Penelope Cruz
Tom Cruise's ex-girlfriend, Penelope Cruz, is the latest celeb to say she's seen Suri Cruise. "I met Suri. She is really beautiful. She is really special," the 32-year-old actress told reporters Thursday at the London premiere of her new film, Volver.
"One of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen. And I am extremely happy for them. They are really happy and doing great." Cruz, who dated Cruise from 2001 to 2004, declined to offer other details of the meeting.
Suri, the daughter of Cruise, 44, and Katie Holmes, 27, hasn't been seen in public since she was born on April 18. But this month, Jada Pinkett Smith told PEOPLE that she also has seen the baby.
"She's one of the sweetest babies I've ever met in my life," she said. "She's an absolute beauty and she's Daddy's little girl." Cruise's pal and fellow Scientologist, Leah Remini, has also met Suri.
The King of Queens star told PEOPLE Suri "looks like Tom and Katie. She's just beautiful." In other Cruz news, when asked at the London premiere about another ex-boyfriend, Matthew McConaughey, with whom she split in June, her eyes became teary. "I'm not going to talk about it," she told PEOPLE.
•Reporting by Karla Adam
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J.Lo Ditches "Dallas"
Jennifer Lopez
Debbie may do Dallas, but Jennifer Lopez won't.
The Enough star has pulled out of the now slightly less star-studded big screen remake of the '80s TV hit, with nary an explanation regarding her departure.
"She is out of Dallas," Lopez's publicist, Leslie Sloane-Zelnick, said Thursday, denying reports that her client's exit was abrupt but declining to shed light on her decision to cut and run.
No potential replacements have been named.
Marc Anthony's better half was set to star as the adulterous and alcoholic Sue Ellen Ewing in the film adaptation opposite would-be celluloid hubby John Travolta, who is set to play the oil tycoon J.R. Ewing, filling the shoes of original TV star
Larry Hagman.
Lopez's exit is not the remake's first big-name drop out.
Legally Blonde's Robert Luketic, who more recently directed Lopez in Monster-in-Law, was originally slated to direct the film before dropping out this spring, citing "creative differences," amid reports that he was unhappy with the direction of casting.
Which, incidentally, was mostly done by him.
In March, Variety reported that Luketic had extended offers to Lopez, Travolta, Luke Wilson and Shirley MacLaine to play the lead roles.
As it stands, all but Lopez are still on board with the long-gestating project, with Wilson tapped to play Patrick Duffy's original role of Bobby Ewing and MacLaine filling Barbara Bel Geddes' role as matriarch Miss Ellie Ewing.
Dallas, which ran from 1978 to 1991, chronicled the lives and loves of the Ewing family, and prompted the pop culture commanding inquiry, "Who Shot J.R.?" (For the record, it was his sister-in-law, Kristin, in a fit of anger.)
Bend It Like Beckham's Gurinder Chadha has been hired as Luketic's replacement, and, barring any more casting couch bust-ups, production on the 20th Century Fox film could kick off as early as October.
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Several Hollywood friends back Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson answers journalists' questions during a news conference in Rome's Cinecitta studios on Sept. 20, 2002. The Los Angeles District Attorney's office on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2006, charged Gibson with driving under the influence of alcohol, having an elevated blood-alcohol level and an open container of liquor in his car when he was pulled over in Malibu last week. Many celebrities who have had public problems with alcohol or drugs choose residential rehab facilities as part of their recovery efforts. But Gibson is not checking into a treatment facility. Instead, his publicist says the actor is participating in an outpatient 'program of recovery,' declining to provide specifics. (AP Photo/Corrado Giambalvo)
LOS ANGELES - Several of Mel Gibson's friends say he's a "different person" when he's drinking, but they do not believe he's anti-Semitic.
Movie producer Dean Devlin said he and his wife are Jewish, and he considers Gibson — who unleashed an anti-Jewish tirade when arrested for drunken driving July 28 — one of his best friends in Hollywood.
"If Mel is an anti-Semite, then he spends a lot of time with us, which makes no sense," Devlin told the Los Angeles Times. He met Gibson while co-producing "The Patriot," in which Gibson starred. "But he is an alcoholic, and while that makes no excuse for what he said, because there is no excuse, I believe it was the disease speaking, not the man."
Jodie Foster said she does not believe that drunkenness excuses hurtful remarks, but doubts claims that Gibson is prejudiced against Jews.
"Is he an anti-Semite? Absolutely not," Foster told the newspaper for a story in Friday's editions. "But it's no secret that he has always fought a terrible battle with alcoholism."
Though it was widely believed that Gibson has been sober since the early '90s, some people close to him say he has been on and off the wagon for years.
"I have been with Mel when he has fallen off, and he becomes a completely different person," Devlin said. "It is pretty horrifying."
Gibson was charged this week with two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of alcohol.
Foster, who co-starred with Gibson in "Maverick," said she believed he will recover from his latest fall.
Gibson "was a shining example of how low you can go when you are young and still pull yourself up," she said. "He took his recovery very seriously, which is why I know he is strong enough to get through this now."
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