Father Knows Best
Aerosmith's Steven Tyler may be psychic. At least that's what daughter Liv Tyler thinks. The Lord of the Rings star, 27, who is expecting her first child with rocker husband Royston Langdon this winter, says her dad had a dream that she was pregnant. In fact, on Mother's Day he sent her flowers and a card that read, "Happy Mother's Day—oh, not yet I know, but soon I hope!" Says the expectant actress: "I was so shocked, I couldn't believe it. I knew I was pregnant, but he didn't know yet."
Horsing Around
Clive Owen isn't a man to back down from a challenge. So when he was asked to play the lead in the new action movie King Arthur, the British actor kept a key piece of information to himself. "For 70 percent of the movie, I'm on a horse, and these guys never asked me if I could ride. Through all the negotiations I was thinking, 'You can't ride a horse. You're in denial,' " recalls Owen, 39. Once he signed on to the project, the star set about becoming an instant equestrian. "First I got on this little, fat, almost donkey," recalls Owen. "If I had my way, I would have stayed on that forever, but within a very short period of time I was on a big, powerful horse riding at serious speeds while noisy extras were wielding weapons."
Here's to You, Ms. Basinger
She turned 50 last December, but Kim Basinger can still have her pick of eligible men—even the young ones. Take 19-year-old Jon Foster for instance. Did he mind being seduced by Basinger in their drama The Door in the Floor? Yeah, right. "It was definitely not another day at the office," says Foster. "I mean, Kim is gorgeous. But I had a girlfriend at the time." How did the actor keep his girl mollified? Says Foster: "I called her like 18 times that day."
Country Charm
He can perform at stadiums and in front of millions on TV, but don't ask Clay Aiken to hear himself speak. "I can listen to myself sing, but to listen to myself talk makes me cringe. I don't even like to hear myself on an answering machine," says the North Carolina native, who nevertheless agreed to narrate new audio versions of the popular Arthur Adventure Series children's books. His audience may not know the storyteller. "I don't think kids would recognize my voice unless I sang the book," says Aiken, 25. "They're going to say, 'Mama, who is this kid with this country accent?' Most moms will recognize me, only because I sound like such a big hick."
Teacher's Pest
Jim Carrey says funny runs in his family. "I'm the genetic imprint of my father. I would see him entertain people at my house, and he'd get so animated, I'd sit back and think, 'Man, this guy is like a cartoon! That's who I want to be,'" says the actor, 42, who grew up outside of Toronto. Carrey also credits an early mentor with helping him hone his craft. "My junior high school teacher struck a deal with me: If I did my work and didn't drive everyone in class crazy, I could have 15 minutes at the end of each day to get up and lampoon the teachers," recalls the star. "She was pretty creative to come up with that solution, because I was a pain."
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