Zooey Deschanel opens in the new movie “Our Idiot Brother” Friday. Starts Fox-TV’s original series “New Girl” in September. Brings out her Christmas song album in October. She’s like crabgrass. She’s all over.
“I love to work,” she says. Yeah, no kidding.
“The movie is about a family, three sisters and a brother so different that his honesty gets in the way of their lives. I play the freer, more open sister. My character is somewhat slutty.
“The TV show’s a comedy. I’m a young schoolteacher whose longtime boyfriend drops her so she meets a guy on the Internet and gets introduced into the dating world. This character’s totally different. Not slutty. Nerdy. Like one scene I make a date, which I haven’t done in a long time, and he stands me up.
“Been a long time since guys stood me up, but before I married I definitely had them cancel on me. In LA, everybody cancels last-minute. We recently made five dinner plans, and four canceled. I’m not saying they’re more selfish here. Just more relaxed. Recently I thought rehearsal would finish in plenty of time to make dinner, but it ran overlong and I had to cancel. Out here everybody knows work comes first. People expect that.
“I have a rigorous schedule, but it’s OK because I grew up in the indie world. I didn’t make billion-dollar extravaganzas with huge budgets and a week to shoot one scene, where you spend lots of time waiting for lights, for the setup. Wait, wait, wait. Indies shoot, shoot, shoot. No waiting time. It’s long hours. I’m used to that.
“Whenever there’s any freedom it’s dinner with my parents or I sleep. If I get stressed out, I relax by singing, composing music and playing the ukulele. I have my own band. That’s my outlet.
“But above all I love working.” Yeah, no kidding.
OCTOBER brings Newmarket Press’ screenplay book of director Clint Eastwood’s soon-due movie “J. Edgar” about G-Man Hoover starring L. DiCaprio … Opening night of Lincoln Center’s Korean show “Hero: The Musical” drew Ban Ki-moon. I did not see the UN secretary-general at the opening of “The Book of Mormon” nor “The Motherf__ker With the Hat.”
MY friend Rick Friedberg on America’s recession: Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 congressmen … Angelina Jolie adopted a baby from America … CEOs playing miniature golf … Mormons making do with only one wife … Strippers killed when men threw them rolls of pennies … Bill and Hillary traveling together now share a room … Somali pirates managing Vegas’ Treasure Island casino.
Also: Pre-declined credit cards arriving in the mail … Wives who can’t afford batteries having sex with husbands … Check returned marked “insufficient funds”? Ask if that means you or the bank … McDonald’s selling the 1/4 ouncer … Beverly Hills parents without nannies learning their kids’ names.
THE take on Pataki: With this nonexistent field, supporters say the good job running our state means George has a shot. A) If serious, he must line up fund-raising. B) Must collect heavy-duty workers. C) Question is, has he the energy and drive to want the Oval Office more than anything and is he able to hustle for it 24 hours every day? Also, Libby Pataki, who never craved limelight and who loves her life now, she’ll be supportive? Yes.
WE’RE told that heightened hearing and sense of smell make dogs so sensitive they not only foretell troubles, sickness and disaster in advance, they can predict our earthquake. Yeah? Well, not my two. They had zero premonition. No foreboding sense of danger. They sensed only a need for treats. Might experts tell me what type dogs they mean? Collies? Scotties? Doxies? Maybe. Yorkies? Forget it.
Years back “Jurassic Park” was up for an Oscar. The night before I watched a dress rehearsal. Upon cue, a giant plastic dinosaur crept out of the wings. Its huge jaws emitted a terrifying rumble that shook the whole building. “Brilliant sound effect,” I said to the Californian alongside. When the chandelier swayed, seats moved, theater shivered, side houselights crashed, he said: “You from New York?” I nodded. He said: “Then you don’t know nothing, dummy. It’s an earthquake.”
SOUTHAMPTON. Lady enters 75 Main carrying a cooler with cereal, milk, teabag, avocado, dessert cookies, two organic eggs and tells the waiter: “Scramble them lightly and bring plates for my other items.” After lunch she packed every plastic-bagged leftover into her cooler. Said the stunned owner to the Hampton Sheet’s Joan Jedell: “If she’s ever here again, I’m going to tell her where she can shove her cooler — but it won’t be at 75 Main.”
Only in the Hamptons, kids, only in the Hamptons.