So where was “Inglourious Basterds” Oscar nominee Christoph Waltz when he heard:
“In bed in LA. Sound asleep. And it took me forever to fall asleep. I was actually afraid to listen. My wife was listening. And immediately my agent called. I heard her talking to him in the background. It’s infinitely better to be told this news by a friend.
“I’ve never been to the Academy Awards before. There was no reason. I’ll go with my wife, iron my shirt, tie my tie and put on my very own simple usual tuxedo. I don’t go for that borrowed new ‘in’ stuff.
“I was thrilled. It’s like an extra day in your life. You are propelled into orbit — interviews, appearances — and then slowly you come down again and hope you come down softly.
“You can’t become ideological about acting. Young today actors are different. I hesitate to evaluate them. The work is different. They employ whatever works. In my day, it was more the Method, which was the gospel in the ’50s and has now sort of phased out, although I never was an orthodox Method actor.”
Did the heaviness of this role stay with him throughout a shooting day?
“If you’re busy with something all day long, some of it automatically goes with you. It lingers into the evening. What choice have you? Then you have a glass of something, and it fades away.”
Although he doesn’t discuss it, his son has studied to be a rabbi. And was there some experience inside Christoph Waltz that he applied to use for his role as the Jew hater?
“Look, I try to exercise a craft. A sculptor doesn’t necessarily take his clay along wherever he goes.”
Bobby Flay at the Palm Springs Frank Sinatra house. A special for the Food Network . . . Self magazine editor Lucy Danziger‘s new book is “The Nine Rooms of Happiness.” Bedroom is sex, office is work, kitchen is household tasks, etc. This she said while telling one person: “I blogged about you,” and another: “Saw you on Facebook.” Who knows how she has time for those nine rooms . . . Gwyneth admitted that at one of the fashion shows she and Madonna spent most of the time guessing the models’ ages.
Note for Kevin Smith, that chunky moviemaker who was bounced off an airplane for being fat: Remember the 11th Commandment: Thou shalt not weigh more than the refrigerator.
The Westminster Kennel Club’s Best in Show last night brought out stories of those who love their pets:
Ryan O’Neal once fed his dog $38-an-ounce caviar . . . Ozzy Osbourne‘s hound Baldrick had plastic surgery to make him more handsome. Baldrick, that is, not Ozzy . . . Kim Basinger has shared her home with 21 animals — dogs, cats, ducks, bunnies, a cow, hermit crabs, fish and a rat named Nibbles. Her daughter said: “Rats are fun to play with. Incredibly bright, they sit on your shoulder while you’re working the computer.” . . . Jessica Lange‘s four dogs sleep with her in bed . . . For crying scenes, Dakota Fanning thinks about her goldfish . . . Renée Zellweger had a puppy named Woof.
Salma Hayek‘s father satisfied her every wish. Including the desire for tigers. “It was my third tiger Rambo, the tiger of my life, that I really fell in love with. He was like a little baby, like a doll, and he played with me all the time. I had him three years. I kept him with me inside the house. But then he got killed, and it was a big tragedy. I can’t even talk about it.”
Christina Ricci says her cat Viggo Mendelson is Jewish and she bought it a plushy menorah and dreidel. Listen, don’t pick on me. I’m just reporting . . . Paris Hilton has more than 600 pets, including a ferret named Rascal. She just cares for her two Chihuahuas. Others take care of the others . . . As a kid in South Africa, Charlize Theron slept with her pet goat . . . Mickey Rourke has been asked to leave many events because he wouldn’t stay without his dog . . . And Richard Belzer‘s steady date is also a four-legged furry beige friend.
Jessica Alba: “When you’re filming with an actor, either it’s someone you want to sleep with, or you’re thinking of someone else you want to sleep with or you’re thinking of your dog. I think of Sid and Nancy, my pugs.”
Sissy Spacek bought a group of quarter horses. But then they began multiplying. “I couldn’t bear to part with them because I loved them so much. Soon I had 58 of them and I knew each one’s name, and some died of old age because we’d kept them right through their life cycle. My husband and I were rapidly going through our savings. It nearly killed me, but we eventually had to sell them. It was like selling your children.”
At a coffee shop on Madison in the 60s: “So I said to him, ‘Listen, hon, no man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.’ ”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.