Kevin on-screen with wife

BOSTON (AP) – Kevin Bacon had intimate knowledge about his character’s love interest while shooting his new movie, “The Woodsman.” She was, after all, Kyra Sedgwick, his love interest in real life.

“Kyra and I have rarely worked together. … We’ve been married 16 years, and this is one of the handful of times we’ve been on-screen together,” Bacon told the Boston Herald in Sunday’s editions.

“She had a lot of hesitation about taking the part. She said, “Look, if there were any other actor playing this part, I’d say yes in a second. But I’m afraid people will come out of the movie and step out and say, “Oh, that’s Kyra and Kevin.”‘

Bacon managed to persuade his wife to take the part.

“I said to her, “Look, we don’t have a Hollywood tabloid kind of marriage. People are not really all that interested in our marriage because it’s a good one and is therefore uninteresting. The other thing is, this is not a $50 million romantic comedy with the two of us on the poster. This is “The Woodsman,” a dark, festival film.’ I felt like we could pull it off.”

‘Desperate’ for a message

Germaine Greer, the women’s movement warrior, writing in The Guardian about the U.S. TV phenom” Desperate Housewives,” which she found prudish and wan, a sort of “Sex in the Suburbs” for 40-somethings:

“The series has nothing to say about the vicissitudes of the average or even the well-to-do American stay-at-home wife; it is neither feminist, nor pro-feminist nor proto-feminist nor post-feminist. Feminism has as little to do with “Desperate Housewives’ as it did with “Sex and the City.’ Indeed, it is difficult to imagine in either case what outright misogynists would have done differently.”

– Knight Ridder Newspapers
Swank up for heavy roles

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – After her Oscar-winning performance in 1999’s “Boys Don’t Cry,” Hilary Swank thought the world was her oyster.

She remembers thinking: “‘I’m going to have so many amazing opportunities; this movie is just scratching the surface!”‘

Since then, her films have included “The Affair of the Necklace,” “Insomnia,” “The Space Between,” “The Core” and the HBO drama “Iron Jawed Angels.” None were as well received as “Boys Don’t Cry.”

Now she is earning critical raves for her role as boxer Maggie Fitzgerald in Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby.”

“Not to put down any of these other movies I’ve done (since “Boys Don’t Cry”), but they weren’t meaty like this,” Swank told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I feel really lucky to have found two amazing roles before I hit 30.”

Eastwood didn’t see any other actresses for the role. “I was a fan of Hilary’s from “Boys Don’t Cry’ and I saw her in “Insomnia,’ where she was good, but she didn’t have a very deep part.”

Three earn French honor

PARIS (AP) – French fashion designer Emanuel Ungaro, British actress Kristin Scott Thomas and French politician Nicholas Sarkozy have won entry into France’s prestigious Legion of Honor.

The three were named to the post of knight, the first of five ranks, when the Official Journal published a list of honorees Saturday.

Ungaro, 71, a fixture on the international fashion scene, is known for styles such as tailored jackets with dressy evening outfits and frills.

Scott Thomas, 44, was nominated for a best actress Oscar for her role in 1996’s “The English Patient.” Her films also include “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and the upcoming “Man to Man,” co-starring Joseph Fiennes.

Sarkozy is the head of French President Jacques Chirac’s ruling Union for a Popular Movement party and widely seen as a rising star in French politics.

The Legion of Honor accolade recognizes distinguished service to France.