Entertainment tidbits

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Director Wes Anderson (CP)

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British actress Kate Winslet, and her husband, Ned Rocknroll. (CP)

She loves Rocknroll

KATE Winslet went and married this guy Ned Rocknroll in New York on an unspecified day this month, her publicists have announced.

It's not clear how they kept this quiet until now: Leonardo DiCaprio was there and gave the bride away; a few other close friends were there too, along with her two kids, but The Sun, in England, says her parents and his dad didn't know about the ceremony until it was over.

Ned, born Abel Smith, is the nephew of British tycoon Sir Richard Branson. I'm guessing Kate will not change her name to Rocknroll, or even to Smith.

She's 37. He's 34.

Getting out of Downton

DAN Stevens is leaving Downton Abbey. He's just got too many other offers.

But will his departure spoil the show? Julian Fellowes, the writer and show-runner, is pretty inventive, but this will be tough to stick-handle around. He's the main male lead, really.

Season Three begins on PBS on Jan. 6. Stevens is 30.

A novel reward for runaway dog

Your dog runs away, you announce a reward, right? $20, $100, whatever you can manage.

Not Dennis Lehane. The best-selling author (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, etc.) has what he hopes is a better incentive: Return his black-and-tan beagle Tessa, who jumped a fence at his home in Brookline, Mass., on Christmas Eve, and Lehane will give your name to a character in his next book.

Announcing this via Twitter he said the dog is "smart, fast, and immeasurably sweet" and added she "doesn't have a mean bone in her body."

Ravioli romance

SPOTLIGHT couple: Tom Cruise is "completely smitten" with a brunette restaurant manager half his age, says the New York Post.

The girl is named Cynthia Jorge. The restaurant is called Beauty & Essex, on the lower east side of Manhattan; try the mushroom ravioli for just $18.

He dined there, she gave him her card and then he kept calling until he reached her, says In Touch mag. Now they've been out on a couple of dates.

She's 26. He's 50.

Janet plays it safe

JANET Jackson has confirmed that she has accepted a proposal of marriage from Qatari zillionaire Wissam Al Mana, according to Us Weekly. He gave her a ring a while ago; she says she's afraid to lose it and so just leaves it in the safe.

He's 37. She's 46.

Also engaged: the singer Brandy and one Ryan Press, a record company executive. Us Weekly had the story. Brandy is 33.

The Halle Berry Code?

IN case you were wondering: Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez spent Christmas in Paris; little Nahla was in L.A. with her dad Gabriel Aubry.

Berry and Ollie (HaMa? OlBe? BeMa? The heck with it!) were walking around St-Germain-des-Prés and also scouted out Saint Sulpice, says Us Weekly. Either they've just discovered that stupid Dan Brown novel or else they're looking for a place to get married.

They're both 46.

Louboutin bares his sole

BON Appétit magazine, evidently out of sensible questions to ask food people, interviewed Christian Louboutin, the shoe guy, and asked him about fruit.

His response: "Pineapple and pomegranate are my favourite... visually. The pineapple is very architectural. It's a fruit, but it could almost be like a house... and I love the top, it reminds me of the hat that showgirls wear."

There's more: "And the pomegranate. That deep red colour reminds me of my work."

Shaking out her booties

JESSICA Simpson, whose daughter Maxwell was born in May, has confirmed she's knitting little booties again. On vacation someplace with fiancé Eric Johnson, She tweeted a photo of Max, sitting on a beach with the words "Big Sis" written in the sand.

Us mag got a nameless insider to explain this pregnancy "definitely wasn't planned." But Jessica "loves being a mom" and is "overjoyed."

She's 34.

Let me be perfectly Claire

JESS might want to take note of what new mother Claire Danes said when some poor fool asked her what kind of mom she hopes to be. Danes, usually pretty good with interviewers, evidently just snapped:

"I can't begin to imagine what kind of mother I want to be. How could I answer that? I want to be a putrid mother who does not listen to her child and puts her own needs before theirs? I would want my child to feel safe and loved and held..."

... and a side of Santa

PREGNANCY news is all very nice, but how about this Christmas Eve tweet, from Detroit rocker and enthusiastic bow-hunter Ted Nugent?:

"We all love young reindeer haunch with garlic and butter. It's such a Christmas treat."

Moonrise... and stars

DIRECTOR/auteur Wes Anderson, fresh off the critical and box-office success of his charming picture Moonrise Kingdom, is hard at work on a new film, The Grand Budapest Hotel. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he confirmed the cast he has assembled. It shows what happens when a director is fun to work with and seems to be going places:

"We have Ralph Fiennes, and we have Tilda Swinton and Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, we have F. Murray Abraham and Jude Law, and we've got Adrien Brody, Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, and Mathieu Amalric. And I think Owen [Wilson] is gonna have a little part, too. Oh, Saoirse Ronan... yeah, we have a good group." No kidding.

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Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 30, 2012 ??65524