News You Can Use

Gossip Items: Conveying the Hearsay

So many news articles are the same; only the names are changed. In Hollywood, where everything is fleeting, all reporters need is this template from MICHAEL Y. PARK to file their stories.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Y. Park is a freelance journalist living in Brooklyn, N.Y.

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Has a certain star with ?

Though he may be heating up the box office with his new movie, -Man Part , earning a whopping $ million from theatergoers last weekend, has been having more than a little trouble with a cold… shoulder, that is!

First off, he was spurned by his ex, , now happily seeing her hot-hot-hot co-star from Don’t the ! and planning a trip to fabulous , in the fall. (Their publicists claim the two are “just friends,” F.Y.I.)

Our informants tell us was playing the apologetic playboy with his former flame last night, trying to smooth things over with her for his very public displays of infidelity last month with a certain starlet who goes by , a stripper named , and , the lead singer of the rock band .

“He called her up and was pacing up and down Sunset outside .” our super-secret contact tells us. “He looked really upset and then slammed down his BlackBerry and crushed it with his . I’ve always read in the tabloids that dude had a temper. Now I know it’s true!”

Then the horny heavy, known for playing onscreen, was spotted canoodling with an up-and-coming actress who’s appearing in the movie the this summer. The two had apparently spent a weekend together in ultra-romantic , touring together by moonlight—for research purposes, of course, for a possible movie directed by , according to their publicists, who deny any more-than-professional relationship between the two.

They started off the evening on at ’s new eatery, and then went shopping for at ’s. He looked on—and then snuck into the dressing room with her for a , according to our inside contacts there.

“He totally just went in there, and there were all these sounds for a while,” a shocked source whispers to us. “They must have been making like passionate animals in there. Of course, it might have just been his pot-bellied .”

The actor’s publicist says the two are “just friends and colleagues.”

“They’re just friends and colleagues who just happen to often appear in semi-amorous positions in very public places and who like to attend paparazzi-covered events holding hands and smooching,” he tells us, with a wink. “By the way, my client is definitely not .”

He adds that his client’s road trips don’t violate the terms of the star’s license suspension for .

The two eventually emerged from the dressing room looking a bit disheveled, dropped off his at home, and then high-tailed it to , where they drank and nuzzled cozily until his infamous temper flared up like a in a firecracker factory.

“That always happens when he drinks too much,” an old friend who hasn’t seen him in years and won’t give his name says. “He’s a bad drunk, always has been. He seems crazy about this new girl, but it won’t last a month.”

Apparently it didn’t last the night, as picked a fight with , and had to be escorted out by the bartender. His humiliated female friend left quietly on her own. But hasn’t given up the ship quite yet—he was spotted later that very night with a young blonde chippie in a ’s outfit headed toward the Hollywood Hills. Could wedding bells be far behind?

* * *

-O -O Shock-O!

Is the fairytale romance between and coming to a -like ending? While he was out working the entertainment-news shows in to promote his latest flick, The and the : , she was spotted with a senior senor at L.A.’s until the wee hours.

“I don’t know who he was, but they were definitely together,” our informer says. “They held hands for while, he picked up the bill, and then he gave her a kiss as they got up to leave. The body language was definitely there. She was all over him and he was all over her: hugging and . It was embarrassing. They wouldn’t stop looking at each other.”

The silver-haired lothario, who used a to get around, got into the with his young conquest once dinner was over, with the destination presumably in the vicinity of her . Better strap on that seatbelt, Gramps!

Not a great publicity shot for , who is currently starring in the family-friendly The by the .

Her publicist—who claims the “older gentleman” was the actress’s father, believed lost on a expedition near the last —says that the star’s marriage is “fine.”

“And don’t forget to watch their movie The Story, out this !” she adds.

—Published May 22, 2007

Sunday, November 8, 2009