What does Annette Bening have to hide?
Reporters at the Deauville Film Festival in France — where Bening was promoting “The Kids Are All Right,” the movie in which she plays a lesbian mother — were shocked when organizers warned them not to ask the actress any questions about her family, and specifically about her husband, Warren Beatty.
“The blackout immediately amped up speculation by the press corps of an impending split,” said one journalist.
Beatty has been notably absent as Bening has traveled the world promoting her latest film, which features a steamy Sapphic sex scene with Julianne Moore. The couple has barely been seen together except for a sighting at the Ago restaurant in LA on Aug. 7.
The National Enquirer reported last month that Bening and Beatty are fighting and finger-pointing over their daughter, Kathlyn, 18, and her plans to have gender-reassignment surgery.
Kathlyn, the eldest of four kids, allegedly has been living as a man for two years under the name Stephen Ira, and is now in college awaiting sex-change operations. The Enquirer reports Bening has agreed to pay for the surgery.
“Annette accepts that Kathlyn wants to surgically become a man, while Warren is still trying to come to terms with it,” a source allegedly told the weekly.
Bening’s publicist Simon Halls told Page Six: “Ridiculous. She was there to promote two films and that’s what she did.” Reps for Beatty didn’t return calls for comment. Stephen Ira couldn’t be reached.
Meanwhile, the Deauville Film Festival, in its 36th year, appears to be a victim of tighter budgets. “Where are the stars? The studios have opted to go to closer-to-home Toronto instead,” said one source. “If the festival goes on like this, it won’t go on much longer.”