Movie Star

THERE is a wide, perhaps unbreachable, cultural gap between Hollywood and the East Coast. This has become jarringly apparent as my New York friends badger me with one insistent question: "Why would famous movie stars, who could have any woman they want, hire a prostitute?"Unlike most questions put to me by these friends ("What really happened to Sal Mineo?"), I am able to answer this one.For those who have just emerged from their August marathon reading of "Middlemarch," the question alludes to a 27-year-old Los Angeles woman, Heidi Fleiss, who has been charged with running a call-girl operation for Hollywood stars.

People magazine has named its "Sexiest Man Alive," and the nation was surprised to learn he was not a general. The winner was actor Channing Tatum, who may be a movie star but doesn't have any stars on his chest. He is good looking enough, but no so much that you'd throw your reputation, your career, your marriage or your entire personal life in an oil drum and light a match to it. That's what's going on in L'affaire Petraeus, where every day a new character is added to the cast of "Real Housewives of CENTCOM," and we watch as they have their clothing choices, their credit card bills, their percent of body fat, their bare chests (cue the FBI guy in Tampa)

Looks like an injured George Clooney showed up at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday to watch the Ravens beat the Bengals, 31-24. Clooney is dating Baltimore native Stacey Keibler. Former Ravens offensive lineman Jonathan Ogden managed to stop by the suite where Clooney was sitting, and Tweeted a picture of the movie star.

John Travolta knew what he wanted to do with the role of Edna Turnblad, the zaftig housewife at the center of "Hairspray. " The movie's producers, however, weren't so sure. Especially when he insisted on using a Bawlamer accent. "I got fought on it, by everyone," Travolta says over the phone from his home in Florida, recalling his efforts to put his own stamp on the character. "Finally, I said to them, 'Look, I don't have to do this movie. This is a lark. Either you let me do it with my interpretation, which includes the Baltimore accent … or let's just not do it.'" Not surprisingly, Travolta got his way - when you're a big-time movie star, producers generally like to keep you happy.

His voice was a foghorn, he walked with the kind of slouch your mother always warned you about, his face looked like it never quite woke up. His picture deserved to be in the dictionary, right next to the word "rumpled." His perennial co-star, Jack Lemmon, once said of Walter Matthau, "He walks like a child's windup toy." Matthau, who died of heart failure last Saturday at age 79, fit no one's description of a movie star, but he was one. Not only that, he was one of those movie stars whose name always seems to have the word "beloved" somewhere nearby.

Martyn Lawrence-Bullard left his home in England for Los Angeles 20 years ago, determined to be a movie star. The acting thing didn't exactly work out. But in one of those delightful turnabouts in life, he is now the interior designer to the stars. Ed Norton, the Osbournes, Cher and Kid Rock top an eclectic list of clients. Lawrence-Bullard has made the Architectural Digest and Elle Decor lists of top designers. He is a principal on Bravo TV's "Million Dollar Decorators. " He has a new book, "Live, Love & Decorate," with a foreword by client Elton John.

If you've learned anything about me during the nine months I've written this blog for The Baltimore Sun , it's that I have no shame. That's why I was only moderately embarrassed Monday when I made the unseamless transition from play-action passing to George Clooney being at Sunday's game while chatting with Ravens center Matt Birk. “I didn't know George was there,” Birk said. “I'm glad I didn't because I probably would have been really nervous.” Thank God he has a sense of humor and didn't add to my embarrassment.

So you want to be a rock and roll star. Why? Isn't being a movie star enough? Not if you're Kevin Bacon. Or Keanu Reeves. Or Jeff Bridges. Or Jennifer Lopez. Or Jennifer Love Hewitt. Or Eddie Murphy. Or Johnny Depp. Or Tia Carrera. Or John Travolta. Or Cybill Shepherd. Or Bruce Willis. Each of the above has not only flirted with the idea of rock stardom, but has actually gone into the studio and recorded an album or two. (Although, to be fair, Shepherd seems more interested on warbling show tunes than in making like Mick Jagger.

It's not every day that Belvedere Square is a stop on a movie star's publicity tour. On Monday evening, however, actor Matthew McConaughey, star of How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days and newly confirmed fiance of actress Penelope Cruz, is expected to park his Airstream trailer - where else? - in front of the Senator Theatre. Inside he'll attend a premiere screening of his new movie Sahara, an action-adventure a la Indiana Jones that is set to open in April. It is expected that he will introduce the film to an audience limited to local members of the military and their families.

Hmmm. Maybe Shaq O'Neal ought to concentrate on winning a few NBA championships before he steps into his rightful place in the universe as movie star and master rapper.In any event, "Kazaam," with the big guy as its star, seems little more than a vanity project based on the idea that Shaq already is a movie star and a master rapper.He is, of course, an engaging personality. Gigantic and powerful, yet oddly benign and approachable, he appears to have a considerable future in films once he hangs his Size 19s up. He just needs some better guidance.

After starting with Cole Porter's classic "Anything Goes," then moving to the hilariously horny puppets of "Avenue Q," Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre closes its diverse 2012 season with "Xanadu," the 1980 film disaster converted into a 2007 Broadway roller disco hit. This summer's productions offered something for every taste, from classic Broadway to weird coming-of-age to the absurdity of a Greek muse turned Australian roller girl banished from...

It sure doesn't look like the other vessels docked in Annapolis. The Bounty, a wooden movie-star ship with its tallest mast at 115 feet, is in town for a long weekend of tours that ends Sunday. The visit, like the Star-Spangled Sailabration in Baltimore this weekend, commemorates the War of 1812. The original Bounty's storied mutiny occurred in 1789, and both the war and mutiny hark back to the era when sailing ships ruled the seas. This ship was built for the 1962 movie "Mutiny on the Bounty," starring Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian, leader of the historical mutiny in Tahiti against Capt.

"Better Living Through Chemistry," an independent movie about a pharmacist's life unraveling after he starts an affair with a trophy-wife customer, will film for five weeks in Maryland starting this month, Governor Martin O'Malley announced Thursday. The cast includes Olivia Wilde, Michelle Monaghan and Sam Rockwell — TV and independent-film stars with wide mainstream-movie credits including blockbusters like "Tron: Legacy" (Wilde), "Mission: Impossible 3" (Monaghan), and "Iron Man 2" (Rockwell)

Martyn Lawrence-Bullard left his home in England for Los Angeles 20 years ago, determined to be a movie star. The acting thing didn't exactly work out. But in one of those delightful turnabouts in life, he is now the interior designer to the stars. Ed Norton, the Osbournes, Cher and Kid Rock top an eclectic list of clients. Lawrence-Bullard has made the Architectural Digest and Elle Decor lists of top designers. He is a principal on Bravo TV's "Million Dollar Decorators. " He has a new book, "Live, Love & Decorate," with a foreword by client Elton John.

Pe'Shon Howard extends his wrists to display tattoos of stars — the sort you might see on the door to a Hollywood actor's dressing room. They are appropriate symbols for a point guard who grew up immersed in celebrity culture as the grandson of a Los Angeles hair stylist who worked on movie sets with Eddie Murphy and other A-list actors. His teammates sometimes call Howard — who is naturally theatrical — "Hollywood P. " But then the Maryland sophomore — whose Terps (10-3)

If you've learned anything about me during the nine months I've written this blog for The Baltimore Sun , it's that I have no shame. That's why I was only moderately embarrassed Monday when I made the unseamless transition from play-action passing to George Clooney being at Sunday's game while chatting with Ravens center Matt Birk. “I didn't know George was there,” Birk said. “I'm glad I didn't because I probably would have been really nervous.” Thank God he has a sense of humor and didn't add to my embarrassment.

There are only two people in the room -- the bald guy with the tape recorder and the thin, adorable, blond actress -- and one of them is lying.The bald guy says he's a journalist; who would lie about something like that? The blond woman says she is not a movie star.Maybe Meg Ryan really is not a movie star, despite her 22 films and her starring role in "Addicted to Love," the dark comedy with Matthew Broderick that opened Friday. They play jilted lovers who join forces to exact a devious revenge on their ex-partners.

Los Angeles Winona Ryder sits cross-legged and barefoot on a sagging green couch in an empty living room.Ms. Ryder, who likes to say that she has come of age on screen about 900 times, is, equally painfully, coming of age in bTC "Mermaids," "Edward Scissorhands" and real life.Six weeks past her 19th birthday, she has recently acquired a number of Hollywood necessities: Starring roles in two new Christmas movies, an engagement ring from a television star who has tattooed "Winona Forever" on his right arm, her own house in the canyons north of Beverly Hills -- and the knowledge that youth and a kind heart will not keep you out of the supermarket tabloids.

Looks like an injured George Clooney showed up at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday to watch the Ravens beat the Bengals, 31-24. Clooney is dating Baltimore native Stacey Keibler. Former Ravens offensive lineman Jonathan Ogden managed to stop by the suite where Clooney was sitting, and Tweeted a picture of the movie star.

M el Gibson took a deep breath, shook his head and stared down at his palms. "I just can't do this. You've got me at a disadvantage." The movie star, his voice a croak, was a mere 19 minutes into an interview, but it was clear there was no way he was going to make it to 20. "I'm coming rapidly to the conclusion that right now, today, my brain cannot function. Honestly? I'm six days off the cigarette. You're looking at someone who's having a pretty bad withdrawal from a 45-year habit."