People: Laughing all the way to the bank
Guillermo del Toro has had it with the beautiful people of Hollywood.
It’s monsters – or bank robbers – he wants to see.
The Mexican director, whose latest movie “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army” opens July 11, says that monsters have a inherent beauty that not enough people appreciate.
“We live in a world that’s constantly trying to tell you what … products to use to diminish your ugliness, or smelliness or the unpleasantness,” he says.
“I say … let us be whatever we are, let us be free in our ugliness, fatiness, stretch markings, whatever … we are.
“Monsters can be that, monsters can represent something else.”
Del Toro, in a black suit with a polo shirt tucked out, says his grungy ideal extends to himself. He’s so uncool, he says, that he dresses poorly and drives a 2000 Chrysler.
“If I wouldn’t have been a director, I would’ve been a bank robber. I hate banks,” he adds.
“Give me ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ or any movie where banks are robbed, and I’m happy.”
Scientologist fiction?
Will Smith‘s soon-to-open private school in Los Angeles is not a Scientology facility, those involved insist.
The New Village Academy, founded by Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith, will use instructional methods developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and a few teachers belong to the church.
But the couple say they are not Scientologists, and the academy’s director says the facility has no religious affiliation.
Saving their skins
Pamela Anderson‘s sporty 2000 Dodge Viper sold for $65,000 in an auction to benefit an anti-snake slaughter campaign.
A spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said the group will use the cash to raise awareness about the cruel methods used to skin animals such as snakes and crocodiles, particularly in India.
Like an arson
A weekend fire that destroyed a childhood home of Madonna in a Detroit suburb has been deemed suspicious by arson investigators.
The singer, known then as Madonna Louise Ciccone, spent part of her childhood in the home with her five brothers and sisters.
Yesterday, and today
The British Broadcasting Corp. is airing a long-lost Beatles interview featuring John Lennon and Paul McCartney talking about how they met and their songwriting partnership.
The film sat forgotten for 44 years in a garage in south London. Experts were surprised to find the audio portion still usable for radio broadcast.
The birthday bunch
Director Ken Russell is 81. Actor Michael Cole (“The Mod Squad”) is 63. Writer Dave Barry is 61. Actress Jan Smithers (“WKRP In Cincinnati”) is 59. Talk host Montel Williams is 52. Country singer Aaron Tippin is 50. Actor Tom Cruise is 46. Actor Thomas Gibson is 46. Actress Hunter Tylo is 46. Actress Connie Nielsen (“Gladiator”) is 44. Voice actress Yeardley Smith (“The Simpsons”) is 44. Actor Grant Rosenmeyer (“Oliver Beene”) is 17.