DVD

The Choices

Ally Merchandise

Episode Guides

Bios

Quotes

Mailing Lists

Articles & Interviews

The Dancing Baby

Vonda Shepard

Appearances

Ally McBeal Mailing List

Brothers & Sisters Mailing List

NEWS and Rumors

Robert Downey Jr. Welcomes Son Exton Elias

Wife Susan delivered son Exton Elias Downey at 7:24 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7 in Los Angeles, his rep confirms to PEOPLE.

“Everyone is healthy and they couldn’t be happier,” a friend of the couple says.

Baby boy weighs in at 7 lbs., 5 oz., is 20 inches long and joins big brother Indio, 18, Downey’s son from his previous marriage.

After announcing the pregnancy in August, the Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows star, 46, revealed the sex of the baby on national television, much to his producer wife’s (feigned) chagrin.

“I could never really stay mad at him, but I can tell you it genuinely wasn’t something we planned to reveal,” Susan, 38, later explained.

Thankfully, her husband — who will next star in The Avengers — did manage to keep quiet about their name choice.

“If I told you the name, then she would lop off my head with a machete,” joked Downey.

Pilot Season: ABC Picks Up Portia de Rossi Comedy

The multi-camera comedy tells the story of a brilliant, successful woman who begrudgingly ends up working for her ditzy beauty queen sister, who is now a big-city mayor.

The Smart One, written by Don Todd for Warner Bros. TV, will be executive-produced by Ellen DeGeneres and Lauren Corrao's A Very Good Production.

Sightings

Hayden Panettiere's Mom Pulls Plug On Marriage

Lesley Panettiere cited irreconcilable differences in her divorce petition, filed in L.A. County Superior Court.

The couple made headlines in August, 2008, after Alan was charged for striking Lesley in the face. He pled no contest to misdemeanor battery and was placed on 24 months probation.

Here's what's interesting ... Lesley lists the date of separation as July 15, 2008, which is a month prior to the incident that led to his battery conviction.

Lesley is asking for spousal support.

The couple has only one minor child -- a 17-year-old son. Hayden is 22. Lesley wants joint custody.

Tropical bliss

Also at the Caribbean resort are Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi. Sources tell us DeGeneres is planning a private New Year’s Eve bash for her close friends there and “has even flown in the resident DJ from her show, Tony Okungbowa, to spin at the party.” He posted on Twitter yesterday: “Hanging out at the pool in Anguilla wish u were here.”

Robert Downey Jr. getting shoe lifts for 'Iron Man 3'

According to Us Weekly, Downey's stylist has requested shoes with three-inch built-in lifts to wear while filming "Iron Man 3."

"They're working on a special pair just for him," a source said. "The lift insole needs to be concealed in a high top shoe or boot. The highest that's offered the general public is 2 inches."

While Downey has not commented on his lifts per se, he did recently tell Men's Fitness magazine that he was surprised to be cast in the action hero franchise given his compact body type.

"I guess I had some notion about it," he said. "I’ve always really enjoyed that genre, but I mean, it’s pretty outlandish. I’m not particularly tall or strong or fast or aggressive. Yet, I’m not faking it. To me, it’s a cosmic chuckle."

His trainer, Brad Bose, also reveals in the cover story that he was similarly skeptical about turning Downey into Tony Stark.

"He was skinny," said Bose. "He weighed about 150 pounds ... Our goal was to get him as big as we could."

Stars hit beaches & slopes

Wanted Alive! Jon Bon Jovi Is Not Dead

The rock star is the latest celeb to fall prey to the non-discriminatory celebrity death hoax, which has been picking on actors and musicians willy-nilly over the last couple of years.

So, what was it this time? A tragic cliff splat in New Zealand? A head-on snowboarding collision in Switzerland?

Actually, dailynewbloginternational, which first "reported" that Bon Jovi was deceased, really gave the New Jersey native short shrift in the excitement department, killing him off via cardiac arrest.

Seemingly thanks to this site, word started to get around that the "You Give Love a Bad Name" singer was found unconscious in a room at the Empress Hotel in Asbury Park, N.J., and was later pronounced dead at Jersey Shore Medical Center (which sounds fake, but does exist if you stick the word "University" between "Shore" and "Medical").

News of Bon Jovi's untimely demise made him a top trending topic on Twitter this afternoon, but the singer quickly took to Facebook to assure fans of his earthliness.

He posted a photo of himself holding a sign reading, "Heaven looks a lot like New Jersey," dated Dec. 19, 2011 at 6 p.m., along with the message, "Rest assured that Jon is alive and well! This photo was just taken."

Review: "Sherlock Holmes" sequel full of "Ka-Blams!"

Detective work with some occasional fisticuffs and gunplay thrown in may be all well and good for people who still actually read books, one imagines Ritchie thinking ... but to make Holmes relevant to 21st century audiences, there has to be post-"Matrix" slo-mo sequences devoted to kung fu and/or heavy artillery, interspersed with constant cacophony and occasional gadding about.

Sadly, the first "Sherlock Holmes" was a hit, despite the fact that Ritchie's big-screen interpretation of the legendary sleuth resembles Conan Doyle's creation as much as the hero of the low-budget thriller "Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter" calls to mind the protagonist of the New Testament.

There are moments when it feels like "A Game of Shadows" is getting Holmes right, only it's Mycroft and not Sherlock -- the titular gumshoe's brother is played by Stephen Fry, whose periodic appearances in the movie feel like a wonderful visit from someone who's actually read the books.

Would that this film were about Mycroft, then, and not the man he calls "Sherlie."

Robert Downey, Jr. returns as the detail-oriented, socially awkward detective, who has begun piecing together the far-flung threads of a conspiracy being woven by the nefarious Professor Moriarity (Jared Harris). The dastardly professor has turned himself into a one-man military-industrial complex, setting out to do what all military-industrial complexes do: start a war so that the cash will come rolling in.

Moriarity proves himself to be a formidable foe for Holmes, quickly dispatching Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) -- admittedly, one of the film's smartest moves is getting rid of this character in a hurry -- and sending his goons to kill Dr. Watson (Jude Law) and his new bride Mary (Kelly Reilly) as they attempt to honeymoon in Brighton.

Holmes and Watson, aided by a Romany fortune-teller (Noomi Rapace, of the original Swedish "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and its sequels), pursue Moriarity to the edge of Reichenbach Falls in an attempt to prevent the academic from starting World War I several decades early.

In its favor, "Game of Shadows" gives us a sinister plot that's a notch or two smarter than most of the schemes hatched by 007's nemeses (even if it feels all too familiar), and there are occasional moments when Ritchie has fun with period spectacle, whether it's a roomful of waltzing diplomats or an elaborately-staged production of "Don Giovanni" at the Paris Opera.

If only the CG-heavy evocations of 1891 London or the dwelled-upon internal mechanics of firearms had the heft or the simplicity of those opera singers dressed up like singing statues or devilish minions -- time and again, the film assaults the eyes with cartoonish visual trickery and deflates the story with its obvious artificiality. (A game of shadows, indeed.)

When the film slows down enough to let us enjoy the interplay between its talented cast members or to allow us to pick up on little clues along the way that let us attempt to join Holmes in solving the mystery, this new "Sherlock Holmes" offers moments of vitality that are all too quickly crushed by the next exploding set piece.

Two hours of Downey and Harris sparring over a chessboard would have provided many more thrills, but neither Ritchie nor the suits at Warner Bros. would have any idea how to make or market a Sherlock Holmes movie featuring the actual character rather than some pipe-smoking, 19th century James Bond with a weakness for coca leaves and jiu jitsu.

Review: 'Sherlock' smothered in dreary sameness

Director Guy Ritchie once again applies his revisionist approach to Arthur Conan Doyle's classic literary character, infusing the film with his trademark, hyperkinetic aesthetic and turning the renowned detective into a wisecracking butt-kicker. But what seemed clever and novel the first time around now feels stale and tired; a lot of that has to do with the grimy, gray color scheme, which smothers everything in a dreary, suffocating sameness and saps the film of any real tension or thrills.

While Downey is more than capable of tossing off impish quips — he's based an entire career on being charmingly subversive — his heart just doesn't seem to be in it. Sure, he gets a couple of funny lines here and there, and some of his wardrobe changes are good for a laugh, but it's as if the material just isn't challenging him. And that's a shame, since this time we meet Holmes' most famed foe.

"Game of Shadows" finds Downey's Holmes facing off against brilliant super-villain Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris), who's cooked up a scheme to pit various European nations against each other in hopes of benefitting from the demand for arms. (This is more than a couple decades before World War I, by the way. So not only is Moriarty dastardly, he's also prescient.)

Holmes must stop him with the help of his trusty sidekick, Dr. Watson (Law), who's newly married and not nearly so gung-ho about such wild antics anymore. And it shows in the script from Michele and Kieran Mulroney as well as in the performances; Law gets little to do beyond functioning as the skeptical straight man, and the chemistry just isn't there this time.

Noomi Rapacetags along for some reason as a Simza, a gypsy fortune teller looking for her missing brother. Ostensibly this is because the filmmakers felt the need to inject a female figure as part of their adventures, and the saucy Rachel McAdams, who played Holmes' love interest in the first film, gets knocked out of the picture early. But the formidable presence Rapace displayed in the original Swedish "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and its sequels goes to waste. In a mound of wavy hair and gaudy jewelry, she's asked to run and look worried, and that's about it.

Again and again, though, Ritchie falls back on the same super-slow-motion visual effects he used in the first film: sequences in which Holmes can foresee how a physical showdown will play out, narrate it blow-by-blow, then take part in it in sped-up fashion. It's cool-looking the first couple times; Ritchie trots out this trick about eight times too many, to the point where you begin to wonder whether that's all he's got left in his bag. But even straight-up chase scenes and shootouts are so amplified and over-edited, they become incomprehensible.

Not that any sort of criticism matters: The ending of "A Game of Shadows" clearly sets up a third film in the series. And so Downey can trot out that British accent and don his dapper Victorian duds once more.

"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," a Warner Bros. Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and some drug material. Running time: 129 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.

Bon Jovi dessert

The Fanta-Pants toque was whipping up a private dinner for 15 with fellow celeb chefs David Chang and Tom Colicchio, and Bon Jovi was the entertainment. Diners had bid $160,000 at a Food Bank for New York gala for the evening, which was originally just for the chefs, but Bon Jovi threw himself into the package to up the winning bid. He sang “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” before heading back to the “New Year’s” after-party at the Hilton Ballroom.

Theron, Depp top 2012 hot list

Editors at leading movie news and ticket website Fandango.com asked film fans to select the stars that turn them on in the most-anticipated releases of 2012 and the foursome came top of the separate male and female hot lists.

Theron, who will terrify as the evil queen in Snow White & The Huntsman, has topped the women's list of sexiest female stars, beating Gravity's Sandra Bullock and Kate Beckinsale, the star of 2012 movies Total Recall, Underworld 4 and Contraband, while the British actress tops the men's list, ahead of The Avengers' Scarlett Johansson.

Female poll respondents picked Johnny Depp as the sexiest guy, ahead of George Clooney, while the men gave Robert Downey, Jr. the edge over Clooney.Thousands of film fans responded to the survey, which was first posted on Fandango.com on Dec. 1.

The Fandango Hot List is focused on next year's films, and performers whose upcoming movies do not have a 2012 release date were not included.

Robert Downey Jr. In Trouble With Wife For Revealing Sex of Baby?

Not only is he celebrating the release of new flick Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, he announced earlier this week that he and wife Susan Downey are expecting a baby boy!

But did revealing the sex of their baby-to-be while chatting with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show get him in trouble with the missus?

"I can never really stay mad at him, but I can tell you it wasn't something that we had planned to reveal," Susan told us last night at the Game of Shadows premiere. "I was over at Warner Brothers [studio] which is around the corner from Leno and he came through and he immediately admitted it. I was like, 'Really?!'"

The 46-year-old actor may want to zip it until Susan gives birth. "If I told you the name, she would lop off my head with a machete," he told us.

Susan also shot down RDJ's comment to Leno that the pregnancy has been "tougher" on him.

She laughed, "Who's the actor in the family?"

Now that we have all that cleared up, back to the movie. So can we expect Downey to team up with director Guy Ritchie for a third Sherlock Holmes flick?

"I love making these movies with Rob," Ritchie told us. "He is a creative maelstrom. He's hard to control. He's tumultuous. We have a love-hate relationship, but I do love making them with him."

TNT greenlights David E. Kelley/Sanjay Gupta pilot

The drama, tentatively titled "Chelsea General," will be based on Gupta's upcoming novel "Monday Mornings." Both Kelley and Gupta are executive-producing, with Kelley writing.

Slated for release in March 2012, Gupta's book tracks five surgeons as they push their medical skills to the limit while confronting their personal and professional shortcomings, attempting to come to grips with and learn from their mistakes.

Michael Wright, executive VP and head of programming for TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies said that the upcoming pilot "promises to be a smart, witty and extremely powerful medical drama, the kind of series David E. Kelley is renowned for making."

Kelley, who's also the creator of NBC's current drama "Harry's Law," most recently endeavored to bring "Wonder Woman" back to the small screen for the same network, though the pilot wasn't picked up.

Robert Downey Jr.: We're Having a Boy!

Despite telling Jay Leno on the Tonight show Monday that “I can’t say a word” and that he is “not permitted to discuss” the sex of the baby he’s expecting in late February with wife Susan, the actor then blurted out that they’re having a boy.

Downey, 46, immediately put his head in his hands in mock horror and said, “S—. I did it.”

Continuing with his tongue-in-cheek interview, Downey Jr. told Leno he’s been the one suffering through Susan’s pregnancy, which the pair announced in August.

“I think actually it’s been tougher on me,” he joked. “Just the hormones and the moods stuff and the nausea, and the whole thing.”

When asked if he planned to be an involved father with his son, he said, “I suspect I will be.”

He then donned a prosthetic breastfeeding device Leno handed him and asked the audience, “Who’s first? I need some practice.”

The actor does have some practice on the parenting front – he’s already a father to Indio, 18, his son with ex-wife Deborah Falconer.

Bon Jovi gets taste of NFL suite life

2012 People's Choice Award Nominations

Favorite Tour Headliner
Bon Jovi
Katy Perry
Taylor Swift
U2
Usher

Business huddle

Lucy Liu, from Charlie's Angel to inspired artist

Liu, 42, best known for roles in television series "Ally McBeal" and in the "Charlie's Angels" movies, worked out of her Chelsea studio in Manhattan to create a series of abstract black-and-white illustrations using ink and acrylic paint on watercolor paper that were compiled into a book, "Lucy Liu: Seventy Two," released last month.

The series of paintings was based on a chart of 72 names of God in the Kabbalah, a mystical branch of Judaism. While not a practitioner of Kabbalah, Liu was inspired by the names.

"I felt drawn to the chart because I thought it was so fascinating," Liu told Reuters. "I love the way they categorize everything into boxes, I love the organization of that."

The Kabbalah chart aims to help people with healing, prosperity and fertility, among other pursuits.

"They believe that if you meditate on the letters, you can manifest the energy," said Liu.

While the actress is not a trained artist -- she refers to her work as 'outsider art' -- she was inspired by people such as painter and printmaker Robert Motherwell and also drew from her own Chinese heritage, specifically calligraphy.

"It's a special thing to be able to come from another place and retain that culture," said Liu of her ethnicity. "It's so fascinating to see the progression of how China is becoming more connected to the U.S."

While the paintings themselves only took a few months to create, the big challenge was getting the book published. Liu described that process as "very involved, very intimidating."

"When you don't know enough on certain things, you find yourself learning very quickly," said the actress. "There was an amazing amount of information, such as how deep the blacks would be, or trying to match the colors."

MADE IN ITALY

Publishers Salma Editions took the book to Italy and produced it in the city of Verona, the same location photographer Helmut Newton used for his iconic "SUMO" book, something that Liu said she was "bowled over by."

"I've always had an appreciation for books, but now I can see the detail and options they have," she said. "There are so many different options on how you want to present the book."

The result is a highly-produced coffee table book, and the paintings are accompanied by essays from spiritual doctor Deepak Chopra and meditations written by Liu herself.

"Meditation is such a wonderful way of connecting to a larger part of yourself that you're not really aware of. I thought there was a connection between what I believe in Eastern philosophy and the Kabbalah mentality," she said.

Liu grew up without any specific religious orientation, and given the book's religious foundation, she said she had concerns about how it might be interpreted by people.

"The book is about sharing, but you don't want to be intrusive or invasive to other people," said Liu. "I did grow up believing there is something greater than we are, and I think that's that I tapped in to."

After launching her book, the actress is back to her day job and will be seen in two upcoming independent films, 'Nomads" and "The Man With The Iron Fists," along with rigorously training for a recurring role in the upcoming season of Emmy-winning police drama "Southland."

As for producing more artwork, the actress remains unsure.

"The book changed me, and I love that," she said. "This book was very specific only because it had a base and a chart to go off. I would have to find another focus to get me into that place" again, she said.

Lucy Liu -- Bulletproof Vest for LAPD Tour of Inner City

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Liu donned a bullet-proof vest and sat shotgun with an LAPD officer Friday evening ... as they toured some of the most gang-infested parts of Watts in a squad car.

Liu -- who just took a role as an LAPD officer on the TNT cop drama, "Southland" -- was not involved in any police activity during her tour of the area, but we're told the actress is scheduled to participate in a more active ride-along in the near future.

As we previously reported, Liu's new co-star Michael Cudlitz also put in some time with the LAPD recently -- and actually responded to a call about a "man with a gun" during his ride-along.

Katherine Heigl Talks Jon Bon Jovi: "Yes, I Made Out With Him!"

The former Grey's Anatomy starlet was gushing over locking lips with another musician!

Heigl plays Jon Bon Jovi's love interest in New Year's Eve, Garry Marshall's followup to Valentine's Day.

"I play a young woman who's a caterer and she's catering the New Year's Eve party and event," she explained. "Jon plays my big, famous musician ex-fiance who comes back into town to sort of win me back."

And then Heigl beamed, "Yes, I made out with him!"

How was it?

"It's always so nerve-wracking," she said. "There's all the giggles and there's all the Altoid popping."

And Bon Jovi couldn't have been more of a gentleman. "He's just a gem," Heigl said. "One of the nicest guys ever."

In other New Year's Eve news, Michelle Pfeiffer and Zac Efron may or may not get it on. "We have a very unusual relationship," Pfeiffer told me. "We're sort of an odd couple.

"He only really hangs out with me in the beginning, because I bribe him with super-fabulous party tickets for New Year's Eve, but then I think he grows a little fond of me," she said.

We can see why. At 53, Pfeiffer seriously remains one of the hottest women in Hollywood.

Jon Bon Jovi's charity restaurant opens in NJ

Yet there's no place he'd rather have dinner than The Soul Kitchen, a "pay-what-you-can" restaurant he and his wife Dorothea established in a former auto body shop near the Red Bank train station in central New Jersey.

The restaurant provides gourmet-quality meals to the hungry while enabling them to volunteer on community projects in return without the stigma of visiting a soup kitchen. Paying customers are encouraged to leave whatever they want in the envelopes on each table, where the menus never list a price.

The restaurant is the latest undertaking by the New Jersey rocker's Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, which has built 260 homes for low-income residents in recent years.

"With the economic downturn, one of the things I noticed was that disposable income was one of the first things that went," Bon Jovi told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday before the restaurant's grand opening ceremony. "Dining out, the family going out to a restaurant, mom not having to cook, dad not having to clean up — a lot of memories were made around restaurant tables.

"When I learned that one in six people in this country goes to bed hungry, I thought this was the next phase of the Foundation's work," he said.

It started several years ago when Dorothea Bongiovi (she uses the legal spelling of her husband's name) and Jon started helping out at a food pantry at nearby St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church. They later moved their focus to the Lunch Break program, which feeds 80 to 120 people a day, dubbing it "The Soul Kitchen."

They brought that name with them to a former auto body shop down the street from the Count Basie Theater, where Jon and his self-titled band have played many fundraising shows for local charities.

It took a year and $250,000, but the restaurant now rivals any of its competitors in trendy Red Bank, with entrees like cornmeal crusted catfish with red beans and rice, grilled chicken breast with homemade basil mayo and rice pilaf, and grilled salmon with soul seasonings, sweet potato mash and sauteed greens, many of which were grown in the herb and vegetable garden right outside the restaurant's doors.

Bon Jovi, who has a home in next-door Middletown, is adamant about one thing.

"This is not a soup kitchen," he emphasizes. "You can come here with the dignity of linens and silver, and you're served a healthy, nutritious meal. This is not burgers and fries.

"There's no prices on our menu, so if you want to come and you want to make a difference, leave a $20 in the envelope on the table. If you can't afford to eat, you can bus tables, you can wait tables, you can work in the kitchen as a dishwasher or sous chef," he said. "If you say to me, 'I'm not a people person,' I say, 'That's not a problem. We'll take you back to Lunch Break to volunteer with those people. If you don't want to volunteer with that, we'll take you to the FoodBank."After volunteering at one of those places, a person will be given a certificate good for a meal at The Soul Kitchen.

"If you come in and say, 'I'm hungry,' we'll feed you," Bon Jovi said. "But we're going to need you to do something. It's very important to what we're trying to achieve."

That includes making people feel part of a larger community that cares about them, while still expecting them to contribute to society at large.

"This is not an entitlement thing," Bon Jovi said. "This is about empowering people because you have to earn that gift certificate."

He and others at the restaurant want those who can afford to dine out to patronize the restaurant as well and pay what they consider market prices, or even a bit more than that, to help sustain The Soul Kitchen as a true community resource.

Bon Jovi said he is currently writing songs for his band's next album, due out in 2013, along with another typically massive Bon Jovi tour. He said many of the songs are inspired by the current economic downturn and the struggles of everyday people to make ends meet without losing hope.

In the meantime, he and his wife plan to stay active in the restaurant, where he estimates he has worked at least once a week in recent months. The Soul Kitchen is open for dinner Thursday through Saturday, and offers Sunday brunch.

How important is rolling up his sleeves and working in the restaurant to him?

"Last Friday, I was at the White House, serving on the Council for Community Solutions, got on a train, changed in the bathroom and got here in time to wash dishes Friday night," he said. "I'm the dishwasher, for real. I can't cook a lick."

What a Drag! Explosive New Sherlock Holmes Trailer Finds Robert Downey Jr. in a Dress!

Fortunately, though, he doesn't have to sit around and do a lot of worrying about that, because as we see there are more pressing dangers at hand...like explosions. Lots of them. And of course, trying to fit into a dress...

Check it out.

Holmes is back with his trusty sidekick Watson (Jude Law), and the two are embroiled in the biggest case of their careers: thwarting the most formidable criminal mind in all of Europe, Dr. Moriarty. And with the collapse of Western civilization hanging in the balance, the two are feeling the pressure.

But it isn't anything they can't handle. Explosions, gun fights and witty banter dominate and definitely have us looking forward to this caper. A nice comedic bonus though? More glimpses of Downey rocking some glamorous eveningwear. He might not think it's his best disguise, but we don't think he's giving himself enough credit.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows hits theaters Dec. 16. Eager to make this flick a part of your holiday season?

Cannon talks Cary Grant LSD use

In her new book, Dear Cary, the Heaven Can Wait star opens up about the end of her three-year union with the Hollywood icon and admits she has come to understand why he took psychedelic drugs when he needed to escape his life problems.

Cannon reveals she was so desperate to save the marriage she agreed to get high with her man.

She says, "I think he thought it (LSD) was a gateway to peace inside himself. With all the wealth and fame that he embraced and that embraced him, he couldn't find it... When our marriage started to go south... he said, 'LSD will help us'.

"That's one of the big messages of the book. I wanted to make him happy more than anything else in life and it's good to love someone and it's good to try and make them happy, but if you have to go against something that's intrinsically against your nature, that you know you shouldn't do, in order to please someone, it's death."

Cannon reveals Grant first experimented with LSD after discovering his callous father had lied about the death of the movie star's mother - when he was a child.

She tells Access Hollywood Live, "He had such a traumatic childhood, it was horrible. I work with a lot of kids on the street and I've heard a lot of stories about what happens when a family breaks down - but his was just horrendous. And he never really dealt with those things. He tried to. That's the reason he tried LSD... he thought it was a gateway to God.

"Can you imagine, at 10, coming home and hearing, 'Your mother's at the seashore...' 'Well why didn't she take me? Did I do something wrong?' And then three months later: 'Your mother's dead...'

"Your father abandons you, takes a younger wife, has a baby. 'Daddy, can I live with you?' Cary said. 'There's not room for you!' He's 10 years old. Imagine that.

"And 20 years later, he gets a call saying, 'I lied...' Cary comes to London, meets with his dad and his dad says, 'Your mother is not dead, she's alive'."

Grant's father placed his young wife in an insane asylum and told his son she had died.

We Hear...

Dyan Cannon book recounts life with Cary Grant

With an age difference of over 30 years, the duo had a magical courtship in the 1960s that eventually gave way to the dark side of Grant after they were engaged. Following three years of marriage and not long after the birth of their daughter Jennifer, the couple divorced and Cannon suffered a nervous breakdown.

Cannon, now in her early 70s, sat down with Reuters to talk about her former late husband and what she's learned about love over the years.

Q: Why focus the book just on your years with Cary?

A: "I've been offered so much money over the years to write a kiss and tell, which this is not. I wanted this to be a helpful book, an inspirational book. It's really about the little things that happen in our relationships that tear us asunder, so I felt people would benefit from most of this."

Q: Is there an underlying message you wanted to relay?

A: "One of the biggest messages is that it is wonderful to love and to serve and to give. It's wonderful to try and make people happy, but it's impossible to do so."

Q: What was the biggest challenge in writing this book?

A: "I know how people feel about Cary -- they love him. I didn't want people to lose the stars in their eyes about him. I wanted people to love him more at the end of this book than they did before. This book humanizes him. They'll understand what formed him. And I had such compassion for what formed him. But I also suffered a breakdown. So balancing all that was my biggest challenge."

Q: There must have been a lot of stories to sort through.

A: "I didn't know what to put in and what to leave out. The first (draft) was so out of balance. The second time around it started to take shape. The third time I thought, 'Maybe I've got it now.'"

Q: Cary was a big proponent of LSD use and wanted you to do it with him. But for you it was a disastrous experience. Do you think Cary had a drug problem?

A: "Absolutely not. With specificity, no. He thought LSD was his gateway to God, to peace, to that turmoil that wouldn't leave him alone. He thought it helped him, but I don't think it did. If it did, it gave him a peace that enabled him without being tormented 24 hours a day."

Q: Were you able to have a friendship after the divorce?

A: "We were polite."

Q: Was it hard getting your career back on track afterward? Did studio executives have to choose sides?

A: "Maybe some people for a moment. But Mike Frankovich was a good friend of Cary's. He was the head of Columbia Pictures and he chose me for 'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice' (which earned Cannon an Oscar nomination). So no, not really."

Q: When Cary passed away in 1986 at the age of 82, did that affect you at all?

A: "I was amazed at how I mourned him. I couldn't believe how hammered I was by his death, how deeply I felt his loss. I loved him so dearly, but some of that love had to get pushed down through all the pain."

Q: Was he the greatest love of your life?

A: "I've known a lot of wonderful men. I've known a couple of jerks. And I think the best is yet to come (laughs). I do. Because I understand love now. That's why I can say I'm a whole, satisfied, complete woman. But up to now, I've certainly had no experience with anybody like I had with Cary. I loved him and he loved me. I was the only woman in the world that he trusted enough to have a baby with. That's a big deal to me."

Q: Your daughter, Jennifer, has a three year-old son, Cary Benjamin. Do you see traits of Cary in her or in little Cary?

A: "More with the grandchild. There's traits in Jennifer that remind me of Cary -- wonderful traits. But the little guy, he's something else!."

Q: Will you write another book to encompass all the other aspects of your life?

A: "I'm not sure about writing another book. I've had offers but writing a book is the hardest thing I've ever done. I'd like to write and perform a one-woman show with other people as a part of it. I've talked to a friend of mine, we're contemplating it and I've made a lot of notes. But as far as a second book about my career and things that happened to me? I'm not motivated to do that."

Pals pay tribute to Downey, Jr.

Now, you're probably thinking, sure, but the guy's only, like 46 years old.

Who's next, Ryan Gosling?

But let's face it -- Downey has packed quite the life into those four-and-a-half decades, coming back from a troubled, not-too-distant past and reaching even greater heights than before.

Certainly, back in 2000, the words "career" and "achievement" weren't exactly foremost on his mind while serving time in prison for his recurring substance abuse problems.

But that was then and this is now, and now is all about getting ready for Friday's big event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the Golden Globes are held each year.

Among those who will be paying tribute to Downey at the black tie gala are many of his past and present co-stars, including Michael Douglas (Wonder Boys), Jack Black (Tropic Thunder), Jamie Foxx (The Soloist), Robin Wright (The Singing Detective), Anthony Michael Hall (Weird Science) and Jared Harris (the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie).

Also singing Downey's praises (this is a fete, not a roast, after all) are those who were on the other side of the camera, like directors Jon Favreau (the Iron Man movies) and Jodie Foster (Home for the Holidays), as well as producer Joel Silver, whose working relationship with Downey runs from Weird Science to Gothika to Holmes.

He'll certainly be in good company -- what with previous American Cinematheque honourees including Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Nicole Kidman and George Clooney, and he serves as sterling example of staring down demons and turning your career around.

Mr. Sheen and Ms. Lohan, take note.

'Iron Man 2' disappointed Downey

The actor reaffirmed his place in the Hollywood A-list playing inventor-turned-superhero Tony Star in the 2008 film following a career slump due to years lost in drug addiction.

Downey, Jr. is convinced the success of Iron Man turned his fortunes around, but he was less than impressed with its 2010 sequel, which opened to mixed reviews from critics.

He tells the Los Angeles Times, "The first one changed everything for me. And with the second Iron Man there were certain aspects that were dissatisfying and disappointing to me but at least they lit me right.

"(The first one) was a meditation on responsibility and an exploration of how a small group of people can take a two-dimensional idea and, if the winds are right, create something that makes people say, 'That was my favourite movie of the year'...

"I love a good action movie - a Steve McQueen or Tom Cruise or Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis or Mel Gibson in the right spot, and you smile and say, 'That's what this kind of movie is all about.'"

Downey, Jr. also admits he was surprised to land an Oscar nomination for his controversial 'blacked-up' role in 2008's Tropic Thunder, because he feared the part would undo all the hard work he put into Iron Man.

He adds, "I signed up to do it and then I did Iron Man and I thought, 'You know, I think I just buried myself. I did a movie that is going to re-establish me here in a little way and now I'm going to squander any good will I have'... This movie ended up being the most cathartic thing I had done in ages and one of the happiest times in my life."

Courtney Thorne-Smith: I Like Botox

"It's never been a secret in my personal life – I've just never been asked by the press," says Thorne-Smith, 44, the new celebrity face of Botox. "I've used it, I like it, it works well for me. That's just the simple truth."

The actress and mother of a 3˝-year-old son owns up to first getting injections about 10 years ago, when the lines on her forehead started to bother her.

"I found I've been able to use it and have full expression and look really normal," she says. "I found the frown line was distracting me – I was conscious of it. Now I'm not."

Would the Two and a Half Men guest star consider getting plastic surgery?

"My hope is that if I take good care of my skin and use Botox, I won't have to use anything else," says Thorne-Smith, who then adds: "Never say never. I always want to look like myself – that's key for me. I don't want to look like a different person, I don't want my face frozen."

Time to get out

Which Classic Character Is Robert Downey Jr. Ditching Iron Man For?

Or, he will, once he slips into the guise of defense attorney extraordinaire, Perry Mason.

The Iron Man star is looking to suit up—in a regular suit this time—as the brilliant lawyer in a Warner Bros. film based on the character created by novelist Erle Stanley Gardner and first played on TV by Raymond Burr, according to trade reports.

Per Variety, the reboot would be set in 1930s Los Angeles—the birthplace of noir—and feature classic Perry Mason characters like his loyal secretary, Della Street; district attorney and frequent Mason nemesis Hamilton Burger; and private investigator Paul Drake.

A dozen actors have played Mason over the last 80 years on both the big and small screens, but, do you think it's safe to say that Downey will be the most sardonic, singular presence of the bunch?

Before he gets a chance to draw out confessions on the stand, though, Downey has to wrap production on The Avengers, his third outing as Tony "Iron Man" Stark (Iron Man 3, meanwhile, is penciled in for a May 2013 release). And before we get to see the fruits of that labor, Downey will be kicking arse and figuring things out the old old-fashioned way in what's becoming his other hit franchise, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, in theaters Dec, 16.

In kinda related Iron Man news, former franchise helmer Jon Favreau is eyeing a proposed sitcom called Tweaked—about single parents navigating life and love—as his next directing venture.

News Archive

Ally Merchandise