Helen Hunt. She’s got an Oscar. She’s got an Emmy. She’s got a Golden Globe. She’s got a divorce from Hank Azaria. She’s got a guy. She’s got a daughter named Makena Lei, which is Hawaiian for “many flowers of heaven.” And she’s got a pipperoo movie coming out called “The Sessions.”
“True story,” she says. “This poet had polio at age 6. At 37, he’s told he won’t live much longer. With an iron lung, can only turn his head at a 90-degree angle, he wants to experience sexual life for the first time. That’s when a professional sex surrogate is called in.
“I play the sex surrogate. And know how we filmed this? Verrrry carefully. It was up to the cinematographer to make us feel comfortable. The material created a vulnerability. I personally felt extremely vulnerable.
“No body makeup because that gets sticky and creepy. So I did it naked. All naked. Butt naked. Totally completely naked. Naked beyond just naked. My jaws dropped at the prospect. When I was about to take my clothes off, my palms started to sweat.
“It’s rare to read such a beautiful story. True story. This real live therapist, living in California, is Cheryl Cohen Greene. Typical soccer mom with a house, mortgage, husband. We met. I stole her spirit. Her accent. She’s not shy or filled with shame. She’s instantly open. A real deal. I could ask or tell her anything.
“The day we met she quickly jumped into the shower because she had a therapy session due with a 70-year-old man. She loved the finished film because she got her message through and things said she really wanted said. She uses the phrase ‘sex positive.’
“We all wanted to work in this tiny little unadorned movie that was made for pennies in LA and will be sold as an adult film. My little daughter isn’t ready to see it, but when she’s maybe 15 and can be taken by her parents, it’s OK. It’s not glib or dark. It’s a story of pure light.”
AT Rory Kennedy’s HBO screening of a film about mom “Ethel,” RFK’s widow, Ethel said: “Why would anyone do a documentary on me?” Joe Kennedy III and Ted’s rarely seen ex-wife, Joan, who caused a panic when she appeared, laughed politely. Next morning a Humanitarian Award breakfast. Semi-diffident honoree Ethel caused another panic by arriving late. Getting hair and makeup done.
More Kennedy stuff. Taylor Swift, Conor Kennedy’s new ladyfriend, is cranky that ex-love John Mayer keeps complaining about her “Dear John” song. She’s upset that he’s upset. Since he mumbles it’s about him, she frets that — should her current ration of passion dissipate — the Kennedys may worry she’ll next write a song about kindergarten kid Conor.
THE ladies: Rihanna, who wears more jewelry than clothes, claims the more naked she gets the more confidence she gains. Revelation gives strength, she says. OK? . . . Salma Hayek weighs her nifty set of bones daily but, loving food and wine, allows that while there is no alarm yet she’s learning to put the brakes on . . . Jennifer Aniston’s nickname for fiancé Justin Theroux is “The Protector.”
OKLAHOMA oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, 84. Getting a divorce. Not his first. Or second. Or third. His 2005 wedding to blonde Madeleine had Kenny Rogers and the whole NYC corps de ballet perform the whole “Nutcracker” suite. Lebanese-born Madeleine learned to fly high. Hostess on private jets, she wed Gulfstream IV’s multimillionaire Allen Paulson then hopped onto richrichrichrich Boone Pickens, whose pickins are plenty. Oy! Many sagas about Madeleine.
Being I’m not smart enough to understand SmartPower, its president Brian F. Keane gave me his new mint-colored book “Green Is Good.” Plus:
“Green’s our planet. Our money. Communities, businesses profit by going green. A thousand dollars in solar improvements adds $20,000 to home value. And 84 percent of us want it. Under 3 percent have it. Michael Douglas, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Yoko Ono, George Stephanopoulos, Ed Asner are into renewable clean energy. Houses lose $3.31 billion yearly in wasted energy.”
Not wanting him to waste any more of his, I took the book.
WORD is “Wall Street,” a pilot en route to becoming a series, was set for PBS. Now I hear it’s going to the Comedy Channel.
COCO and Ice T. A colorful couple whose unorthodox unusual unnormal existence makes an E! reality show. Into the Upper East Side’s Park East Animal Hospital, Examination Room 1, marches Coco and two English bulldogs. Father and son. Spartacus and Atticus. The father, 2 1/2, needs to be neutered.
Coco’s upset. “I like my dogs whole,” she says. While vet Dr. Lewis Berman examines them, does what must be done, even fits Daddy with a prosthesis because, Coco insists, “I want my dogs with all their parts,” a director, producer and two camera crews film the procedure for a TV episode next month.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.