Paul Giamatti on John Adams’ randy side

Just got off the phone with Paul Giamatti, who stars in the title role of HBO’s upcoming “John Adams” miniseries. This bit probably won’t make it into the final story, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

The film hints that both Adams and his wife Abigail (Laura Linney) may have met separate temptations while he was in Paris and she was running their farm back in the States.

“There isn’t actual evidence. We wanted to put a hint of something in there. While reading about him, I came across something in a book – he wrote this very funny, erotic poetry while he was there. It was uncharacteristic and odd for him.

“I remember a long passage in one of his diaries, it was just an endless description of this young woman he saw walking around Versailles. He wrote a lot about her hair and her bare shoulders. For him, this Yankee, puritanical guy, it was racy stuff. Interesting, it was the only thing I came across that he had written that was like that.

“But Franklin and Jefferson were all active over there, so who knows?

Perhaps he was puritanical in that Eliot Spitzer kind of way.

Giamatti laughs. “Yeah, a lot of times that means the opposite.”

Giamatti’s visage graces the reprint of David McCollough’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Adams, which is the source material for the miniseries.

“It is kind of surreal seeing my face on that book. I didn’t know they were doing that. But I hear it’s selling well again. I would’ve thought sales would plummet.”

“John Adams” premieres Sunday at 8 p.m. on HBO.