John Travolta, who strutted to movie stardom 30 years ago as Tony Manero in “Saturday Night Fever,” has since endured many big screen highs (“Grease,” “Urban Cowboy,” “Pulp Fiction”) and lows (“Battlefield Earth,” “Moment By Moment” “Be Cool”).
But his last two films, “Wild Hogs” and “Hairspray,” have been major box office hits and the one-time Vinnie Barbarino finds himself as much in demand as he’s ever been.
“Isn’t that nice? It’s always good to feel successful - that never wears out,” Travolta said to me at the Hollywood Film Festival Awards this week. “If you are successful, it means that you’ve contributed something to the audience that they like and that they feel inspired by or they feel satisfied by. And that’s really my purpose. I want to inspire, I want to entertain. That’s really the joy of it - seeing the effect it has on the audience.”
Travolta was honored at the film fest for his performance as Edna Turnblau in "Hairspray" and the two-time Oscar nominee felt "proud and like my courage of doing this paid off. It took a long time to decide but it all paid off. As long as something's well-written, I'vce always had the confidence to do something different."
Travolta's wife, actress Kelly Preston, was supportive during the time when her husband was acting like a woman for his art: "I loved Edna. I miss Edna," Kelly said. "I fell in love with her as a girlfriend. She didn't come home but I hung out with her on the set a lot and now I miss her."
But Kelly didn't have to give her husband much advice about playing a woman: "He has a lot of sisters and an amazing mother and amazing archtypes like Sophia Loren and he pulled everything from many years of watching great women. It was a composite."
Travolta says nearly three decades passed before he took on another musical because he couldn't find the right one. He hopes to not wait so long to do another in the genre which has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years with the success of "Hairpsray," "Dreamgirls" and "Chicago."
“People asked why [the 30 year gap], and I would smugly say, 'Because simply women have the best roles in musicals,' ” Travolta said later, as he accepted his award. “I have to thank all the women, because I grew up watching women, admiring women,” he said. “I never thought I would play a woman, so I learned a lot...I found it insightful and interesting.”

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 7:00 PM | Permalink

Ready to serve time in jail for his most recent drunk driving arrest, Kiefer Sutherland is determined not to let his legal problems affect the shooting schedule of his hit FOX show "24." But the Emmy winner didn't count on the raging fires in Southern California to hold things up instead, accordng to The Hollywood Reporter.
"24" was scheduled to film scenes featuring Kiefer at the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro near Irvine on Monday and Tuesday. The Emmy winning actor (he is also one of the show's producers) was on the set in one of the base's hangars when filming was canceled at 7:30 a.m. Monday. The cast and crew had blurry eyes and difficulty breathing and were coughing from the smoke.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 6:05 PM | Permalink

Snapped!
This has gotta be the odd couple of thw week: Heather Mills leaving Orso restaurant in Beverly Hills with the ageless Florence Henderson. I don't really care why they were lunching - I'm far more interested in how Henderson manages to look so sensational at the age of 73! ..... This is sad: stage and screen veteran ROBERT GOULET is in critical condition suffering from Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis, which is a rare but rapidly progressive and fatal condition. He is in desperate need of a lung transplant to save his life ..... MARIE OSMOND has a theory as to why she fainted after her performance last night on "Dancing With the Stars." "Right at the beginning, I started getting light-headed," she tells "Entertainment Tonight." "The only thing I can think of is I have allergies, the air quality is terrible, and I couldn't get my breath." .....HALLE BERRY made quite a mighty gaffe during a recent taping of "The Tonigfht Show" when she said that a photo that made her nose look large could have people mistaking her for "my Jewish cousin." The audience was silent and Berry wondered aloud if she had "just ruined my whole career." But the exchange was edited out before it ever aired. "I so didn't mean to offend anybody—and after the show I realized it could be seen as offensive, so I asked Jay to take it out, and he did," Berry said afterward. ....NICOLE KIDMAN says she doesn't like to go on and on about how happy she is in interviews because things could change by the time the interview comes out. But, she says of her marriage to Keith Urban in the current Interview magazine: "My husband and I are committed to each other and deeply in love. That's how I would put it. We're working on staying in that place, and hopefully we will for the rest of our lives." ... and finally, the parenting coach assigned to teach BRITNEY SPEARS how to mother is apparently not going to give the "Singer" very high marks stating thatSpears lives in her own world and often ignores her kids. Wow, this is such shocking news ....

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 3:45 PM | Permalink

On her OK! Magazine blog, JENNIE GARTH has written about MARIE OSMOND'S collapse last night on "Dancing With the Stars" after she finished her dance. She quickly recovered but Garth watched from backstage horrified: "Her collapse did freak me out...We were watching backstage and all of a sudden she just fell down. I knew right away that something bad was happening."
Garth added on her blog that "a lot of people thought that she was joking and she was just doing something silly, but I knew because she wasn’t moving and it freaked me out so bad because I love her. She’s such a fun, wonderful and positive person. We were all scared because we didn’t know what it was."

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 12:20 PM | Permalink

ELLEN DEGENERES took a long weekend after all the drama over the puppy she gave to her hairdresser before the mean pet adoption agency took it back. But she returned today, looking upbeat, and said to the audience: "If you haven't heard what's going on with me, welcome back to Earth....Apparently, if you cry on television, people will talk about it."

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 11:30 AM | Permalink

BRAD PITT a stand-up comedian?
It sure seemed like that on Monday night as he brought the house down during his deadpan and very funny appearance at the Hollywood Film Festival's 11th Annual Hollywood Awards Gala. Pitt was there to present the breakthrough actor award to CASEY AFFLECK, his co-star in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" which Pitt joked "is playing at a theater nowhere near you.'
Pitt told the audience that he had not really been aware of "Cassie Affleck" until they met "at the premiere of 'Ocean;s 13." [Affleck had appeared with Pitt in all three "Oceans" movies] "This guy was in 'Good Will Hunting." Did you know that? I didn't remember. ... He's been struggling, working hard, trying to make a name for himself ...
This guy's got talent, this guy's gonna do something."
Affleck, whose brother Ben received the breakthrough director of the year award last night for "Gone Baby Gone," reflected on the honor he was about to receive before the show began: "It always comes as a surprise. Wait. What am I talking about? It's never happened before ...It's really flattering. I'm not really sure who it is who made that decision but whoever that person or group of people are, I'm grateful. I've been around long enough I guess ... to not think it means more than it does but also to appreciate it."
Affleck had the one-two punch this fall of starring in both "Jesse James" and "Gone Baby Gone" :"People seem to have responded well to both which is great because I've experienced the opposite feeling."
Working with brother Ben "was really nice because I don't often get to see him on a day-to-day basis so that's got to be the best part about it."
BEN AFFLECK gives his brother much credit for the film's critical success: "The movie turned out better because [of]Casey's performance. I just happened to know the best actor for the role. I think anybody who's seen any of Casey's movies should see that there's a great actor there. I just happened to know that he was from Bostin and I happened to know that I wanted to make a movie about Boston and that he really understood that better than anybody. Mauybe it was a little bit of insider trading. I kinda got lucky and I got to look smart but I think it was really out there in plain sight. It certainly is now in my opinion now that the movie's come out to see that he's done an extraordinary job."
JOHN TRAVOLTA picked up two awards for "Hairspray" on Monday night: best supporting actor and best ensemble. Before the ceremony he said: "I feel proud and I feel like my courage in doing this paid off. It took a long time to decide but it all paid off...I always said that women have the best roles in musicals and now I was held to it because they said, 'We're offering you a woman's role so why don't you take it?' So there you have it. It was all worth it."
I wondered if, after playing a woman, Travolta now had the courage to take on just about any role: "Well, as long as something's well-written, I've always had the confidence to do something different."
Travolta was joined on stage at the ceremony by "Hairpray" co-stars ZACH EFRON, NIKKI BLONKY, BRITTANY SNOW and AMANDA BYNES.
RICHARD GERE was namked best actor for "The Hoax," JENNIFER CONNELLY supporting actress for "Reservation Road," MARC FORSTER best director for "The Kite Runner," and MARION COTILLARD best actress for her performance as Edith Piaf in "La Vie en rise."
Before the awards, Cotillard told me she was surprised to have been selected: "Well, I'm a French actress and I played in a French movie so it's quite unusual I think. All the people who worked on this movie were very proud of it. I had the greatest experience."
Among the presenters at the star-studded event were WILL FERRELL, CATHERINE ZETA-JONES, JANET JACKSON, MARCIA GAY HARDEN, CAMERON CROWE, KIRSTIE ALLEY and JANEANE GAROFALO.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 9:45 AM | Permalink

Viewers on the West Coast didn't get to see this on last night's "Dancing With the Stars" but on the live telecast, MARIE OSMOND passed out after her samba routine! The studio audience was stunned but Marie was OK soon enough and being a true showbiz trouper, she gathered herself, did a curtsy for the audience, and even did an interview while waiting for her scores: "This happens sometimes when I get winded," a visibly embarrassed Osmond, 48, told co-host Samantha Harris. "I'm so sorry." ..... In the audience were TORI SPELLING and DEAN MCDERMOTT who learned that their Inn in Fallbrook had to be evacuated because of the fires. Said Dean: "We don't know the extent of it. There were guests on their way [to the B&B], but they were notified and sent back. The whole town of Fallbrook was evacuated." ...The inn is the setting for the couple's reality show, Tori & Dean: Inn Love, on the Oxygen network. ..... CHRIS JUDD, the second ex-husband of JENNIFER LOPEZ, was at theHollywood Film Festival Awards ceremony last night. The reporter next to me on the red carpet asked Judd what he thought of JLo's pregnancy and he was gracious. He wishes her well, thinks she'll make a great mom, and heard she's having twins. ..... Speaking of twins, congratulations to actress GARCELLE BEAUVAIS-NILON and her husband, Michael Nilon, on the birth of their twin sons ..... I hate to be snarky but I cannot wait to see JESSICA SIMPSON co-host on "The View" Nov. 15 and 16. Can you imagine her during the hot topics segments? "Is Chicken of the Sea tuna, or chicken?" ..... Since "The View" was preempted in LA today due to fire coverage, I'm not sure if the topic of DAVID COPPERFIELD came up. But it is being reported that the magician has cancelled several dates in Southeast Asia as he is being investigated in connection to an allegation that he "forced himself" on a woman. Copperfield denies the allegations .....

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 7:55 AM | Permalink

Ryan Seacrest has gotta be the hardest working man in showbiz.
There's his weekday morning radio show, hosting E! News Daily (and the weekend edition) and then there's that little gig he's got starting in January as host of the "American Idol" telecasts twice a week. Plus, he's producer of a reality series on E! and producing a scripted series for David Hasselhoff for the cable network.
So I had to know: does Ryan Seacrest ever have a day where he just wants to stay in bed?
"I stay in bed with my Blackberry," he told me at a recent event honoring Merv Griffin. "On the weekends, I
will try and take one of the days off but so many times I wake up on a weekend and think, 'Where did my Blackberry go?' and I'm shuffling through the sheets to find it...I enjoy it. ...The only thing I know how to do well is I know how to hustle. I literally get up when it's dark and it's dark when I get home. But c'mon, it's not like I'm digging ditches."
Seacrest says that, for fun, he loves to eat: "I can't stop eating. I love fattening, great food. Cheeses and carbohydrates. Everything we're not supposed to eat."
So now that more than a month has passed, how does Ryan feel about his performance as Emmy host?
"I was very happy about it. I actually quite enjoyed the freedom that I had, being able to walk around in that [theater-in-the] round. It was a fun night. It was actually nice to be finished afterward because I had to do the pre-show and the show. So I was slightly drained at the end of the day. It's funny, it's very much, mechanically, like running 'American Idol.' A big auditorium, live, don't know quite what's gonna happen. Fortunately I had a little practice."

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 12:00 AM | Permalink