During a scene in The Royal Tenenbaums, which opens Dec. 14, Angelica Huston slaps her estranged husband, played by Gene Hackman. "At first I was a little tentative," says Huston, 50. "Then I missed and cracked him with a roundhouse right in the kisser. This huge red imprint showed up on his face." Hackman didn't retaliate, but not everyone has been as fortunate. "I'm just glad it didn't happen on the corner of Sunset Boulevard in a car and he didn't hit me back," says an impish Huston, referring to Hackman's recent road-rage incident, in which he got into a fistfight with two other drivers. But the actress keeps herself in fighting form. "I do a combination of ballet, yoga and salsa dancing three times a week. I do it for exercise and to feel virtuous," she says. "Then I smoke like a fiend."
Where the Boys Are
Costarring with Hollywood's hottest leading men is just another day at the office for Julia Roberts, but working with four of them at once proved to be a bit...underwhelming. "I thought the guys would be more happy to see me and reverential," says a smiling Roberts, 34, about life on the set of Ocean's Eleven with Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon and Andy Garcia. "But it was like being the youngest girl in a family of boys. They picked on me." ("Oh, we didn't do anything to her," counters Clooney, who is known for his elaborate pranks. "She actually snuck into my room once and cellophane-foiled it. Please. Amateur night.") There was, though, one big benefit to being surrounded by stars. "These guys were great to hang out with, because the girls just go crazy and I could cruise on by," says Roberts, who also got to reunite with Erin Brockovich director Steven Soderbergh. Was it a different experience? "Well, I'm flat-chested in this one," says the Oscar winner, who portrays another strong woman. Still, "I had to endure the heels. It was that rage from my uncomfortable shoes that made me seem so steely and strong."
Time and Punishment
William Baldwin, who with wife Chynna Phillips welcomed son Vance on Oct. 23, already has high hopes for the couple's daughter Jameson, 21 months. "Well, Chynna's father [the late singer John Phillips] was 6'4", her brother is 6'5", and I'm 6'2"," says Baldwin, 38. "She could be 5'10" and some knockout." While the kids may have a soaring future, Baldwin's other concern is more down-to-earth: discipline. "My wife comes from the L.A. Zen school, and I come from Long Island, the son of a schoolteacher who raised six kids on 20 grand and who, when he had to get medieval, did," says Baldwin. "My wife and I clash over philosophies of discipline, but we'll meet in the middle. I just want us to be on the same page before my kids leave for college."
Put-down and Out
"I came from a household with a domineering career mother who didn't think men were important," says Anne Robinson, 57, whose autobiography, Memoir of an Unfit Mother, is a bestseller in the U.K. "I felt sorry for men. My mom used to bully them." But Robinson is an equal-opportunity offender as the host of NBC's The Weakest Link. Everyone is subject to her zingers, including celebrities. "Stars are much more nervous. It's not in their nature to have someone take the mickey out of them." For example? "William Shatner. I said to him, 'What do you do and what are you famous for?' " Robinson doesn't have to think long when asked for her favorite put-downs. "I always like 'Whose brain cell is going to die of loneliness?' Or 'Whose doughnut has run out of jam?' " She also likes a challenge. "I'm totally dependent on the hecklers," says Robinson. "I don't get nervous that they will attack me. I've been at it longer."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
