Styles & Scenes

Oh, baby! Check out Ben's sexy sitter

Why did Ben Affleck announce that he was "going home to make love to the babysitter," after getting a Supporting Actor of the Year honor at the Hollywood Awards?

Duh.

The "babysitter" was none other than his wife Jennifer Garner, who walked the red carpet with him but then left to look after their daughter.

One look at Jen in this sexy bronze Gucci goddess gown explains Ben's mad rush.

Bet she'll be a great accessory during her hubby's Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination campaign for his portrayal of George Reeves in "Hollywoodland."

Photo Credits: Jennifer Garner is definitely back in secret agent shape at the Hollywood Awards. We don't blame Ben for racing home.
Greg DeGuire/WireImage

Robin Tunney loves to be bad

"You definitely walk out of 'Hollywoodland' with an ambigious feeling. But when I was  playing her, I had to play it as if she did kill him. Plus it's so much more fun to be the bad girl. But it was a fine line playing someone who was charming enough that George would want to sleep with. I mean, she'd be fun to have sex with. Hey, who hasn't wanted to sleep with the crazy girl? But she also had the capacity to kill him."

-Robin Tunney, who plays Leonore Lemmon, George Reeve's (Ben Affleck) explosive fiancé in "Hollywoodland," on whether she felt that her character killed Reeves.

Some people also walk out of "Hollywoodland" feeling confused. No, not about why Affleck gives such an amazing performance. C'mon, be nice. He won an award at the Venice International Film Festival, for cryin' out loud. The guy is good.

No, people are mostly mystified by who put those strange "prayer cards" found thumb-tacked over the bullet holes in the Reeves bedroom floor.

Mystery solved.

According to the Reel Faces Web site, it was actually his girlfriend Toni Mannix, not  Lemmon, who put the cards there a few days after the murder. She went to Reeves' house with Jack Larson, who played Jimmy Olsen in the "Superman" TV series.

The site not only has amazing photos that show just how much the actors look like their real-life characters. But it also reveals that Toni was obsessively telephoning Reeves, something vaguely alluded to in a party scene in the film. And she also may have stolen his one-eyed Schnauzer, Sam, from his car.

See, even the Man of Steel had trouble with women.

Photo Credits: Robin Tunney thinks it's fun to be bad. It's even more fun watching her be bad in "Hollywoodland."
Denise Truscello/WireImage

Who had the better bash? Scarlett or Ben?

There was a real Hollywood flashback this week with the premieres of “The Black Dahlia” and “Hollywoodland,” both held at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.

Both period movies deal with unsolved Hollywood deaths, the brutal murder of a wanna-be actress named Elizabeth Short and the strange suicide of TV’s “Superman” star George Reeves.

But there was no comparison between the films’ after-parties.

The rumblings at the low-key “Dahlia” post party in the main lobby of AMPAS ranged from polite congrats to Scarlett Johansson- wearing a Chanel frock and a Streisand do-  and her on-and-off-screen beau Josh Hartnett to one woman loudly announcing “I want that two hours of my life back!” and getting quite a few “Me too” responses. Director Brian DePalma didn’t bother to stay for the bash. And Hilary Swank, who was one of the film’s hilarious highlights, was also a no-show.

But the “Hollywoodland” bash at the historic Beverly Hills Hotel was a far more upbeat, lavish and star-studded affair. The party was poolside with lots of bouquets on tables inside cabanas, white coated waitiers, cigarette girls, a brightly lit “Hollywoodland sign,” displays of Chopard jewelry (including Reeves' watch seen in the film) and half a dozen vintage cars deposited stars in front of the hotel.

Not only were all the film's stars in attendance - Bob Hoskins, Adrien Brody, Robin Tunney, Diane Lane and others - but Ben Affleck, who plays Reeves, brought his wife Jennifer Garner, his brother Casey, his pal Matt Damon with his wife, Luciana Barroso.

It was nice to see the best buds -  who burst on the Hollywood scene in ‘97 with “Good Will Hunting,” grabbed a Best Screenplay Oscar and made headlines by dating two hot actresses Gywneth Paltrow and Winona Ryder -  now look like mature, happily married family men. What a difference almost a decade makes.

It was clearly Ben’s big night. The actor was affable, charming and relaxed, the way he was pre-J-Lo, just hanging with his friends and family, chatting with well-wishers and even talking to reporters about the role that some partygoers were dubbing his “comeback.”

“It’s a great role and that was obvious to me from the start," Affleck admitted. “George is an icon, but a tragic figure, a kind guy and a sad guy. He represents one thing to the nostalgic consciousness of the American TV watching audience. And now they get a chance to see his perspective on the show and it's quite different from what you’d expect.”

But he was also relieved that he’d managed to dump the pounds he packed on to play Reeves. “At least I’ve finally lost all that weight. It would have been so embarrassing to show up at the premiere, five months after the film was shot and still be carrying all that around.”

Producer James Schamus could not be more pleased with Ben’s performance, which some insiders say could nab him a Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.

“Getting Ben was the luckiest thing that has happened to us in a long time,” said Shamus. “This guy is a gem. And not only is he a fine actor who is also a movie star but he’s one of the most intelligent and the kindest guys in this business.”

“We’d heard that Ben was interested in the role and we just kept coming back to his name,” explained director Allen Coulter. “He was so right physically. He also has an aura about him and he’s very charming. There were a lot of names on the table but when I met Ben for breakfast, it was Game Over. I met him that morning and had lunch with Diane (Lane) and I called Focus and said,"They're who I want. There’s no point looking any further.”

The "Hollywoodland" premiere party, sponsored by Chopard and Volkswagon, also drew almost every Hollywood Old Timer who was still mobile: Mickey Rooney,  Eva Marie Saint, Jerry Mathers (“Leave it to Beaver”), Cyd Charisse, George Takei (“Star Trek”) Lesley Ann Warren, Loni Anderson, Peter Graves, Robert Culp, (“I Spy”) and Ann Rutherford as well as Ed Harris, Amy Madigan and comedian Kathy Griffin.

Even Jack Larson, the actor who played Jimmy Olsen with Reeves in the original “Superman” TV series was on hand.

And the old folks haven't lost their sense of humor. They roared when Shamus introduced the film that night by saying, "This is a film that I think celebrates our Hollywood heritage and values; debauchery, greed, paranoia, substance abuse and adultery, all the things that make us special.”

But the highlight of Coulter's night was hearing how much Larson/Jimmy Olsen loved the movie. The men discussed the Mannix mansion and the Reeves home. Coulter explained that the Reeves house was not the real one, but a similar house whose owners let the filmmakers reconfigure it to match the Reeves layout. Larson, who had been to George’s house many times, was impressed by the accuracy of houses, the acting, writing and what he called “the compassionate portrayal of George.”

“That’s a nice thing,” said Coulter, quietly, after Larson left.  “That means a lot. I mean, he was there. He knew George.”

Photo Credits: The "Hollywoodland" bash at the Beverly Hills Hotel was the hot party this week.
WireImage/Eric Charbonneau
Photo Credits: A stunning Scarlett Johansson, with another grizzled old-timer director at low-key "Black Dahlia" premiere.
WireImage/Jeffrey Mayer
Photo Credits: The Matt and Ben Show is back on! Hey, how about an Oscar race this year?
WireImage/Eric Charbonneau
Photo Credits: No more famous couple carpet antics. Ben Affleck sticks close to his nice-and-normal wife Jennifer Garner outside the AMPAS  Thursday night
WireImage/Eric Charbonneau
Photo Credits: "Hollywoodland" hotties Diane Lane, Adrien Brody and Ben Affleck. Will they nab a trio of nominations?
WireImage/Eric Charbonneau

Affleck shows up for Miramax's Tsotsi

“It's time to act like we know each other,” Ben Affleck whispered to South African writer-director Gavin Hood and “Desperate Housewives” star Alfre Woodard as the trio posed for photos at the “Tsotsi” premiere Wednesday night.

Affleck’s name had been on-then-off the media tip sheet for the low-key Pacific Design Center event for the Oscar-nominated foreign language film. So folks were surprised when the suited-up stud strode in, refused to talk to reporters, posed quickly for photos, exchanged brief words with Woodard, Hood and reps from Amnesty International and Artists for a New South Africa, and quickly left. All in max 10 minutes. Hey, the guy’s good.

Why the rush? Seems Affleck stopped by as a favor to "Tsotsi" distributor Miramax. He's really busy now that he’s a big-time director making his first major feature — “Gone, Baby, Gone” — for (surprise) Miramax.

Affleck's film is based on “Mystic River” author Dennis Lehane’s novel about two Boston detectives trying to solve a young girl’s kidnapping. Word is Affleck will adapt the screenplay himself but he won’t star in it. Let’s breathe a collective sigh of relief.

The last major screenplay writing Affleck did was pretty successful. It earned him and Matt Damon the "screenplay written directly for the screen" Oscar for “Good Will Hunting."

But apparently Affleck directed a previous film, listed on IMDB.com as “I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney,” made in ’93. Now that I’d actually pay to see.

But the Academy feels that Oscar-nominated “Tsotsi” — a terrifying and touching look at how an infant helps a young gang leader find his lost childhood and his humanity — is definitely worth seeing.

Hood is particularly thrilled that his film, now playing in 23 screens in South Africa, is literally selling out. He says that means many levels of South African society are watching a homegrown story and that's important to the filmmaker. He recalls an early "Tsotsi” screening for kids in a South African shanty: “In the scene when Tsotsi goes back to the Pipes, where he grew up, one young boy stood up and shouted, 'That’s me, that’s me!'”

Metaphorically speaking, it was him. And Hood knew just how the boy felt.

Photo: Ben Affleck, Alfre Woodard and "Tsotsi" writer-director Gavin Hood pretend to know each other at the film's premiere at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, Calif.
(Jean-Paul Aussenard / WireImage)