable networks began revamping their programming, schedules and diversity casting a few years back. Fox and ABC have had tremendous success with their revamped diversity policies and programming, with hit shows like How To Get Away With Murder (with Viola Davis as the lead), Scandal (Kerry Washington) and Empire (Taraji Henson and the almost entirely black cast). Those hit shows have become a “trend” and now every network head has suddenly realized: OMG, non-white audiences consume TV as well. So the 2015 pilot season is littered with “the next Empire” or “the next Scandal” or “the next Fresh Off the Boat,” etc, complete with a wide-range of ethnically diverse actors and actresses in lead and ensemble roles.

So, what’s the problem? It’s been a long time coming, right? Finally, television programming is starting to look as diverse as America. But not to Deadline. Deadline posits that “the pendulum might have swung a bit too far in the opposite direction.” Seriously. Woe is the white actor.

Instead of opening the field for actors of any race to compete for any role in a color-blind manner, there has been a significant number of parts designated as ethnic this year, making them off-limits for Caucasian actors, some agents signal. Many pilot characters this year were listed as open to all ethnicities, but when reps would call to inquire about an actor submission, they frequently have been told that only non-Caucasian actors would be considered. “Basically 50% of the roles in a pilot have to be ethnic, and the mandate goes all the way down to guest parts,” one talent representative said.

In one instance, after a number of actors of different ethnicities tested for two roles in a pilot this year, two Caucasian actors ended up being the top choices for the two remaining regular parts. However, because of a mandate from the studio and network, one of the roles had to diverse, so the pilot could only cast one of the top choices and pass on the other to fulfill the ethnic quota. “They need to say the best man or woman wins,” one rep suggested.

Because of the sudden flood of roles for ethnic actors after years of suppressed opportunities for them, the talent pool of experienced minority performers — especially in the younger range — is pretty limited. That has led to a feeding frenzy, with a number of straight offers locking in ethnic talent before they could be snatched by another pilot.

This is not to say that there weren’t other hot commodities this pilot season; star names were in demand as usual, as were hot young guys and girls and occasional foreigners with that “sparkle.” But the big trend this pilot casting season was the huge spike in the number and prominence of roles that went to minority actors.

[From Deadline]

Part of me thinks it’s sad that people are fighting about this because the white power structure that controls so much of Hollywood film and television still believes that “ethnic programming” is just a trend and they’re just trying to ride the wave. But I’m sure there are people within Hollywood’s overwhelming white power structure who are genuinely upset that in the 2015 pilot season, white actors are only being cast, like, most the time. When it used to be 95% of the time! Anyway, Pajiba had a great summary on the backlash to the “Whitelash” against minority casting decisions – go here to see.

Dear White Actors: At least you still have HBO, Showtime, Netflix, more than half of all cable and standard networks and, oh right, like 98% of the leads in all films. Woe is the white actor, y’all. Won’t anyone think about Bradley Cooper?!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

As I spend more and more time reading UK gossip and news stories, I have to admit that I get so jealous of all of the Brit-slang and colloquialisms. In Britain, people aren’t fired, they’re “sacked.” Jeremy Clarkson wasn’t involved in an incident or assault, he was part of a “fracas.” And that’s where we are now. Following a violent fracas several weeks ago – which we now know was a violent temper tantrum about steak – Clarkson will be sacked from the BBC’s Top Gear. He’s being sacked because of the violent altercation with a producer, not because Clarkson has a history of making racist and neo-colonialist remarks on air.

Jeremy Clarkson’s contract will not be renewed after the Top Gear presenter was involved in a 30-second physical assault on a producer, the BBC’s internal inquiry will report on Wednesday. BBC director general Tony Hall is understood to have come to the conclusion that he has “little alternative” but to end Clarkson’s BBC career, 16 days after he was suspended following a “fracas” with a member of the Top Gear production team.

A BBC investigation led by BBC Scotland boss Ken MacQuarrie is thought to have found that Clarkson engaged Oisin Tymon in a 30-second physical assault after a 20-minute verbal tirade. Hall is a Top Gear fan and has previously stood by the presenter following a string of controversies, including an incident last year when he appeared to mumble the N-word in a Top Gear out-take. The BBC also hugely values the audience that Clarkson and the BBC2 programme – regularly watched by more than 5 million viewers – brings to the BBC.

But a source close to the inquiry said: “There can’t be one rule for talent and one rule for ordinary human beings.”

Following the findings of the MacQuarrie inquiry, and the fact that Clarkson was put on a final warning after the N-word controversy last year, a source said Hall had “little alternative” but to let Clarkson go. Clarkson’s contract with the BBC was due to expire at the end of March.

Clarkson tweeted early on Wednesday: “Just to keep everyone up to date, I haven’t heard a thing.”

[From The Guardian]

The Guardian goes on to say that Richard Hammond and James May’s futures with Top Gear are in question as well, and that their contracts will probably not be renewed. The BBC is likely looking to revamp the show completely. Clarkson’s contract expires at the end of March, so they probably won’t “sack” him formally, they’ll just refuse to lift his suspension for the next week and his contract won’t be renewed. And in case you are a Clarkson super-fan, no worries. I’m sure that some other British, American, Canadian or Australian network will pick him up.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Last year, Benedict Cumberbatch began to hit a full-saturation point when he found a lull in his schedule – some projects got moved around – and he took a bunch of smaller, last-minute gigs. One of those gigs was hosting the Laureus World Sports Awards in Kuala Lumpur. I don’t believe Cumberbatch got wildly positive or negative reviews – he seemed a bit awkward (even making a strangely dirty joke to poor Missy Franklin) but he also seemed to keep things moving. Well, it looks like he was so “successful” (was he though?) that they want him back as host this year too. Really? And he’s going to do it too.

He hosted the 2014 Laureus World Sports Awards and it’s now been revealed that Benedict Cumberbatch will do the honours once again, this time in Shanghai. This year looks set to be even more successful for Cumberbatch, who bagged Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for his portrayal of Alan Turing in The Imitation Game this year. Switching from acting to hosting once again, though, the 38-year-old will present the worlds most prestigious sports awards event for the second straight year, according to reports.

This year’s ceremony is set to take place on April 15.

Cumberbatch said, according to Around The Rings: “I am delighted the selectors have picked me again to be part of the team for such an important event for the second straight year. We all admire the achievements of the greatest sportsmen and women that we meet, so to be able to share the stage for such a signature moment for them is a treat for me.”

The actor continued: “I am a big sports enthusiast and last year was a real pleasure for me. I met Tony Hawk, my childhood hero, and had the chance to swap a few running tips with Sebastian Coe and Daley Thompson. And of course it is all for such a good cause. The work Laureus does around the world, using sport to improve the lives of young people, is an inspiration and I am delighted to be part of this very special event.”

[From Express]

April 15th. Isn’t Sophie due around then? Everyone keeps saying that she’s due sooner rather than later, and I suspect it will be in the next month. So, let me ask you think, moms and mothers-to-be: would you be totally cool with your baby-daddy flying off to Shanghai to host an awards show right around the time you were or are due? If this was happening in London, I would say it’s no big deal. But this little excursion involves… what? A 12-hour flight, at least. 24 hours, round trip. It seems so unnecessary. It also seems like Benedict hates it when he’s not working. He can’t just settle down and have a month off – he has to schedule SOMETHING.

Photos of Benedict at last year’s Laureus World Sports Awards, courtesy of WENN.

On Monday night, George Clooney, Amal Clooney and George’s mom Nina all went out to eat at Patsy’s Italian in NYC. You can see the photos from their outing here – it looks like Amal is wearing bellbottoms? If not, those are some significantly flared pants. Anyway, I didn’t think this outing was tremendously noteworthy until I saw this E! News story about how the food. I LOVE food stories. And then I noticed the kicker at the end, about Amal and whether she cooks. It’s pretty amazing.

George Clooney was surrounded by beautiful women at his favorite Italian restaurant in New York Monday night, but there was something missing…CARBS! A source tells E! News exclusively that while George’s wife Amal Clooney and mom Nina Clooney happily noshed on breads and pasta at Patsy’s Italian Restaurant, the actor himself “said he’s watching his weight” and mostly avoided them altogether.

Fortunately, for the 53-year-old Oscar winner, the restaurant has some delicious menu options that don’t include the starchy stuff! According to a source, George chose to start with a “tre-colore salad” (arugula, endive and radicchio) and then dined on on “chicken tre-colore” (chicken over salad) for his main dish. Amal started off with a house salad—hold the tomatoes! The human rights lawyer was overheard telling executive chef and Patsy’s Italian Restaurant co-owner Sal Scognamillo that she “doesn’t eat tomatoes.” Apparently, though, Amal’s not opposed to tomatoes in all their forms, because a source tells E! News her main entree was penne pasta “with a spicy marinara sauce.”

Fortunately for George, he didn’t completely miss out on carbohydrates. According to a source, his table was “sent an assortment of desserts, and he had a bite of one.” Bummer for him that was all, but hey, that meant more to go around for Amal, Nina and two of her pals, who’d apparently enjoyed a “girls’ day” in the city leading up to dinner.

George’s mom, a former beauty queen, is actually the one who introduced him to Patsy’s Italian Restaurant. The actor was reminded of his family’s history with the eatery last night when Chef Scognamillo presented him with a brand-new copy of Patsy’s Italian Family Cookbook.

Inside the cookbook, which just became available to the public today, there’s a quote from George acknowledging mama Clooney had good taste long before he did! “Since I have a picture of my mom eating at Patsy’s when she was pregnant with me, I can honestly say that I’ve been going to Patsy’s since before I was born,” he says. “It’s been a great part of my life ever since.”

According to an onlooker, George showed his copy of Patsy’s Italian Family Cookbook to Amal, and she had the perfect reaction. “Are you expecting me to cook?” she asked. “I don’t cook!”

[From E! News]

This story has absolutely everything for someone like me. A) It involves food, B) I can judge Amal for not eating tomatoes (hahahaha), C) It involves a man being on some kind of low-carb diet for a mysterious reason (his back?) and D) It involves a new wife telling her new husband something very special: BITCH, I DO NOT COOK. Classic.

But now we know why George looks so pained when they’re constantly going out to eat. She probably doesn’t even know how to boil water. How is she supposed to make him some soup? That’s all he really wants in this world. SOUP.

Photos courtesy of PCN, Fame/Flynet.

Well, this might be the reveal to a few blind items from the past few years. As it turns out, Jon Hamm completed a 30-day rehab program very quietly at some point recently. It seems he timed the rehab stay so he would be free for the promotional work for the last half of the last season of Mad Men. CB theorized – and we’ll see today, probably – that Hamm confirmed his rehab stay possibly ahead of some tabloid revelation. Here’s what his rep confirmed to TMZ and People Magazine:

“With the support of his longtime partner Jennifer Westfeldt, Jon Hamm recently completed treatment for his struggle with alcohol addiction. They have asked for privacy and sensitivity going forward,” his rep said in a statement.

[From People]

Was Hamm known as some kind of crazy partier? Not really. There were stories about him enjoying drinks with friends, and there were stories about him going out and acting like a single guy, flirting with young ladies and maybe that was alcohol-lubricated. When I was looking through our archives, I did see this – some old stories from 2011 from the Enquirer about Hamm being a boozehound, and how he regularly fell out of bars because he was so sloshed. So maybe the National Enquirer was right about yet another celebrity.

In any case, good for Hamm for getting help. And it’s lovely that Jennifer is sticking by him – they really do seem stronger than most marriages.

PS… This also answers one question I had about Hamm’s general appearance this week in NYC – he looks noticably thinner, right? It’s because he’s laid off the booze. He’s not booze-bloated now.

Photos of Hamm out and about in NYC this week, courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.

If you were wondering whether Anna Wintour has jumped the Vogue programming shark with the “new brat pack,” this story won’t help much. Iggy Azalea nabbed a feature in the April issue (the one with Serena Williams on the cover). This story takes great care to promote Iggy’s 21-city arena tour that never happened. Oops.

Iggy’s interview took place under the pretense of shopping for her new shape at Barneys. Wait … new shape? Many people have long suspected that Iggy’s invested in some Kardashian-style butt augmentation. After Iggy quit Twitter for body-shaming reasons, I leaned towards buying her continued insistence of an all-natural tush. Iggy does admit to plastic surgery in this interview, but it’s not what I expected to hear:

She was into Missy Elliot & Tupac Shakur as a kid: “I was very obsessed with being a child prodigy. I liked the idea of doing something seemingly impossible in a field without women.”

On her “Booty” duet with JLo: “It’s about proportion. I have to have everything tailored because I have such a small waist. I’m a 2 or a 0 on the top, and a 6 on the bottom.”

Her modeling days: “When I first got to the States, people told me I should think about modeling. So I went to a few agencies, but once they measured my body, they didn’t like me anymore.” Being told she should lose some weight and get a nose job had the predictable effect on her confidence: “I was looking in the mirror a little differently.”

What would she change about her body? “I did change something: Four months ago, I got bigger boobs! I’d thought about it my entire life.”

[From Vogue]

She snuck that little bit of news in at the end, didn’t she? I write about Iggy regularly and never noticed the bolt-ons, but they’re modest implants. They’re very easy to miss because – after checking old photos – I realized how Iggy used to wear a lot of t-shirts and high-necked costumes. Her MTV VMAs dress (from last August) is a good comparison point.

Here’s Iggy last month at the Grammys with her new girls.

Photos courtesy of Mikael Jansson/Vogue & WENN

View image | gettyimages.com

There have been rumors and stories about an X-Files remake for years. I never thought anything would come to fruition because the show overstayed its expiration date when it was on the air, plus there were two movies that were frankly pretty bad. (A dismembered head was the villain in the second movie.) I loved the X-Files for the first few years that it was on, but when Mulder left (or maybe when he had a baby with Scully – it’s unclear if they actually had sex) it jumped the shark.

Regardless of some bumps in the road, the show remains one of the most beloved cult shows ever. As confirmation of that, Fox just announced that they’ve ordered six new episodes. Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny will reprise their roles and X-Files creator Chris Carter will be the showrunner. It’s unknown when the reboot will air, but production is set to begin this summer. Here’s more, thanks to Variety:

“I think of it as a 13-year commercial break,” Carter said. “The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, a perfect time to tell these six stories.”

The “X-Files” revival follows last spring’s return of “24” as a 13-episode limited series. NBC has joined the mania for resurrecting series with built-in audience awareness with its plans for the “Heroes Reborn” miniseries next season.

“X-Files” is a natural, as the show about FBI sleuths investigating instances of paranormal activity is tailor-made for social-media obsession — even if it hails from an earlier TV era. “X-Files” had a nine-season run on Fox from 1993-2002. It spawned two feature films, 1998’s “The X-Files: Fight the Future” and 2008’s “The X-Files: I Want to Believe.”

Fox Television Group chairs Gary Newman and Dana Walden shepherded the show on the studio side during its network run. The pair have made no secret of their interest in bringing it back. The new episodes may well spark renewed interest in the show from SVOD platforms, just as the “24: Live Another Day” episodes spurred Fox to cut a rich pact for the entire series library with Amazon Prime.

[From Variety]

Both Anderson and Duchovny remain busy in recurring roles in other television shows and each published their first books recently. Anderson co-wrote a science fiction novel called A Vision of Fire while Duchovny published a humorous fable about a cow heroine (really) called Holy Cow: A Modern-Day Dairy Tale. It must have been tricky to find a time when the two of them were both free to film the new show.

I talk a good game about being disappointed by how the X-Files wrapped but I’m so excited for this remake. I hope they’re able to move on from the whole Scully and Mulder are in love storyline, but I guess the last movie already solved that. I barely remember it.

Duchovny instagrammed and tweeted this picture confirming the news. I loved Scully’s fashion so much. She had that iconic late 90s business style. It really doesn’t seem that long ago.

It’s been 13 years, hope my suits still fit. #XFilesReunion

A photo posted by David Duchovny (@davidduchovny) on Mar 24, 2015 at 6:07pm PDT

photo credit: WENN.com and Getty Images

I’m on @thedailyshow tonight to talk about two of my favorite things-sports and wood. Tune in!

A photo posted by Amanda Seyfried (@mingey) on Mar 17, 2015 at 4:50pm PDT

I delight in following Amanda Seyfried’s Instagram account, mostly because she heavily features the best celebrity dog ever, Finn. One of my LA-based buddies mentioned seeing Amanda in LA last year, and all I wanted to know was whether Finn was on the scene. He was present. #yasss

Amanda’s doing the rounds to promote her new film, While We’re Young. She stars as one half of a 20-something couple (the other half being Adam Driver) who befriends a 40-something couple played by Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts. The film’s trailer shows plenty of hijinks where the older couple tries to imitate the crazy dance moves of the younguns. Mostly, this movie makes me feel old.

Another thing that makes me feel old – Instagram. Kaiser pointed out (when talking about John Stamos’ bedfellows) how selfies are a generational thing. Now I know why Cameron Diaz’s assessment of social media makes sense to me. Amanda takes the concept into negative territory. She believes that young people who post selfies are “sad.” Amanda elaborated to Us:

On “sad” social media: “[Younger people] spend the entire day on Instagram, and they also take pictures of themselves and post them all the time with a veiled brag. It’s sad.”

Who does social media the right way? “Taylor Swift is pretty hip. She seems pretty honest. I think that’s hip. She’s promoting knowing yourself, and that’s the best idol.”

Amanda’s a homebody: “I’m comfortable in the familiar. I’m not a risk-taker. I’m a nester, so I’m nothing like [her]. Not in that respect.”

Will she ever have kids? “I think it’s an important chapter. there are some people who just know innately what they are, what they’re capable of. Yeah, it seems natural.”

[From Us Weekly]

Amanda goes too far by calling selfie-takers “sad,” but she makes some sense. I find it strange to see people orchestrating restaurant, coffee-house or park selfies. They don’t seem to be enjoying themselves in the act. They’re only focused on achieving the perfect shot, not on the reality of what’s really happening. But Amanda’s words make me side-eye her recent Instagram wedgie because … gurrrl.

P.S. Is Amanda aware of Taylor Swift’s very active ways on Instagram?

Nina and Foz #forfun

A photo posted by Amanda Seyfried (@mingey) on Mar 15, 2015 at 10:28am PDT

Photos courtesy of Amanda Seyfried on Instagram & WENN