Helena Is The Boss Of Tim; Sean Penn Hopes His Critics Get Cancer

Helena Bonham Carter says of her relationship with Tim Burton:

“At home, I’m the boss — he calls me ‘chief’ and I would say, on the whole, he likes me to make the decisions.” What about at work? “That’s where sometimes we get it wrong – he’s the boss and I’m not as silent as he’d like me to be.” She clarifies: “He’s not a mad professor type. His time management is good. He is financially responsible. A part of him maybe exists in an alternative reality but he is a very sane, grounded and good father.” [The Star]

There’s a pretty good piece on Helena Bonham Carter at this link, though the reporter feels the need to write: “Above a long, low-cut crêpe dress her breasts tremble like white doves peeping from a magician’s top hat.” But still: Check it out. The best parts are when her daughter says, “Ugh. Mummy’s hair is on the table.” And when HBC talks about the letter she once wrote that began “Dearest Cunt…” [Times Of London]
A reporter asked Tim Burton which projects he was most and least proud of. He “looked uncomfortable for a few seconds” and then answered: “It’s hard because they’re all your ugly children, you know, some are prettier than others and some are ugly but they’re still your kids. I would [find it hard] to say, ‘This one’s good and this one’s bad’, there are some that are more personal, like Edward Scissorhands is a personal one, maybe A Nightmare Before Christmas because I designed it so early on in my career. Probably the one I would say was the most ill-conceived project of mine, in a way, was Planet of the Apes. But I still enjoyed it and I still enjoyed doing it, in a certain way. There’s elements of everything, you can’t get involved with something and work for that long on something without getting attached, it’s part of you.” [Daily Express]
As seen in Midweek Madness, a new book claims that Angelina Jolie had an affair with Mick Jagger. There aren’t a lot of details here, but you can’t always get what you want. [The Sun]
Mel Gibson plans to watch the Oscars at home, naked, so plan accordingly. [Radar Online]
Does Sean Penn listen to critics who call him a hypocrite? No: “I guess I’ve been so away from it all — and our tent camp in Haiti — that I haven’t had an awful lot of time to pay attention to them. You know, do I hope that those people die screaming of rectal cancer? Yeah. You know, but I’m not going to spend a lot of energy on it.” [Us Magazine]
Snoop Dogg: Now allowed back in the UK! [NY Post]
James Cameron on Avatar 2: “If we make a sequel, we’ll definitely continue the story of the main characters: Sam [Worthington] and Zoe [Saldana] and Sigourney [Weaver]. Well, I don’t know about Sigourney. Sigourney’s character is dead, but nobody’s really ever dead in a science-fiction movie. I think it’s more of a question of when than of if.” [Time]
Sean Lennon has Tweeted about the car commercial which uses footage of John Lennon, claiming his mother made the decision “not for money,” but to keep his father “out in the world.” Sean says Yoko Ono was “hoping to keep dad in the public consciousness.” [BBC News]
Raise your hand if you are excited about the prospect of a Ryan Gosling/Steve Carrell movie! [Variety]
Sherri Shepherd will be rooting for Niecy Nash on Dancing With The Stars. That makes two of us! [Gatecrasher]
The Colorado prosecutor won’t accept Charlie Sheen‘s plea deal. [Radar Online]
Alec Baldwin says: “I envy Elliott Forrest.” Who? A classical music radio station host in New York, that’s who. [LA Times]
Breaking: Women were lining up to talk to Gerard Butler at a party. A source says he was nice to anyone who approached him, but, “You could tell he just wanted to hang out with his friends there.” [E!]
Kelly Clarkson will play Lilith Fair. The lineup includes Tegan & Sarah, the Bangles, the Go-Gos and your favorite, Ke$ha. [MTV]
Lady Gaga tickets: Expensive. [Guardian]
Q: What are those bruises on your arm? Lady Gaga: “You’ll laugh, but they’re welts. I burnt myself with a curling iron. Glamour, girl!” [ONTD via T Magazine]
The funeral for Marie Osmond‘s son will be held Monday. [People]
If you’re interested in knowing what was in Marie Osmond‘s son’s suicide note, the info is here. [People]
Sarah and Bristol Palin are in Los Angeles and Bristol got her makeup done at a complimentary booth at a pre-Oscar party. A source says: “They say they want to be a normal family. Well, normal families don’t really go to Oscar gifting suites and poolside parties.” [MSNBC Scoop]
“Sarah Palin and entourage descend like ‘locusts’ on Oscar swag suite.” [NYDN]
Jake Pavelka of The Bachelor may have a girlfriend, whom he was in contact with after he finished taping the show. She’s hired a lawyer. [TMZ, Radar]
“Jake Pavelka Denies Cheating: ‘No Overlap’ With Vienna and Ex-Girlfriend.” [E!]
Simon Monjack says he’s already started to return the money he raised for the Brittany Murphy foundation before he shut the website down since it hadn’t been properly registered as a charity. [TMZ]
Debbie Rowe was harassed outside a restaurant by the folks at Radar, who were all, hey, there was a stun gun incident at the Jackson family compound, aren’t you concerned about Blanket and your kids? Rowe said: “Of course I’m concerned about Blanket! I am concerned about my children, who wouldn’t be?” She admitted that she has never been to the Jackson house where the kids live, however. [Radar Online]
The headline here is “Debbie Rowe ‘Mortified’ By Jackson Kids Stun-Gun Reports.” [People]
A doctor who does not treat them talks about a cycle of violence inside the Jackson compound, where at least 14 people live. [Radar Online]
Child services visited the Jackson family again, and may come back. [TMZ]
Kim Cattrall is in a play in the West End of London, and though there is a brawl scene in the show, that’s not where she got all those bruises: “Actually, she got bruised on her shins because she kicked a table without knowing she was doing it,” the director explains. [Telegraph]
The Spice Girls musical is in the works! Mel “Sporty Spice” C says: “We are all involved. We’re looking for writers at the moment. We want some of our personal experiences and anecdotes in it.” [Daily Express]
In Brooklyn’s Finest, Wesley Snipes plays a former drug kingpin “who’s trying to go straight but whom the feds are determined to bust anyway.” Snipes, who was sentenced to three years in jail on fraudulent tax return charges, says: “Part of what makes the character work is that it’s immediately identifiable in the arc of my career. And in the arc of my life.” [LA Times]
Susie Essman is selling her NYC apartment. [NY Times]
Whoa! Joey Lawrence and his wife have welcomed a second daughter, named Liberty. [People]
“When you do this, there’s no hair-and-makeup people. No lighting. One camera. It’s nice to work in film without any of the vanity attached. It was so liberating.” — Sarah Jessica Parker, on participating in the reality series Who Do You Think You Are? SJP says of tracing her family tree: “I’m actually a private person. There’s something about attention that embarrasses me. But this to me was not really a story about me. It was for my mother — a wonderful thing I can give her.” [USA Today]
“At first it was a bit strange — I was once an actor in Dublin trying to get work, then I became an actor who lived in Dublin trying to get work internationally and then I moved to Los Angeles and became an actor working in Dublin, so it’s a bit confusing. But it’s lovely to get home.” — Colin Farrell is shooting a movie called Ondine in Ireland. [Mirror]
“If I had a choice, I would do comedy all the time.” — Bruce Willis. Why oh why aren’t the best seasons of Moonlighting on Hulu?!?! [UPI]
“I have a real problem with authority. I’ve nearly been arrested so many times. Airports are the worst – you go through security, you only have one item, one tube and they tell you to put it in a plastic bag. I’m like, ‘But it’s one fucking item! A plastic bag isn’t going to make it any more secure.'” — Diane Kruger. [Showbiz Spy]
“We always had jobs. Between the ages of 8 and 12, I was a professional griever. I’m not joking! You’d stand there, with people crying and weeping, and walk in front of the coffin. Once they were buried, the priest would come up to you and hand you five Deutsche marks. It was the worst job anyone could think of.” — Diane Kruger. [Gatecrasher via Marie Claire UK]
“Some people say I’m anti-Hollywood, but I’m really not at all. I just think it’s pretty weird to show up at things that you have no reason to go to. To go out just for the sake of it is plain ridiculous.” — Kristen Stewart. More mopey quips at the link. [Independent]
“I’ll never retire.” — James Earl Jones. [Daily Express]
How does Wesley Snipes deal with criticism? “You try to be liquid, try to be like water, like Bruce [Lee] says. Some things you just let flow around you, some things you just redirect back. Sometimes you just sit and be patient and wait, and if you sit by the river long enough sometimes you see the bodies of your enemies floating by.” [LA Times]
“I’d love to have more children. I see Emma Bunton and Geri Halliwell a lot and our kids play together. Victoria Beckham and Mel B live in LA now but when they are here we all see each other. ven though we have all always had very different relationships with each other, we are proud of each other and what we have done after the Spice Girls.” — Mel C. [Daily Express]
“[There are] too many people that I’ve admired over the years who never got one. I don’t know what it represents anymore. It’s become too much of this controlled ritual. Everybody waits until the end of the year, they put out the ones they think will get the nod. The world is becoming too boring in the sense that these things are all about ritualizing.” — Terry Gilliam, on the Oscars. [Vanity Fair]
“I’m not really speaking to him. Saying those things is the last thing that’s going to get me to speak to him and I’ve told him that. He’s nuts. He is someone who is crying out for help and attention. He is the one who should be in rehab. He has been on and off like this my whole life.” — Lindsay Lohan, on her father. [Perez]
“Marie Osmond’s poor gay son killed himself because he had been told how wrong and how sick he was every day of his life by his church and the people in it. Calling that ‘depression’ is a lie! The Osmonds still talk lovingly about their church, saying nothing about its extremely anti-gay Crusade. Marie also has a gay daughter! Hey, I want her and all the gay kids in the world to know that they are just fine being gay and that they deserve love and respect instead of insults and rebuke! I have gay people in my family and my circle of friends and I am kicking bigot ass and taking names! I know so many Mormon kids who were gay and committed suicide, and I just cannot and will not stay quiet in order to not offend bigots anymore. It is all so terribly depressing.” — Roseanne Barr. [ONTD]
“I have a spiritual guide, not a therapist but someone who in my mind is connected with a higher being, and he helps me a lot. What I like about him is that he doesn’t speak to me like I am a normal person. He understands that I have an eccentric way of life and personality. And he also understands that I am famous, and I appreciate that. He tells me that I no longer serve my life in the normal way that people serve their life, that I must serve the greater good in my service to the universe. And for me, it’s my fans. I only serve my fans.” Don’t you think it’s kind of creepy when you refer to yourself in the third person? “No. Not if you’re an artist, it’s not. I talk about myself in the third person all the time. I don’t live my life in the way someone like you does. I live my life completely serving only my work and my fans. And that way, I have to think about not what is best for my vagina but what is best for my fans and for me artistically.” — Lady Gaga. [ONTD via T Magazine]
“Oh, I can imagine not working. Yes absolutely. I can see myself saying, ‘That is it.’ At least I hope I can do that in time to have life to live, if you know what I mean. As an actor, you are aware that unemployment is constantly looming. You are always pathetically grateful for anyone asking you to work and you are always frightened to say no because, you know, you think, ‘Maybe it’s the last time that anyone will ever ask me to work,’ and so there is always that little niggling thing at the back of your mind,” she says quietly. I think that is why actors very often go on working until they are very ancient, even more ancient than I am, because I think they are constantly frightened.” — Helen Mirren. [SMH]
“I love Gigi, Singin’ in the Rain, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music. I love the colors and the way those movies have always made me feel. That’s kind of how I like to make people feel with music. It’s the way the Beach Boys make you feel. They share sweet optimism that makes me excited to be alive.” — Zooey Deschanel. Lots more at the link from Z and She & Him’s M. Ward. [BlackBook]
“I am clean. I’ll tell you that. I’m not an uncombed, dirty person. Just to reassure people, I do believe in hygiene! And so does Tim, actually.” — Helena Bonham Carter. [Times Of London]
“The Red Queen is definitely inspired a bit by my toddler. Orders, orders, all the time. No pleases. No thank yous. Totally selfish. No empathy.” — Helena Bonham Carter. [Times Of London]