 | |  |  | Matt Damon News & Gossip
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| | Matt Damon: I?d be the youngest Oscar screenwriter except for Ben, f?ing a-hole | | Added 11 years ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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These are some rare photos of hot dad Matt Damon with his family. He’s shown at LAX airport yesterday holding daughter Stella, 2. She’s adorable! Matt’s wife of seven years, Luciana, is trailing behind him and I think I spot his two oldest daughters, Alexia and Isabella. I don’t see their daughter, Gia, 4. It’s possible she’s off-camera. In his recent Playboy interview, Damon mentioned that the paparazzi don’t hound his family daily the way they follow the Garner-Afflecks, but he also said they’re careful not to go to paparazzi hot spots. It sounded like he was mildly calling out the Afflecks for staging photo ops, which have been all too obvious during Ben’s Oscar campaign. So that’s why it’s nice to see photos of Damon with his family, because we only get the occasional chance. He’s not pimping his kids and he’ll tell you about it. (Update: an earlier version of this story incorrectly claimed that Matt was with his daughter Gia, 4. The photo agency mislabeled the captions and we’re sorry for the confusion.)
There’s plenty of news about Damon, but my favorite is a new extensive interview in Boston Magazine in which Damon and Affleck discuss the making of their Oscar winning film Good Will Hunting. It’s a long, good read on the history of the film 15 years later. The piece includes quotes from director Gus Van Sant, and co-stars Cole Hauser and Stellan Skarsgrd among others. I was surprised at how long it took for the film to get made and what these two went through to finally get to production. In no way can I do justice to the article here, and I would recommend that you read it in full if you’re a GWH fanatic like me. Here are some of my favorite excerpts:
Their frustrations at constant rewrites
Affleck: We were so frustrated that Castle Rock wasn?t reading the script, so we felt like we had to develop this test. We started writing in screen direction like, ?Sean talks to Will and unloads his conscience.? And then: ?Will takes a moment and then gives Sean a soulful look and leans in and starts blowing him.?
Damon: They weren?t reading the script closely anymore. It was literally probably a full paragraph about what these two characters were doing to each other.
Affleck: We would turn that in, and they wouldn?t ever mention all those scenes where Sean and Will were jerking each other off.
Damon: Ben gave it to [Chasing Amy director] Kevin Smith and said, ?Will you please save us? Will you direct this movie?? And Kevin read the script and was unbelievably kind. I still remember the message. He said, ?I wouldn?t dare direct this movie, this is so beautiful.? Kevin went in personally to Harvey Weinstein?s office at Miramax and handed him the script, and basically said, ?Drop everything you?re doing right now and read this.?
Damon: I still remember the phone call with Harvey. He had two notes on the script that were excellent, both very minor things. In one of his notes, he said, ?I don?t like the chess thing??there was a thing where Will played chess??take that out.? And he goes, ?And the bl*w jobs gotta come out, guys.? And we were like, ?Okay, we found a home.?
On how they reacted the first day of filming
Damon: The very first day, I remember we started crying, because it was a scene between Robin and Stellan. And when Gus called action and we watched these guys?I mean accomplished actors?do our scene verbatim, we had waited so long for this to happen. I remember just sitting next to Ben and I had tears rolling down my cheeks because I was just so happy and relieved that it was really happening.
Affleck: We did tear up a little bit. But why is Matt saying this shit? Like, he holds his f’ing tongue for 15 years and now because it?s Boston magazine, he says he started crying? His career is not over, you know what I mean? He needs people to believe that he?s like Jason Bourne or whatever!
On winning the Oscar
Damon: Ben and I talked about it recently. We were younger than we felt. I was 22 and Ben was 20 when we first started writing it. And then it came out when I was 27 and Ben was 25. I mean, Ben?s still the youngest writer to ever win an Oscar for screenwriting. I?d be the youngest if it weren?t for Ben. F’ing asshole.
On what GWH means to them
Damon: I don?t think there could ever be another movie that I felt that way about. Because of what it meant for our lives, because of that time in our life. Another movie couldn?t occupy that much of my heart and soul at this point in my life. A movie could never change my life like that again.
On their future working together
Affleck: For a while, we thought maybe we should chill and just do other stuff, and not be Matt and Ben, Matt and Ben. But now, I?m gonna direct Matt in the Whitey movie. We have our company together, we?re developing together. And Matt lives down the street from me like he used to. His kids are living with him, the way we used to live with our folks. The only difference is that we have pools.
[From Boston Magazine via PopSugar]
I loved this article, and just wish that the people at Boston Mag would have taped the whole interview and put it on YouTube. It’s kind of frustrating to only imagine it and not be able to see these two giving each other shit.
There’s more news about Matt! The Daily Mail has some quotes about how he really wanted to direct his new film with John Krasinski, Promised Land, but stepped down when he realized that he would have to spend so much time away from his family. He described how he contacted Gus Van Sant in a panic and was able to get the former Good Will Hunting director on board instead. “The next morning, I was leaving to go to Florida with my family and I was sitting on the plane, feeling horrible. I emailed Gus and told him everything that had happened, and he emailed me back, right before we had to switch our phones off. He said, ‘I love your writing. I’d love to read it.’ At that point, it was what they officially call the Alec Baldwin moment. The flight attendant was like, ‘Turn that f***ing thing off, or I’m going to come and take it from you!’ So, I forwarded it to Gus from my Blackberry, as fast as I could, and then switched it off.” That’s so funny, “Alec Baldwin moment.” Except Alec was defending his right to play Words with Friends, not to save a movie.
Photo credit: Crown/BJJ/FameFlynet
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| | Matt Damon and wife Lucy at the Promised Land premiere: lovely couple? | | Added 11 years ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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These are some photos from the LA premiere of Promised Land, co-starring and co-written by Matt Damon and John Krasinski. It’s out in limited release on December 28th and in wide release on January 4th, just in time to give us some diversion in the post-holiday season. (I can’t believe how fast this year has gone!) I really love Matt’s wife’s Lucy’s cranberry one-shoulder gown. It looks like something Michelle Obama would wear the hell out of, and on Lucy it’s just as pretty. Her bold statement jewelry is the perfect compliment to this very striking dress. I want that gorgeous gold bangle!
In terms of news about Matt Damon, he’s hustling and promoting this film, and giving some good quotes. In an appearance on The Late Show he called John Krasinski the next George Clooney, basically:
We [wrote the movie] really fast. John’s a super talented guy. When I met George Clooney years ago everybody knew him as the guy from ER and he was very famous for that, but Steven Soderbergh worked with him and instantly formed a company with him because he could just see how talented the guy was. And people’s perception of him wasn’t how the perception would be a dozen years later. And that’s how I feel about Jon. He’s great on the show The Office, but that’s just as piece of what he’s going to do.
[via Buzzsugar]
Leave it to Damon to expertly talk up two friends at once. Clooney and Damon may soon be co-stars again. Damon is said to be in talks to join the film Monuments Men, which tells the true story of people who worked to recover priceless art stolen by the Nazis during WWII.
Also, I have to link to this Today Show segment Damon did a couple of days ago with an etiquette expert. He was hilarious. If you don’t have time, fast forward to about 5:50 to hear Matt make a joke about tossing salads. He’s awesome.
Also at the premiere was Luke Evans. He isn’t in this film but he’s just so attractive I had to post his picture.
And Bill Paxton! He’s not in this either. Movember was not kind to him.
John Krasinski looking lonely. I wonder why his wife Emily Blunt wasn’t there to support him? According to IMDB she’s in All You Need is Kill with Tom Cruise and it’s filming now. Although Paxton is also in that film and he showed up at the premiere. And why is Frances McDormand not showing up to any of these premieres? She needs to step up. Is there some kind of beef with her and Damon and/or Krasinski?
Here’s Rosemarie DeWitt and Ron Livingston. Another adorable couple.
Photo credit: Starbucks/WENN.com and PRPhotos
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| | Matt Damon and wife Lucy at the Promised Land premiere: cute couple or too formal? | | Added 11 years ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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These are photos of Matt Damon, his wife Luciana, and Matt’s co-star and co-screenwriter, John Krasinski, at the premiere of Promised Land in New York last night. You know I love Matt Damon, and I originally told Kaiser she could cover this until I saw video of Damon on Letterman, got all swoony and told her “he’s mine!” That may sound ridiculous, but maybe you’ll understand if you see the clip. Damon was doing his Matthew McConaughey impression, at Letterman’s request, and talking up his former roommate McConaughey’s chances at earning an Oscar for Magic Mike. It was nice to see and reminded me why I love Damon. You can watch it here.
In terms of Lucy’s dress, it’s a one-shoulder silk number that has a bizarre cut with a draped panel running across the front. We don’t have a designer ID on this but Kaiser is telling me it looks like Gucci. Lucy often shows a lot of cleavage, so this is a change for her I guess. It’s a striking dress and I love the pop of color, but the cut seems off to me somehow. It looks like she could be hiding a baby bump until you see the dress from the side. Still, she looks amazing and I love her hair and makeup. Also, I love Matt Damon always and forever but he needs to ditch the transitions lenses at night.
Promised Land is out in wide release on January 4, and will be in limited release on December 28, just in time for awards season! It’s about a representative from a natural gas company (Damon) who comes to a small town to convince the locals to let his company drill. He meets some opposition from a farmer turned environmentalist whose land was destroyed by fracking (Krasinski). You can see the trailer here. It looks so good! The film also stars Rosemarie Dewitt and Frances McDormand.
Matt Damon with director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting). I can’t wait to see this movie!
Rosemarie Dewitt, John Krasinski, Gus Van Sant and Scoot McNairy.
Did you know Rosemarie Dewitt was married to Ron Livingston? I didn’t, they’re a cute couple too! (They’ve been married since ’09 and don’t have any kids.)
Photo credit: WENN.com
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| | Matt Damon on how he cooks for his daughters: pasta with butter and steamed broccoli | | Added 11 years ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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This is just an excuse for me to talk about Matt Damon, and another subject that I have much more personal experience with (unfortunately), kids being picky eaters. Hot dad Matt Damon was at a fundraiser called Cooking Live, to benefit a group called The Family Reach Foundation. Damon got involved with the cause thanks to his brother and sister-in-law. The Family Reach Foundation provides support to families with children suffering from cancer. (Damon’s dad was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2010.) Damon explained how he cooks for his daughters, and it was really sweet. He said he just cooks simple food like pasta and steamed broccoli. As a mom with a kid who will only eat specific foods, I can relate. Damon has daughters Alexia, 14, Isabella, 6, Gia, 4, and Stella, who turns two next month.
?I?m a terrible cook, but I do a little bit of it at home,? Damon, 41, tells PEOPLE at New York?s Cooking Live fundraiser, held Tuesday and benefiting the Family Reach Foundation. ?I?m relegated to kids? fare and I can make more of the functional stuff.?
Case in point? A favorite dish the Elysium actor frequently makes for daughters Isabella, 6, Gia, 4, and Stella, 23 months, as well as Alexia, 14, only contains three ingredients.
?I cook pasta with butter and steam broccoli,? says Damon. ?It?s all about getting enough healthy food in front of them every three hours.?
The trick to vegetables, the Oscar winner says, is that ?it?s all about starting early.?
?My wife [Luciana] and I introduced it to them at a very young age and they just don?t know any different,? he admits. ?Luckily, I found out all three of my youngest girls love broccoli. There are times where I can?t get them to eat protein or a little piece of fish because they are going crazy over the broccoli. Sometimes they?re the ones bribing me to eat more of my vegetables.?
Especially when it?s Brussels sprouts being served ? Damon doesn?t like the taste.
?That was always a tough one for me ? and I was never crazy about cauliflower either,? he shares. ?But I grew up eating a lot of salad. My mother made a salad with every single meal we had, so I was raised thinking that?s how you eat. It?s a good balance that I?m trying to teach to my own kids.?
[From People]
What I wouldn’t do to get my kid to eat a salad. Believe me, I’ve tried. Did you know that it’s genetic whether or not broccoli tastes bitter to you? I saw a kids’ science show about it. My son eats broccoli, and he used to eat pasta with butter all the time. Now he prefers rice, chicken, green beans and red peppers. (He’ll eat some other fruits and vegetables too, usually uncooked and always separated.) It’s hard to get him to eat anything new or with sauce on it, unless one of his grandmothers makes it for him. If I make a new dish I’m lucky if he tries it. So in that case I can relate to Damon. You make what the kids will eat, there’s less drama, and it’s much healthier for them than fast food or something from a restaurant. Why did “chicken nuggets” and “pizza” become kids food? (Not that we don’t eat those too.)
This just makes me love Matt Damon more. He has picky daughters, and he’ll make exactly what they’ll eat. I get the sense he gets down on the floor and plays with them too. He’s probably even game for tea parties and dolls.
Here’s the trailer for Promised Land, the film that Damon wrote with Jon Krasinski, who also stars. It looks SO good. Damon plays a representative for a natural gas company who convinces farmers to open their land for drilling. It’s out January 11.
Here’s Matt at the airport with his family on 8-16-12. Credit: FameFlynet
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| | Matt Damon thinks Jeremy Renner 'looks great' in 'The Bourne Legacy' | | Added 11 years ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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These are some new photos of Matt Damon outside of Comic-Con this weekend. I?m also including some photos of Jeremy Renner at LAX, also this past weekend. Damon and Renner? two wonderful actors, one exiting the Jason Bourne franchise and one entering it. Remember, in the January issue of GQ this year, Matt made some rather pointed (some would argue ?bitchy?) comments about the franchise, about screenwriter Tony Gilroy, and about why he walked away from the massively successful, career-defining franchise ? go here to review his comments. What was nice about Matt?s brutal honesty (or his brutal bitchiness) is that he seemed to genuinely hope that Jeremy Renner would succeed as a completely new spy/assassin in The Bourne Legacy ? Matt seems to genuinely like Renner, and wish him well. Anyway, while Matt was at Comic-Con to promote his sci-fi film Elysium, he ended up fielding a lot of questions about Bourne.
Matt Damon may be attending (his first!) Comic-Con to promote the super secret sci-fi flick Elysium, but that doesn’t mean rabid fans of the Bourne trilogy aren’t wondering whether Jason Bourne himself won’t return to the action franchise at some point in the future.
“No, I mean, I think everyone wants to see how this one does,” Matt told us exclusively when we asked whether there was talk of him returning for a fifth film. So how does Matt think Jeremy Renner will do carrying on his legacy?
“I’ve only seen the trailer. But he looks great in it,” Damon revealed about his successor. “When Paul Greengrass [director of Bourne Ultimatum and Supremacy] and I were talking about potentially doing a fourth one years ago and then handing it off to someone, Renner was the guy we talked about because I’m a huge fan of his. I think he’s great. And I think he fits really well in that world, like, I really believe him in that world. So I think he’ll be terrific.”
Which only means that if the two were to team up the result would be even more terrific.
“I think the movie will be really good. Tony [Gilroy] is really smart, he’s a really good writer and a really good director and I’m sure he made a good movie,” Matt explained to us. “The question will be if they can franchise that movie, because if they can, then they’ll be done with me. They’ll just keep making those.”
After the billion-dollar success Renner had kicking butt in The Avengers, we have a feeling things might just work out for him on this go, too. Guess we’ll have to wait and see if Matt changes his mind someday.
And since this is Comic-Con, where superheroes reign supreme, we asked Damon why we haven’t seen him donning a cape or cowl on the big screen.
“I always kind of viewed Bourne a little bit as a superhero, or antihero character, so I kind of got my hit doing those for those years,” he responded. “Daredevil was always the one Ben [Affleck] and I grew up reading, we loved Daredevil, but Ben got that one.”
Matt continues, “It’s like a sci-fi movie, they’re hard to do really well and when they’re done well, often times, look at The Dark Knight, it’s just a stellar, incredible seriesa?but they had a great actor playing Batman already. There wasn’t anything for me to do. So when the roles do come around that are really great?when Iron Man comes around, that’s Downey?there wasn’t any part for me. Maybe there’s some superhero left over that I can play someday.”
Just don’t ask him to do a reboot (got that, Team Daredevil?)
“I don’t think I could do a reboot. The reboots are happening so fast now,” he griped. “The new Spider-Man comes out 10 years after the first one, that’s kind of crazy. But it works. People seem to want to see those movies. So I think we’re going to have a steady diet of them for a little while.”
For those keeping score at home, that’s Bourne sequels: 0, superhero movie: maybe!
[From E! News]
I think Matt was being honest ? this is the guy, after all, who says ?yes? to whatever dumb stunt Jimmy Kimmel wants to pull and this is guy who appears in, like, ESPN commercials. If The Bourne Legacy does well and they want Matt to come in and do something with Renner for another film, Matt probably would. But I think Damon is being realistic with the ?The question will be if they can franchise that movie, because if they can, then they’ll be done with me. They’ll just keep making those? ? if Renner and The Bourne Legacy are successful, then why would they need to pay Matt Damon $20 million for anything, you know? So? whatever happens, I think we just need to understand that Matt will probably never play Jason Bourne again. Which isn?t the worst thing, really ? the original trilogy really holds up.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and Pacific Coast News.
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| | Matt Damon: 'My wife is my soul mate. I can't imagine being without her.' | | Added 12 years ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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Matt Damon has a new essay in The Guardian in which he goes on at length about his family life and personal values. It’s similar to earlier sentiments we’ve heard from Matt, but the way he puts it all together in one cohesive package is absolutely swoon-worthy. This is a man who adores his wife (he calls her his soul mate for God’s sake!), cherishes his family and strives to be a better person every day.
I didn’t grow up with great privilege, nor did I grow up wanting for anything. I was a middle-class kid and, relative to the rest of the world, that’s great wealth. As a parent, I think the question is, how do you raise any kid with a true understanding and context of what kind of life they have versus what kind of life other people have? It’s a constant struggle no matter who you are.
My wife and I have a one year old, a three year old, a five year old and a 13 year old. All daughters. One of the reasons we live in New York is because, without having to explain things to the girls, they can walk around the streets and just by looking around them see that the world is composed of all different people from different walks of life, different languages and different socio-economic backgrounds. They pick it up through osmosis. Eventually I plan to take them on some of the trips that I go on to developing countries. That’s what my mother did with me when I was a teenager.
When I was 15, 16, 17 we used to go backpacking across Mexico and Guatemala. We would begin by doing a language school course. They work by immersion therapy ? you go to school for six hours a day and then you go home with a Mexican family. Spanish is the only language spoken. After a couple of weeks, we’d be ready to take a bus and travel around the country. I remember travelling on buses stuffed with chickens. Being from Boston, I’d never seen stuff like that and I’d never seen poverty like I saw there. The way people live out in the country. They are very poor, living in shacks ? it’s a type of poverty you don’t really encounter in the north-east of America.
My parents divorced when I was young but I was brought up in two really loving households. I didn’t have a contentious relationship with my mom or dad. I am not quite sure why but I never felt the need to lie to them. I never hid anything.
My mother is a professor of early childhood education. When I was two she would say she knew I was going to be an actor. And that she knew that my brother was going to be an artist: he’s a painter and sculptor. She could see from the way we played and what we were drawn to. My kindergarten teacher used to say to her I can’t get him out of the dressing-up area. My mother would say: “That’s fine ? leave him there.” I was trying on every costume and role playing! My parents said: “We want you to act if that’s what you really want to do. But why do you want to do it professionally? Do local theatre. Acting professionally will only interfere with going to college. Why are you so impatient?”
My wife is my soul mate. I can’t imagine being without her. Being a parent, as any parent knows, is a lot of work whether you are together or not. Our 13 year old is terrific, and she’s a big help, but with the other kids it’s just non stop. We like to do a lot of the family stuff together, particularly when we get them to school in the mornings. It starts at 6.30am. Once you get them off to school there’s always a sigh of relief. Then we have one hour where we can go and get a cup of coffee together.
Before I had kids I remember Don [Cheadle] saying to me that one of the great things about being an actor is that when you’re not working you can be there in a way that most dads can’t. And it’s true you can be there 100% of the time ? with everything.
[From The Guardian]
As a side note on how Matt’s parents tried to teach him that they were privileged relative to the rest of the world, I tried to do the same with my kid with laughable results. I told my son that we were better off than 99% of the world’s population since we’re comfortable and don’t want for anything, and he was like “We’re rich, right? How much money do we have? Do we have a million dollars?” Then I tried to give him the running water and electricity speech. He sort-of gets it. I loved the story about how Matt’s mom took him to Mexico when he was a teenager. I’d like to do something like that with my son too.
I didn’t excerpt the whole article, and there’s more at the source, including a wonderful story about how Matt paid for his daughter’s entire fifth grade class to go to South Africa while he was filming Invictus, just so he could be with his family. If this guy has any skeletons in his closet or a mean bone in his body I would be incredibly surprised. Lucy is a lucky bitch. Do you think there’s ever going to be a scandal with Damon at some point? I think he got all his partying out at a young age and that he’s completely sincere about loving his family and wife, but that doesn’t mean he’s immune to temptation. I hope it never happens though.
Matt is promoting We Bought a Zoo, which is out in the UK now and comes out on DVD on April 3rd in the US. I haven’t seen it yet and am really looking forward to it.
Matt and Lucy are shown on vacation in St. Barts with Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky on 1-19-12. They’re also shown at LAX on 3-5-12 and at the We Bought a Zoo NY premiere on 12-12-11. I’m bummed that they didn’t go to the London premiere! Credit: WENN.com and Fame
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| | Matt Damon on Obama: 'a one-term president with some balls would have been better.' | | Added 12 years ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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Oh that Matt Damon*. He usually just tells the same stories over and over again in his press tours, so it’s nice to see him very occasionally bitching about politics. I get the sense that he’d like to say stuff like this in every interview, but that he holds it in until it comes seeping out like steam from a boiling kettle. Remember when he called Sarah Palin “absurd, like a bad Disney movie” way back in 2008 before that was pretty much the accepted opinion about her? A quick glance at our archives reminds me that he’s also expressed discontent about Obama, whom he campaigned for, earlier this year and last year. So he does mete out his political opinions rather judiciously.
In a new profile in Elle, they seem to realize that the most headline worthy Damon is one that has a strong opinion. The bulk of the piece is just an overview of his life and career. There aren’t many quotes from Damon in the story, but the ones they do include at the end pack a punch. I wonder if he said a bunch of other stuff and they just left it out, or if they only asked him about Obama.
Is it mere coincidence that today, just down the Vancouver street from where Damon sits, the first day of Occupy Wall Street?offshoot wildfire has flared up over the border? ?I?ve talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, ?Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician,??? Damon says, his disappointment ringing with a now-familiar tone of wounded idealism. ?You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better.? Damon gestures in the direction, just out of sight over the tree line, of the sign-wielding picketers who are beginning to gather steam. ?If the Democrats think that they didn?t have a mandate?people are literally without any focus or leadership, just wandering out into the streets to yell right now because they are so pissed off,? he says. ?Imagine if they had a leader.? And, as on the day of that DC rally, it is momentarily possible to get swept up in the moment, to imagine?however ridiculously, whether in reality or coming soon to a multiplex near you?exactly that.
[From Elle.com]
I don’t disagree with him, but I think it’s much more complicated than just blaming the President. I like angry/impassioned Matt Damon the best though. He’s the sexiest when he gets worked up about something. This guy has said multiple times that he’s not going to go into politics, but I don’t believe him. It may take another 10 to 15 years, but I expect to see him try.
*Note that I wrote that before I checked E! Online this morning and saw that they started their article on this story the very same way. Great minds.
Here’s Damon campaigning for Obama in 2008. He’s also shown in December and September of this year. Credit: WENN and Fame
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| | Matt Damon on the cover of GQ: hot or Photoshopped to look too feminine? | | Added 12 years ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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Matt Damon is one the cover of GQ for their January, 2012 issue. As opposed to his sexy Parade cover, which just happens to be sitting on my desk next to me (despite the fact that I’ve already read it of course), he looks rough. Maybe I just like him when he’s not smiling and looks a little surly, but they also Photoshopped his lips Pink so it looks like he’s wearing lipstick. Plus his chin looks too long to me. The photos of Damon inside are decent an he’s even wearing a tight revealing t-shirt in one of them. You can see the slideshow here. Matt doesn’t say much we haven’t heard from him before in the interview, but he does dish a little dirt about the Bourne franchise.
Matt Damon ON OBAMA?S COMMENTS ABOUT HIM AT THE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS? DINNER:
Over the years, he has spoken up about public-school teachers (he supports them), the middle class (he thinks they?re getting the shaft), and President Obama (he feels he?s not delivering on his promise). At the White House Correspondents? dinner this year, Obama responded directly, saying, ?Matt Damon said he was disappointed in my performance. Well, Matt, I just saw The Adjustment Bureau??
Damon tells me he didn?t see that speech live but got thirty e-mails from friends the next morning and watched the president?s remarks online. ?I have to say, it was pretty funny,? he says, getting in his own dig: ?Whoever came up with it, it was a terrific joke.?
ON WALKING AWAY FROM THE BOURNE FRANCHISE:
With the Bourne franchise, which has earned more than $1 billion worldwide, he has proved his box-office clout. And then he turned his back on it, at least temporarily. What other A-lister would have walked away from the fourth Bourne film (and an estimated $20 million payday) because, he says, he and director Paul Greengrass felt that the tight timetable set by the studio would endanger its chances of being good?
Damon says they had no choice. ?If you look at the first three movies, we kind of pounded that idea of identity and amnesia into the ground. We really got everything out of it that we could. So to reboot it, we need to come up with something completely new,? he says, explaining why the eleven-month turnaround that Universal Pictures wanted didn?t feel doable.
He says he?s ?really pulling for this one, even though I don?t have anything to do with it. Selfishly, it?s bad for me if that movie doesn?t do well.? He says he still feels ?inoculated? by the franchise?as if it protects him from having to do anything that could be bad for him. ?It feels like I can swing freely, like a baseball player?just be relaxed and really do the things that I want to do and not worry, because I know there?s another one out there.?
…ON TONY GILROY, THE WRITER/DIRECTOR BEHIND THE BOURNE FILMS (INCLUDING THE FOURTH):
Damon says that back in 2001, when the first Bourne movie, The Bourne Identity, was still in postproduction, Gilroy saw a rough cut and got worried. ?The word on Bourne was that it was supposed to be a turkey,? Damon says. ?It?s very rare that a movie comes out a year late, has four rounds of reshoots, and it?s good. So Tony Gilroy arbitrated against himself to not be the writer with sole credit… to have another guy take the bullet with him.? And so someone named William Blake Herron is now cashing residual checks on Bourne, just like Gilroy is. (Actually Damon may have gotten his chronology wrong?one source says Herron initiated the credit dispute, but that Gilroy didn?t oppose sharing credit.)
Gilroy wrote Bourne 2 as well: The Bourne Supremacy. Then, Damon says, for The Bourne Ultimatum, the third in the franchise, Gilroy struck a deal to write just one draft of the script, take no notes, do no rewrites, and get paid ?an exorbitant amount of money.?
?It?s really the studio?s fault for putting themselves in that position,? Damon says. ?I don?t blame Tony for taking a boatload of money and handing in what he handed in. It?s just that it was unreadable. This is a career-ender. I mean, I could put this thing up on eBay and it would be game over for that dude. It?s terrible. It?s really embarrassing. He was having a go, basically, and he took his money and left.?
[From GQ]
In his Parade interview that was out this Sunday, Damon said essentially the same thing about Obama’s joke about him at the Correspondent’s dinner. He said “Anybody with a sense of humor is okay on my list.” I don’t really grasp the politics of the Bourne movies, but I wonder if Damon is throwing Gilroy or the studio under the bus by admitting that the guy cashed in and delivered a script that was unreadable.
There’s more in the full article on GQ, including the tidbit that Damon and Ben Affleck are working on another script together. We’ve heard for some time that they were working on some sort of baseball wife swap movie, based on a true story. That seems to be on hold indefinitely, and Damon told GQ they’re working on a biopic of an Irish mobster from Boston named James “Whitey” Bulger. Affleck will direct and Damon will star as Bulger. It will take a while before that comes to fruition, though, as Damon is going to work on a screenplay with John Krasinski first.
Here are Damon and his wife, Lucy, at the NY premiere of We Bought a Zoo last night, He still looks weird to me without hair, but I like that he’s rocking it.
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| | Scarlett Johansson & Matt Damon: "We Bought a Zoo" NYC Premiere | | Added 12 years ago | Source: Celebrity Gossip |
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Capping off a full day of press duties, Scarlett Johansson was the center of attention at the premiere of "We Bought a Zoo" in New York City on Monday night (December 12).
The 27-year-old actress dazzled on the arrivals carpet at the Ziegfield Theater venue while promoting the Cameron Crowe directed film alongside co-stars Matt Damon, Elle Fanning and Thomas Haden Church.
Based on true story, the movie surrounds a single dad who decides his family needs a fresh start, so he and his two children move to the most unlikely of places: a zoo. With the help of a bizarre staff and many misadventures, the family works to rebuild the neglected zoo back to its original wonder.
Talking about the picture, Miss Johansson told this morning during her "Today" show appearance, ?It is a true story based on Benjamin Mee. He wrote a book about his experience and there is also a documentary about his experience. I think the film is really about starting over. I think it's about a sort of human connectivity that allows us to kind of overcome obstacles that seem larger than life at times.?
Also starring Patrcik Fugit and John Michael Higgins, "We Bought a Zoo" is set to hit theaters on December 23rd.
More Photos Here
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| | Matt Damon explains his bald head: 'it's called 'The Lauer?' | | Added 12 years ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Matt Damon was just on the Today Show brightening up my morning with his deep voice and new chrome dome. (That video is above.) He’s promoting Contagion, the killer virus movie by Steven Soderbergh. It’s out this Friday and fingers crossed that it will dominate the box office. I know I’ll be seeing it.
To start the interview, Matt Lauer wore a face mask and said that he uses Purell all the time and found the movie terrifying. Damon explained that it was based on real science and that he learned filming the movie that the people at the Center for Disease control are excellent scientists. He said they “are really a competent, capable, dedicated group of people. … I feel like there’s a great group of minds that are constantly vigilant about protecting us.”
As for the takeaway from the film, Damon said “Don’t panic.” Here’s more:
On remaining calm in the event of a potential real-life outbreak
“That’s the quandary that a lot of these people when they have this information are in. ‘How do we disseminate this information in a way that creates the least amount of panic?’
“When you think about anthrax, which killed two people and shut down an entire airline industry. So if we can’t kind of take a deep breath and count to ten and make a reasonable assessment of what we need to do… the media incidentally is a bit part of that.”
On if the media makes too much of these health scares.
“You’re under pressure to get people to tune in. Fear sells a lot better. In a real situation like that, I think the media would have to resist the temptation to sell the panic because that would actually be putting gasoline on the fire.”
On making six movies with Soderberg
“We’re shooting [the Liberace movie] next summer. I could talk your ear off about him. He’s just a brilliant director. This movie he used just two lenses. The camera’s at eye level the entire time, it moves only when the characters move… When I stand next him and he’s directing I just learn so much, and I’m always very proud of the movies we make.”
On his bald head
“It is [for a role] but it is called the Lauer. [The movie] is called Elysium it’s coming out in 2013.”
On his girls going back to school.
“Red alert [the nickname his wife gave him] is going to be there. Lot of drop offs tomorrow. We have a seventh grader starting a new school,I love it. I used to walk to school as a kid; I just love that part of it. We have a 7th grader starting a new school, and my kindergartener is really excited because she’s going back to school and seeing her friends…. [The 3 year-old] still doesn’t know she’s going to school!”
I know this guy says he’s not going to go into politics, but he would be a damn natural at it. Once he amasses his millions and another Oscar for acting this time, he needs to look into it. He’s gracious, funny, smart and continues to impress me as one of the most genuinely decent actors around. I know there are rumors about him (read the comments on this earlier post) but I don’t believe them at all. You can’t kill my crush, damnit!
Here’s the trailer for Contagion again.
Photos are from the Contagion premiere in Venice on 9/3/11 and of Matt arriving. Credit: Fame Pictures, WENN.com and Kika Press, PacificCoastNews.com
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