Hollywood Headlines: A week in review
Lance Armstrong admitted to Oprah Winfrey during his televised interview on OWN that he used performance-enhancing drugs throughout his cycling career, despite vehement denials for years. “I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times,” he said, explaining that he used a litany of banned substances while winning seven Tour de France races. “I was always a fighter,” Armstrong said in the first of the two-part interview that aired Thursday night. “Before my diagnosis, I was a competitor, but not a fierce competitor. Then I said I will do anything I need to do to survive. Then I brought that ruthless, win-at-all-costs attitude into cycling.” Winfrey brought up some of the people from Armstrong’s past who had made allegations against the cycling star, people whom Armstrong had sued in retaliation for their claims against him. Among them was Betsy Andreu, wife of Armstrong’s former teammate Frankie Andreu, one of the first people to go public with allegations that Armstrong had once admitted to using banned substances.
Full story: Lance Armstrong tells Oprah that cancer battle made him a ‘bully’ | Lance Armstrong interview: Nobody lives strong like Oprah | PHOTOS: Lance Armstrong, Oprah and recent TV apologies (AFP / Getty Images)
Lance Armstrong confesses to Oprah, the Sundance Film Festival kicks off in Utah and Elton John and David Furnish welcome their second baby in this week’s Hollywood headlines.
The 2013 edition of the Sundance Film Festival opened Thursday night, but if you think a consensus has formed about the nature of this year’s event, you would be wrong. While the Hollywood Reporter said the main story is a lineup “heavy on big names from the film and television worlds,” Daily Variety provocatively insisted “Sex Drives ‘Dance: Park City Slate Stocked With Frisky Fare.” This paper has noted that in the competition, fully half of the narrative features were made by women, while the New York Times claimed that the Utah festival, “known for championing dark and inscrutable films, has unveiled an unusually accessible -- and sellable -- competition lineup.”
Sundance 2013: Whatever Sundance is, it has fine documentaries | PHOTOS: 8 movies for fans of the fantastic | Full coverage (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
“Zero Dark Thirty” director Kathryn Bigelow, in a letter published this week in The Times, answered criticism of the film’s depiction of torture. “Those of us who work in the arts know that depiction is not endorsement. If it was, no artist would be able to paint inhumane practices, no author could write about them, and no filmmaker could delve into the thorny subjects of our time.”
Full story: Kathryn Bigelow addresses ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ torture criticism
Actor Victor Garber confirmed Monday that he’s gay -- though he did it in a didn’t-everyone-know-already way. “I don’t really talk about it but everybody knows,” Garber told the blog Greg in Hollywood about living with his same-sex partner, Rainer Andreesen, for more than a decade. “He’s going to be out here with me for the SAG Awards.” E! News confirmed the info, while People linked to an April 2012 interview in Canadian magazine FYI in which the “Alias” and “Titanic” actor had mentioned his relationship with Andreesen, noting it as one of his proudest achievements. “My companion Rainer Andreesen and I have been together almost 13 years in Greenwich Village. We both love New York.”
Full story: Victor Garber’s gay, he confirms — but didn’t you know already? | Photos: Gay Celebrities: Who is out? (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
This time around, it’s true: Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde are engaged. The “Saturday Night Live” star proposed to the “Cowboys & Aliens” actress shortly after the holidays, according to People, which first shared the news. “They are so excited, and very, very happy,” a source close to both performers told the mag. “Thanks for all the sweet congratulatory love, friends!” Wilde said Sunday via Twitter. “And may I compliment your savvy use of that nifty engagement ring emoticon.”
Full story: Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde are engaged (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
Megan Fox is many things, most obvious among them beautiful. She’s a new mother, she doesn’t necessarily want to be famous anymore and she believes in leprechauns. She’s also familiar with speaking in tongues. Yes, speaking in tongues, something she’s been doing since she was about 8 years old, attending a Pentecostal church in Tennessee, she reveals in the February issue of Esquire. “I have seen magical, crazy things happen. I’ve seen people be healed,” says the 26-year-old actress, mom to 3-month-old Noah. “Even now, in the church I go to, during Praise and Worship I could feel that I was maybe getting ready to speak in tongues, and I’d have to shut it off because I don’t know what that church would do if I started screaming out in tongues in the back.”
Full story: Megan Fox speaks out about speaking in tongues (Jordan Strauss / Invision / Associated Press)
Elton John and David Furnish announced the birth of their second son on the singer’s website Wednesday. “Elton and David are very pleased to announce the birth of their child Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John on Friday, January 11.” Elijah, brother to 2-year-old Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, weighed in at 8 pounds, 4 ounces, was born in L.A. and came via the same surrogate the couple used for Zachary’s birth, the magazine said.
Full story: Elton John, David Furnish welcome their second baby | PHOTOS: Hollywood baby boom (Larry Busacca / Getty Images)
