He’s Going To Keep Pushing The Envelope

So maybe you’ve heard that the critics hate Kevin Costner’s new flick, “The Postman.”

Frankly, my dear, he doesn’t give a damn.

“What I think I have is a style of making movies that doesn’t cater to (critics),” he told The Orange County Register. “It caters to the emotions of people who are not ashamed to get lumps in their throats and who are not afraid to smile when a movie works at its very best.”

Costner snared seven Oscars for “Dances With Wolves” in 1990, but his three-hour, post-apocalyptic epic, “Waterworld,” was widely panned two years ago.

“I could deal with critics better if I could learn something from them, but when they write in a vein of cynicism and elitism, I can’t learn from that. There are times when I want to say the heck with it and stop making movies, but I’m not a quitter.”

Loose talk

“Good Will Hunting” star Matt Damon’s mother, on his sudden success (in The Washington Post): “He’s not a human being anymore. He’s become a product people can pick up and judge whether he’s good or bad. They’ll put him away and pick up another product anytime now.”

This gunfighter is still hanging in there

Richard Widmark turns 83 today.

Frankly, Mr. De Niro, we resemble that remark

Robert De Niro is another actor who’s not overly fond of celebrity reporters. “I always figure that those people were the ones, when they went to high school, they were probably rejected in some way,” he tells Esquire magazine. “They think that the way to have power over people is to know about the most popular kid in the class or something.”

In other words, it could be 007 versus CNN

Pierce Brosnan says it’s not too much of a stretch to make the villain in his new James Bond movie, “Tomorrow Never Dies,” a power-mad media mogul (played by Jonathan Pryce). “He could be a (Rupert) Murdoch, he could be a Ted Turner … whoever you want to pick out of the hat,” he said. “Turn up their characters 10 degrees and you could have something like Jonathan Pryce.”

He’s enjoying his kids before they get too big

Tom Hanks kept a low profile this year - not to escape the critics, but to spend time with his wife and children. “I make a comfortable living at it, but I can’t say I live and die by the entertainment industry,” he says. “I’ve been home a lot. I was pretty much with my family all year long.”

Taking time off is an alien concept to her

Sigourney Weaver was plenty busy, starring in “Ice Storm,” “Snow White: A Tale of Terror” and “Alien Resurrection,” but she’s already wondering where her next part is coming from. As she told Entertainment Weekly: “Please write that I’m looking for a job in the spring.”

He’s got it figured out down to the last detail

Jack Nicholson, whose latest role is a bigoted romance novelist in the new “As Good as It Gets,” says he’s just doing what comes naturally. “Eighty-five percent of any character you play not only has things in common, but is exactly the same as you are,” he says.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino