Monday was Presidents Day -- so no column, but Tuesday Nothing Personal got right back in the swing of things with -- what a shock! -- a sex scene. Sure, it was an improvised one, but aren't they all? By Wednesday I needed to talk with a psychiatrist ... or he needed to talk with me. The multimillionaire groom's shrink gave me a ring, I mean call, and boy did we chat. Thursday took us across the Big Pond to, ahem, lay odds on Prince William's likely bride. And by Friday I was back in the arms of Mr. Multimillionaire Groom who, frankly, is starting to seem like an old pal.
Not.
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Tuesday: "Annette Bening: Once you start having on-screen sex, it isn't embarrassing anymore"
If this doesn't give Annette Bening a lock on a best actress Oscar win, I don't know what will.
That over-the-top "American Beauty" sex scene in which she and Peter Gallagher got it on like a couple of royal bunnies? ("Do you like getting nailed by the king?" "Oh yes, your majesty!" "Who's the king?" "Oh, you are!") Turns out, she and Gallagher improvised much of their dialogue. "I haven't laughed that hard in a long time," Bening says of filming the scene in Los Angeles magazine's March issue.
Read the entire Nothing Personal Column for Tuesday, Feb. 22.
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Wednesday: "Between a Rick and a hard place"
Who wants to talk to a possibly abusive multimillionaire's shrink for a second time? I guess I did. I knew it as soon as I heard his voice-mail message. "Hi, Amy. Dr. Goulston. Listen, I've been getting a lot of calls about this multimillionaire marriage thing being a hoax and I thought you might want to talk about it a little more. Feel free to call."
So did the doctor, who got called in to consult with Rick Rockwell on questions for his potential brides, have any clue that this man may not have been altogether sincere? Nope. Sure, Rockwell seemed ambitious, impatient, maybe a little cocky even, but nothing out of the ordinary in an entrepreneur. "Being in Los Angeles and surrounded by lots of ambitious people, knowing some dot-com entrepreneurs, he wasn't that different from them," says Goulston.
"In retrospect, I feel like I have shrink egg on my face," Goulston admits, recalling a similar feeling when he worked for the prosecution on the O.J. Simpson case and failed to pick up on Mark Fuhrman's less savory characteristics.
Read the entire Nothing Personal Column for Wednesday, Feb. 23.
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Thursday: "The odds couple"
Have we learned nothing from Princess Diana and "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" Guess not.
U.K. tabloids report that British bookies are taking bets on Prince William's potential brides. They're apparently favoring 19-year-old Edinburgh University student and society girl Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, 5-1. No matter that this highly hyphenated miss already has a boyfriend and has never met the prince.
Meanwhile, Britney Spears, of whom 17-year-old William is apparently a major fan, has been given only a 500-1 chance. Funny, that's roughly the same chance she has of still being on top of the pop charts by the time the prince does tie the knot.
Read the entire Nothing Personal Column for Thursday, Feb. 24.
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Friday: "Get motivated!"
Oh, the bitter irony.
When the Smoking Gun broke the story of groom Rick Rockwell's more-frog-than-prince-past last week, it included a mention of his motivational speaking career, with a link to his picture and bio on a Web site called Speakinc.com. A few days later the link was broken. A few days after that, the link was gone.
The going theory is that jilted multimillionaire Rockwell's main motive for marrying a stranger on national TV was to revive his flagging comedy and motivational speaking career. But it turns out his newfound notoriety may have had just the opposite effect. It seems that Speak Inc., the company that repped Rockwell (as well as such notables as Calvin Trillin, Mike Singletary, Pat Riley and the geniuses who brought the world "Chicken Soup for the Soul"), may have dropped the pizza-chomping groom like a hot potato.
Read the entire Nothing Personal Column for Friday, Feb. 25.
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