The Fix

Charlize Theron tells the truth about her feet, J.Lo gets angry at her wedding planners, and Antonio Banderas plays a bandit. Plus: George Clooney hires James Carville!

Published September 5, 2003 2:26PM (EDT)

Since it's Friday, let's have some shallow chat! Love the interview with Charlize Theron about kissing Matt Damon, Tobey McGuire, Mark Wahlberg and Ben Affleck, but the cutie also gives us a lot of info on her ballet-dancer feet: "I have dancer feet in the sense that I have a very high instep ... which means I can do anything in high heels. But I've had 14 broken toes, blood poisoning from infected blisters ... but I never got bunions or anything. My boyfriend says my feet are the best thing about me. But I don't know how to feel about that." Maybe he was just focusing on the "I can do anything in high heels" comment, honey. (TV Guide)

Jennifer Lopez likes to get mad. Or at least she likes to pretend to get mad to get publicity. Every day it's something else. Today she's upset because someone in her wedding planning crew spilled the beans on the date and place (Sept. 14, Bacara resort in Santa Barbara). Duh, Jen. You hire people, make them sign a confidentiality agreement -- what do you expect? How else are these people going to supplement the hourly wage they're getting to do your bidding? Ben better start practicing the put-the-seat-down move -- ol' J.Lo has a short fuse. (Teen Hollywood)

Antonio Banderas was just seen in a theater production based on a film ("Nine" based on "8 1/2"). This Sunday he stars in the HBO production of "Pancho Villa as Himself" -- a movie about a movie made by D.W. Griffith about the bandito in the early 1900s. "M*A*S*H" writer Larry Gelbart had a hand in the script, so it should be worth a look. (USA Today)

The passionate flirtation between Hollywood and Washington has been going on for decades, but with the new series "K Street" coming up this month the dating begins in earnest. George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh have enlisted real-life political odd couple James Carville and Mary Matalin to play themselves on the series about the wacky world of capital consulting. The two should be perfect. "Well, I mean, who wouldn't want to be on? It'll be fun. And all of this is infinitely better than working for a living," says Carville. (Washingtonian)

--Karen Croft

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It's a beautiful day for a backpedal. Johnny Depp is denying that his recent statements to the German magazine -- "America is ... like a dumb puppy" and also a "broken toy" -- reflect any anti-U.S. sentiments on his part. "I am an American. I love my country and have great hopes for it," Depp said in a statement. "It is for this reason that I speak candidly and sometimes critically about it. I have benefited greatly from the freedom that exists in my country and for this I am eternally grateful." The actor, who lives in France, insists that his comments were taken "radically out of context." "What I was saying was that, compared to Europe, America is a very young country and we are still growing as a nation," he says. "My deepest apologies to those who were offended, affected, or hurt by this insanely twisted deformation of my words and intent." (Reuters)

Also backpedaling: Arnold Schwarzenegger. That Oui article from the '70s in which he boasted about participating in group sex and toking up now and again? The California gubernatorial candidate hasn't denied the accuracy of the article before, but he now says his statements therein were not 100 percent true. "I made statements that were crazy, statements that -- a lot of them were not true and just exaggerated situations," the California gubernatorial candidate told KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. "I knew they would get headlines. We were promoting bodybuilding, we were promoting [the 1976 documentary] 'Pumping Iron.'" (UPI)

And the cruelest backpedal of all? Sting says all those tantric sex boasts of his were just a lot of bunk made up to impress his buddy Bob Geldof. "I think I mentioned to Bob I could make love for eight hours," he admitted in an interview on Britain's ITV. "What I didn't say was that this included four hours of begging and then dinner and a movie." Now he tells us. (N.Y. Post)

Best of the Rest
Page Six: Unidentified "organic, animal-like matter" found in janitorial area of Condé Nast headquarters in NYC. PETA denies involvement; Neil Bush's girlfriend's ex-husband suing Neil Bushs ex-wife, Sharon, for starting rumors that his 2-year-old son was actually fathered by Neil Bush; filmmaker Randy Barbato on "Party Monster," the new film starring Macaulay Culkin as murderous club kid Michael Alig: "It's not a feel-good movie. It's a feel-icky movie."; Rep. Barney Frank thinks "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" is superficial, says, "The notion that gay men have a superior fashion sense is not true, and it's damaging."

Rush and Molloy: Paris Hilton denies rumors that she's moving in on Demi Moore's beau, Ashton Kutcher, again denies rumors that she made out with Madonna's ex Ingrid Casares, announces, "Now Im dating Bart Simpson"; Lance Armstrong splits with his wife, Kristin, says that despite breakup they are "closer now and better friends than ever before"; Julianne Moore has married her longtime boyfriend Bart Freundlich.

Boldface Names: Highlights of "Party Monster" party: Oft-naked "transgendered downtown model" Amanda Lepore bares impressive breastage; Macaulay Culkin describes visits with Michael Alig, in prison for killing his roommate with a hammer back in 1996: I just wanted to be around him, hear what he had to say, and he kind of put on the whole facade for me and I think it was invaluable"; Chloë Sevigny says she was a club kid back in the '90s herself, adds, "I was really low on the food chain, you know, but all my roommates actually worked the door."

-- Amy Reiter

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