Cindy Adams

Cindy Adams

Celebrity News

Zach Braff: New flick is about ‘father-son relationships and spirituality’

Newest new movie. “Wish I Was Here.” Zach Braff wrote it. Zach Braff directed it. Zach Braff produced it. Zach Braff’s in it.

“My brother Adam wrote it with me,” he said. “Took six months because we live in different places. We’d get together a few weeks and weekends. I’d do an outline, send a first draft, which he’d tweak then send his ideas then we’d say, ‘You create this scene, and I’ll write that one.’

“I’ve wanted to do this since making my 2004 film ‘Garden State.’ But then I learned about restrictions. First, people passed. Then a mortgage business guy who loved films funded it. Then came conditions. Not the casting I chose. Not shooting where I wanted. Not getting the final cut. So many hurdles. So this one I did myself with no corporate interference.

“It’s about father-son relationships and spirituality. You take away what you learned — like I did — from your own father. I can’t wait to be a father.”

You have no children?

“No. Also no wife.”

Kate Hudson, playing Zach’s working wife, who supports the family then lets him know it’s time for him to play house, was reported in the Hamptons last weekend. “But I wasn’t,” she said. “I was in Europe making ‘Rock the Kasbah’ with Bill Murray and just arrived this afternoon. I’m tired but OK because the flight allowed the rest I don’t usually get.

“In this movie, many family things I relate to. Good, bad, ugly, family’s always challenging. I’m blessed with relationships, but it can be tough. I see myself in my kids. They’re my best teacher, and so far I feel I’m doing right. My son has great ability. When Ryder expresses his feelings I see my own shortcomings.”

Skinny in her borrowed strapless midriff Michael Kors, which she kept schlepping up to stay in place, it was: “And I really eat. Guys on the flight fed me the whole way.”

Also starring…

Josh Gad’s character, Noah: “In Zach’s movie I’m a sheltered, complicated glass-is-half-empty character. I usually play outgoing jovial types. For real, I’m an open door. I put everything out there.

“Growing up was complicated for me. My parents divorced. Religion was complex. I questioned my own faith. So I’ve brought my own experiences to this film. I have two kids. They rock your role. Upend your universe. Opens my eyes to how I acted as a child. I see my own impasse. My own early thinking, when she speaks to me. Having children, you’re tainted with wisdom.”

James Franco arrived. Somebody asked: “Want to interview him?” Know how fleeting fame is in our town? Somebody else answered: “Why? He’s not even in this movie.”

French prez a busy man

Leaking from France’s Élysée Palace is — for now — unconfirmed gossip from Parisian big-mouths (excuse the redundancy). But mine is not to reason why — mine is just to report or die:

Monsieur le Presidente de France François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande, busy boy, never married. However, he makes children. Valérie Trierweiler, he removed from his mattress after eight years. Then he reportedly revved toward new bedmate, actress Julie Gayet, on a motorcycle. (Imagine de Gaulle doing this?)

The French understand spicy dishes a la Carla Bruni-Sarkozy having played potsy with Mick Jagger. But, now cranky, they boo’d Hollande on Monday’s Bastille Day. Still, he remains as erect as the Eiffel Tower. And causing chat that it may be good politically to marry the actress.

From Southampton, no traffic, not a foot on the brake, nice quiet driving — 90 minutes. Off the 59th Street bridge exit, crosstown west behind a garbage truck, foot on the brake, hand on the horn, screaming and cursing — 40 minutes.

Only in New York, kids, only in New York.