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Benjamin Millepied left his position at Paris de Opera after just 15 months

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I’ve been wondering why Benjamin Millepied had not joined his wife Natalie Portman on any of her red carpets lately, not even in Paris, which is where they live now. It’s not that I believe husband and wife should be joined at the hip at all times, it’s just Millepied has historically come out for many of Natalie’s red carpets, and it’s been a while since we’ve seen them together. Now I’m starting to get an inkling why – Millepied was dealing with his own drama at Opera de Paris, where he served as dance director since late 2014. On Thursday, Millepied announced that he was leaving his position and Opera de Paris for “personal reasons.” But there’s a mountain of French drama and shade going down. Dancer Benjamin Millepied announced Thursday he’s stepping down as dance director at Paris’ premier ballet company. Millepied’s efforts to innovate at the storied Opera de Paris have met mixed reactions since his arrival 15 months ago, and French media have reported tensions between him and some of the company’s star dancers. He said in a statement that he’s leaving for “personal reasons,” and that his role didn’t allow him enough time for “creation and artistic expression.” He sought to leave the Opera de Paris on friendly terms, appearing Thursday at a news conference with his successor, star dancer Aurelie Dupont, and Opera de Paris director Stephane Lissner. “I am convinced we’ve opened up things that are really important,” Millepied said. “The future is bright. What’s important for me is to create, to be inspired by the parts. That’s what motivated me in the ballet and today this position (the dance director position) isn’t for me, it doesn’t suit me,” he told a news conference. Speculation about a possible departure surfaced after a recent documentary in which Millepied said he still wasn’t satisfied with the level of dance. In an interview with Le Figaro in December, he said dancers should have more of a sense of entrepreneurship and fundraising — a concept foreign to many in France’s more traditionally funded cultural world. He was also quoted as saying, “To be a dancer is to express oneself, not to resemble a wallpaper pattern.” His predecessor, Brigitte Lefevre, played down any resistance to his unconventional ideas, saying instead that Millepied didn’t have the necessary management experience for the job. “Directing a great institution doesn’t happen by itself,” she said on Europe-1 radio. “You must have competence and energy to manage each post, from administration to rehearsal.” [From Page Six] So, he alienated dancers and staff by telling them they weren’t up to the job AND that they needed to be better at fundraising. And the woman who previously held his job is all, “He’s a crappy manager.” And Millepied is all “I better leave before they force me out.” There was similar drama when he left the New York City Ballet in 2011 – there was some talk that he was stretched pretty thin and incapable of being a hands-on director/manager. There was also some talk that Millepied has always been less interested in ballet and more interested in A) promoting himself and B) fundraising. Perhaps he should just seek a full-time fundraising position? So, does this mean Natalie and Benjamin will move back to America? Their Paris excursion was so brief! I also wonder if Anna Wintour regrets all of the hype she gave Millepied in Vogue. Photos courtesy of WENN.

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Sofia Vergara won’t complain about diversity: ‘I’ve been treated like a queen’

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Some people are tired of Sofia Vergara. I’m not. I got a little bit tired of her a few years back, but I fell back in love with her during the drama last year with her ex, Nick Loeb, a drama which has no end in sight. Sofia covers the new issue of The Edit, and she talks about a lot of the same stuff: accepting who you are, her giant rack, her hair, her red carpet styling and more. But she has thoughts about other stuff too, like diversity in entertainment and playing a stereotype. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights: Stereotypes are not always bad: “I’m not afraid of them, and they don’t have to be bad, either. I mean, Gloria is an amazing character: a really good woman with this hilarious accent, so why criticize her for being a stereotype? Plus, all the Latinas I know are loud, they dress sexy and are really involved with their families: that’s Gloria!” She’s not Zen about aging: “Watching myself age on screen is awful! There is nothing more disturbing than watching an episode of Modern Family from the first season, then one from seven years later. It just makes me want to kill myself, but what can I do? I’ll be sad when the wolf whistles stop. I’m already sad that men have started calling me ‘Señora’. I get really pissed off: ‘What? It’s Señorita!’” How she’s changed in her 40s: “Back in my mum’s era, 40 was considered old, but now I don’t think it is. You have to accept that you can look beautiful, but in a different way. Nowadays I don’t do miniskirts and low-cut tops: it’s one or the other. I don’t do shorts or pink anymore, and I’ve softened my eye makeup. In Colombia, once women hit 40, they automatically cut their hair short. I used to think I would do that too, but when it came to it I thought, ‘Why should I f***ing cut my hair? It makes you look older!’” Motherhood: “I became a mother very young – at 20 – so I feel like I’ve been a mother my whole life, but I love that. Now that I’m 43 and my son is 23, it’s funny to see some of my girlfriends raising young kids. In the US, women postpone motherhood, but in Latin America most of my friends have kids my son’s age. I wouldn’t mind another child: my husband is younger than me and he wants kids so we’re trying to figure out what we’re going to do. The idea of doing it all again doesn’t scare me but, hey, it’s not like it’s going to happen naturally, is it?” Complaints about diversity: “I’m really not one to complain. I mean, seriously, how dare I! Here I am on prime-time television with this stupid accent, I can’t trash anyone. It would be so ungrateful of me because, trust me, I’ve been treated like a queen. Of course [the opportunities] can’t compare to an American or Caucasian woman’s, but things are changing. The problem is not the networks or directors: it’s that there aren’t enough writers creating things for Latinos. Once we have more Latinos writing, that’s when things may really start to change…” Her breasts: “My body has changed with age. People will often say that I wear the same thing on the red carpet, but I know my body: it’s very voluptuous and I’ve got the boobs of a stripper. They’re a 32DDD and because they’re real, they’re everywhere, so I need my dresses to have structure – and under armor. There is so much going on under my dresses that I bleed at the end of award ceremonies. In ten years I think it would be good to have a reduction. I don’t think it’s even going to be an option not to [have surgery], because I’m going to start having back pains. I wouldn’t make them too small – just enough that I don’t end up looking like an old stripper.” How she feels about being objectified: “I’ve never understood why women get so offended. I just don’t believe in all that drama, which is why I’ve made a whole joke out of it. I am secure enough not to take it all that seriously, and I like to laugh at myself.” [From The Edit] I wouldn’t hold it against her if she did complain about diversity, because she seriously toiled away, looking for a break for more than a decade. Once she had a hit, she leveraged that into her own empire through her own hard work. As for the other stuff… here are my Hot Takes: you don’t have to cut your hair when you hit 40, but I disagree that a short haircut makes everyone look older. I don’t think it’s bad idea to say breast reduction might be in the future for Sofia: it might happen. Also, if your dresses make you bleed, you should choose different dresses! Photos courtesy of The Edit.

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Helen Mirren: ‘There is an extraordinary, extreme, right-wing voice in America’

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Was I too nice to Helen Mirren yesterday? Probably. I like her so much, I do tend to ignore it when she makes problematic statements. My defense of her is usually along the lines of “well, now she knows, maybe she’s learned how to speak about this issue now.” Anyway, Britain’s Channel 4 released the video of their interview with Mirren, and she talks about a lot more than #OscarsSoWhite and the Academy. She was also asked about American politics. Just for the record, Helen has been married to an American for nearly 20 years, and I’m almost positive that she lives most of the time in America (I believe she and Taylor Hackford own homes in New Orleans and LA). Mirren is also an American citizen, likely through her marriage. So… I feel like it’s totally fine for Mirren to talk about American politics, considering she likely votes in American elections. And as it turns out, Mirren kind of hates Ted Cruz and to a lesser degree, Donald Trump. Whether the rise of Donald Trump signals a return of 1950s-style conservatism: “Yes, Donald Trump… and Ted Cruz. I suspect more Ted Cruz in a way than Donald Trump. I think the people who support Ted Cruz think Donald Trump is a little bit of a liberal. I think Donald Trump has a populist voice, massively populist, and that slightly demagogue, populist voice. But I think Ted Cruz is more the really old-school extreme right conservative.” The extreme right wing: “There is an extraordinary, extreme, right-wing voice in America – extreme. If that does get into power fully – in the Congress, in the Senate, in the White House and has all the power that it wants, I can’t imagine how the world would look. I think it’s a very, very frightening idea, myself. This whole idea of ‘making America great’ it seems to me it would actually be sort of the end of America as a great country.” [Via Channel 4, People Magazine] Helen has previously referred to Trump as “stupid,” but in this interview, it sounds like she’s more worried about Ted Cruz. I’m kind of feeling it too – the interviewer clearly wants to talk more about Donald Trump and hopefully takeaway a juicy, bitchy quote, but Mirren is more concerned about Cruz’s neo-McCarthyism. She’s right to be concerned. And personally, I’m still hoping that Donald Trump’s final gift to the American people is a spectacular takedown of Cruz. Please let it happen! Here’s Mirren’s interview. Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

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Johnny Depp remembers when Leo DiCaprio was a punk kid hiding from his mom

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I still CANNOT with Johnny Depp’s bejeweled safety pin earrings. That is all. No, that’s not all! These are photos of Depp at the 31st Santa Barbara International Film Festival. He did not bring Amber Heard. Depp received the Maltin Modern Master Award, which is like the film festival’s lifetime achievement. I’m fine with acknowledging that Depp is at an age and stage of his career where he’s worthy of lifetime achievements. Do you think Depp is okay with it though? Still, he came out and sat down with Leonard Maltin for a far-ranging two-hour conversation in front of an audience. Variety’s write-up is nice, and while Depp does come across as nervous (almost shy), he talked at length about working with legends like Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and more. Some highlights: Why he wasn’t happy on the TV show, 21 Jump Street: “Back then you’ve got this idea of this road, and ‘I’m gonna make it mine.’ When you’re confined to a TV series and you have to play one character, it can make you insane. But it didn’t affect me. I got out in time. I didn’t want to be a salesman, I guess is what it was. So I tried to get fired a lot.” Working on What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, working with Leo DiCaprio: “It was a hard time for me for some reason. It was mostly really miserable. You can’t really tell if the thing you’re feeling at the time is coincidental. Did I have to be that way for the film? I respect Leo a lot. He worked really hard on that film, researching and showing up ready to work — and I tortured him. I really did. He was always talking about these video games. ‘No I will not give you a drag from my cigarette while you hide from your mother again, Leo.’” He was in awe of Al Pacino: “Marlon just liked to have fun, and so did I, so I thought, ‘There’s no way I’m going to get lucky twice. This guy’s gonna hand me my ass, because he looks like the kind of guy who’s going to hand someone their ass. Anyone who’s getting their ass handed to them, it’s not Al.’” [From Variety] The Leo story is my favorite part – Depp knew Leo when he was just some punk kid, trying to be a badass and hiding from his mom. And now Depp has to sit on the sidelines, not even invited to the show, while Leo wins an Oscar. I’m not sure if I believe that Depp never wants to win an Oscar or that he never wants recognition for his roles, but I kind of like that he showed up for this thing and he was a good sport about it. Meanwhile, Johnny Depp will be at the Grammys two Sundays from now. He’s performing with The Hollywood Vampires, the “supergroup” that includes Depp, Alice Cooper, Joe Perry and Duff McKagan and they will perform a tribute to Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister. This year’s Grammys sound absolutely awful, right? Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

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Amal Clooney made George wait 25 minutes before she agreed to marry him

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George Clooney appeared on The Ellen Show this week to promote Hail Caesar, his latest film offering and probably the first Clooney film I’ve been interested in for a very long time. But I love the Coen Brothers and I love that they almost always cast Clooney as a dunce. We haven’t had a good old fashioned Clooney promotional tour since last year’s Tomorrowland, during which we were inundated with stories about Amal Clooney and how fantastic/brilliant/amazing she is. I’m at the point now where I think George partially (or mostly) got married to change his branding, his script, his public persona. He was at a point in his life where his stories were no longer “cute,” so he had to get some new stories. Enter Amal. And now he can’t (or won’t) shut up about her, about their marriage, about their wedding and all of it. So, when he was chatting with Ellen, he went into detail about how he proposed. This story has the weird vibe of feeling too rehearsed and completely untrue. George claims he decided Amal was his future wife about six months into their relationship, a fact which will probably cause Stacy Keibler to do some math. He claims that they didn’t talk about getting married at all beforehand and that he alone tried to set the scene by lighting candles, cooking dinner and choosing their playlist. He makes it sound like it came so out of left field that Amal wasn’t even wearing a cute outfit. Then: “I’ve got it all set up, timed out and the song is coming and she gets up to go wash the dishes, which she’s never done. And I’m like, ‘What are you doing?’ and she comes back in. And finally I said, ‘Ya know, I blew out the candle’ and I said, ‘I think the lighter’s in the box behind you.’ And she reaches around and she pulls out the box and I’ve got just the ring sitting in there and she pulls it out and she looks at it and she’s like, ‘It’s a ring’ – like as if somebody had left it there some other time…I’m doing all the moves I could do with my face, and I got down on my knee and said, ‘I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life without you.’ And she kept looking at the ring and she was looking at me and she was like ‘Oh my God.’ And now we know because of the playlist, how long it actually took, and it was like 25 minutes, 25 minutes! And finally I was like, ‘Look, I hope the answer is yes, but I need an answer I’m 52 and I could throw out my hip pretty soon.’” Do you believe this story? Or is this just a monologue that he’s prepared? I don’t know. But I never thought I would see the day when George Clooney would be this eager to talk about his personal life to this extent. Oh, and he says at the beginning of the story that the proposal was “one of those horrible moments we didn’t talk about.” Yes, that’s why he prepared a monologue about it. And here’s video of Clooney and Rihanna playing Never Have I Ever. Is it just me or was Clooney trying to flirt with Rih-Rih and she wasn’t having it? Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

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Star: Tom Hiddleston is trying to get back together with Jessica Chastain

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Even though I’m pretty sure that Tom Hiddleston is still “secretly” dating Elizabeth Olsen, I still enjoy random gossip about other people Tom might be dating. People like… Jessica Chastain? There’s actually a somewhat long history of people thinking Hiddles and Chastain were a thing. The rumors began circulating back in January 2013, and it was said that they had been secretly dating for several months, and that Chastain had even spent some time in England with Tom and his family. Then the dating rumors began percolating once again when Tom and Jessica were filming Crimson Peak in early 2014, especially when Tom helped Jessica celebrate her birthday. But soon after, we learned that Jessica was still dating her Italian boyfriend, Gian Luca Passi di Preposulo. At the end of the day, do I think it’s possible that Jessica and Tom had a fling at one point, years ago? Sure. Anything’s possible. But I think once she got to know him better, she started to find him exhausting (I may be projecting here). I also think they probably are good friends at this point. But according to Star Magazine, Chastain is the one who got away. Jessica Chastain has broken her rule about not dating actors for Tom Hiddleston once before, and now the newly single actor, 34, is asking Chastain to do it once more after reuniting on-screen for Crimson Peak. “Tom realized what a mistake he made,” a source tells Star. “He’s been hitting Jessica up ever since, saying that she’s the one who got away and begging for a second chance.” The only problem? Hiddleston is looking for love in all the wrong places. Since their split in early 2013, Jessica has happily moved on Italian fashion executive Gian Luca Passi di Preposulo, who was none too pleased to hear that Tom was back in the picture. “She tried to let Tom down gently because they really are such good friend… but I think she secretly liked that Gian Luca got a little jealous.” [From Star Magazine, print edition] Do I believe that Tom is actively pursuing Chastain whilst carrying on with Elizabeth Olsen? Not really. Although I do think something fishy is going on between Hiddles and Olsen and it’s not just “oh, they want to keep it quiet.” I’ll also give you this: I think if Chastain wanted Hiddles, she could have him. Like, he would be really into it. So I do believe that Star’s version of their dynamic is probably close to true but otherwise… not so much. Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

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Amber Rose calls Kanye West a ‘f–king clown’: ‘You don’t bring in my baby’

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Here are some photos of Amber Rose on Wednesday, after Kanye West’s Twitter rant directed at Wiz Khalifa (Amber’s ex) and after Amber body-slammed Kanye on Twitter. A lot is being said and written about Kanye’s constant disses towards Amber Rose following their breakup more than four years ago. Some think Kanye still has feelings for or about Amber. Some think Kanye is a petty child. I don’t disagree. But if I can just point out one small thing: Kanye called Amber a “stripper” in his Twitter rant because he thought Wiz made a derogatory reference to Kim (as it turned out, Wiz was just talking about weed). If Wiz or anyone else actually did slam Kim, I would expect Kanye to act the exact same way. None of which means that Kanye was in the right, especially when Kanye went in on Sebastian, Amber and Wiz’s son. So, Amber did an interview with the podcast Allegedly and she reacted to Kanye’s shade towards Sebastian. She apparently calls Ye a “f—king clown.” And more: “The thing of it is like, I would never talk about kids in like, an argument. It just shows the type of person he is. You know, even him saying stuff about my son, I still didn’t say anything about his kids. I’m not going to. That’s ridiculous. They’re innocent babies. You don’t ever, ever talk about a baby, ever. It just shows how f–king ridiculous he is.” “Listen, don’t talk about my kid. That’s all I got to say. Don’t talk about my baby. I wouldn’t have said anything if it was just between him and Wiz. That’s two grown men hashing it out. I would’ve kept it cute and just minded my business. You don’t bring in my baby. That’s so corny. That’s the second time you did it this week.” [From E! News] For sure. Don’t talk about the children. And she’s absolutely right: imagine the weeks of drama if Amber even mentioned North or Saint on Twitter or in an interview. Just to play devil’s advocate though… while Kanye absolutely should never had even referenced Amber’s child, the tweets felt more like Kanye was attacking Amber, that Amber was the target more than anyone else. He tweeted to Wiz: “I know you mad every time you look at your child that this girl got you for 18 years.” That’s a common theme with Kanye, that a “Golddigger” will get knocked up and you’ll be paying her for 18 years. That’s a slam against Amber. The other two references were “You wouldn’t have a child if it wasn’t for me” and “You own waves???? I own your child!!!!” I think “you wouldn’t have a child” is about how if Kanye hadn’t broken up with Amber, she never would have gotten with Wiz, etc. As for “I own your child”… I don’t even know what that’s about, I really don’t. Again, I’m not defending Kanye, but Amber acts like Kanye name-checked Sebastian specifically when really Kanye just needs to stop obsessing over Amber full-stop. Also: Amber wrote an essay about slut-shaming and judgmental people for Time Magazine – you can read her piece here. Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.