Paul Bettany Archives

Well HELLO baby bump!! It seems that Jennifer Connelly is expecting once again! At least three months along from the look of things. These pictures were taken last night at a special screening of her new film, Blood Diamond, at NYC’s Museum of Modern Art. Blood Diamond co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou.

Jen arrived with hubby Paul Bettany (both 35), who seemed to be rubbing her tummy. Proud parents of yet another child, perhaps? If so, congrats to them both. I love Paul and Jen to bits!! Thanks Stacey for the tip!!

Paul and Jennifer share a 3-year-old son, Stellan Bettany. They also have a 9-year-old son Kai Dugan, from Jen’s previous relationship with photographer David Dugan.

Jennifer Connelly shared two very funny and heartwarming stories during yesterday’s taping of The Late Show with David Letterman. For those of you who can’t watch the video above, here are the two stories:

MY DADDY THE SITH LORD: Paul and Stellan almost spent last night in a French prison. Jen shared that the father-son pair were in Nice on their way home when they were stopped at passport control. Stellan has an American passport while Paul has a British one. Stellan’s photo was taken when he was a week old, he’s three now, so he’s completely unrecognizable. Stellan exchanges words with the passport officer:

Stellan: I’M LUKE!
Passport Officer #1: Excuse me?
Stellan: I’M LUKE!

Passport Officer calls over another officer.

Passport Officer #2: [points to Paul] Who is this person? Is that your father?
Stellan: No, that’s not my daddy.

Passport Officer calls police over.

Police: Who is this man? What is this man’s name?
Stellan: That’s Darth Vader.
Police: Where do you live?
Stellan: Return of the Fick.

Haha! Stellan’s way of saying Revenge of the Sith, apparently. “And it so happened that those were the only three people in the world who hasn’t seen Star Wars,” Jen joked. “So this went on for a little while until someone finally figured it out and went [imitates Darth Vader's breathing].” They even confiscated Stellan’s plastic light saber as well! Poor kid. They’re both safe and back home in Brooklyn now, Jen happily reported.

BABOONS GONE WILD :: The Blood Diamond was filmed in South Africa and Mozambique, so Paul, Jen, and Stellan went on a safari one time. They stayed at a hotel that was all glass overlooking the wilderness. After returning from a dip in the pool and not having locked their glass-sliding door, they experienced their first wildlife experience in the apartment. (Jen and Paul have argued over who actually left the door unlocked.)

Jen shared, “I found a 5-foot-tall baboon on the bed eating a chocolate bar (it was a Mars bar) and his buddy was bouncing up and down on the couch. Another guy’s swinging from the curtains.” Luckily the park rangers handled the situation after Jen ran away screaming…

And without naming names, Jen even compared the behavior of actors to baboons: “They had completely drained the mini bar. Literally. They had just trashed the room entirely. As it turns out baboons are kind of at the same evolutionary stage as a lot of actors. Drained mini bar. Footprints on the wall. It’s nuts!” You can read Paul’s uncensored version of the story here.

Paul Bettany and wife Jennifer Connelly had a picnic yesterday afternoon in NYC’s Central Park with their 9-year-old son Kai Dugan (father is photographer David Dugan) and 3-year-old son Stellan Bettany.  They were accompanied by the family nanny. Paul and Jennifer, both 35, recently purcahsed a house in Vermont (they currently reside in Brooklyn).  More pictures in the gallery!

In movie news… it’s been reported that Paul will sign with New Line Cinema to play the character of Dustfinger in a movie adaptation of the children’s fantasy book Inkheart.  Jen’s upcoming film Little Children will premiere at the New York Film Festival in early October.  Her other film Reservation, co-starring Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo, begins shooting in Connecticut in October as well.

Miss this?
The Da Vinci Connelly
Paul Bettany: Monk Assassin

Geographically, Paul Bettany has just arrived from London and Barcelona, where he was doing press for "The Da Vinci Code," after time in Mozambique and elsewhere in Africa, where wife Jennifer Connelly is shooting a film. Artistically, Bettany has arrived at the role of pop literature’s most notorious albino after stints as a bestial gangster, a Napoleonic era ship’s surgeon, a lovesick tennis player, Geoffrey Chaucer and an imaginary friend.

Paul Bettany, 34, ended the interview with this memorable quote: "I would like to just repetitively make children and practice making children in between."   I love Paul, his humor cracks me up lots.  The Da Vinci Code world premieres in Cannes tomorrow and opens in theaters nationwide this Friday, May 19.  Continue reading the article after the jump, more pictures in the gallery!

(Continued before the jump)

A renaissance man? An actor with eclectic tastes? An artist determined not to repeat himself?

"Just out of boredom, that’s why you really do it," Bettany told The Associated Press in Los Angeles before heading to the Cannes Film Festival, where "The Da Vinci Code" was picked as the opening night film.

"Like with `Wimbledon,’ I’d never been in a romantic comedy before. I wondered what’s that sort of like? So I tried one, and then wanted to keep going on trying new things. It would be dull otherwise."

The British actor, who turns 35 on May 27, was offered the role of albino monk-assassin Silas after previously working with director Ron Howard on "A Beautiful Mind," in which he played a phantom buddy to Russell Crowe’s schizophrenic character. Bettany met Connelly on the film, which earned her the supporting-actress Academy Award.

Though Bettany had not yet read "The Da Vinci Code," the role was an easy sell when Howard called.

"I took about nought-point-two seconds to answer, and said yes," Bettany said. "What was going on in my head was, monk-assassin, Ron Howard, 40 million copies sold. If you say no, at that point you should go, `I should just get on a plane and go home.’ That’s quite a lot of things that are already right about it."

Add a cast led by Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou and Ian McKellen, a lurid hunt for the Holy Grail and a religious firestorm over author Dan Brown’s speculations that Christ and Mary Magdalene were married, and Bettany found himself at the center of one of Hollywood’s most anticipated productions.

Bettany said he had avoided reading "The Da Vinci Code" partly out of "some ghastly English snobbery. … I just thought it wasn’t going to be my cup of tea." Once he took the part, Bettany went out and bought a copy, devouring it in two days.

"There’s an absolute motor that sort of drives it, and it’s sort of like a guilty pleasure, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that," Bettany said.

Bettany was born into a theatrical family, his father and grandmother working as actors and his mother spending time as a stage singer.

Initially raised as a Roman Catholic ("a lot of guilt, and I still smell the incense"), Bettany then attended Church of England and Methodist congregations as his father experimented with different Christian branches.

Now "fanatically atheist," Bettany said he was not prepared for incessant questions about the religious debate over the novel, which theorizes about a conspiracy to cover up Christ’s marriage and villainizes the Catholic group Opus Dei, whose leader helps orchestrate dark deeds in pursuit of the Grail.

Monk Silas is an extremist Opus Dei member who practices "corporal mortification," wearing a barbed chain on his leg and flogging himself during prayer.

Bettany’s answer to "Da Vinci Code" critics: It’s only make-believe.

"When I went out to buy the book, I bought it in the fiction department. I didn’t buy it from the philosophy and personal growth department. A theological discourse as we all know is not a page-turner. I, like most people, read it like a beach novel over two days," Bettany said.

"I would be surprised if there’s much furor over the movie. Personally, I’ve only noticed it in America. Nobody mentions it in England or France. The only place it’s been mentioned is here, and I’ve yet to meet anybody that is sort of offended. And if we have offended anybody, if I have offended anybody, they’re Christians, so I’d ask them to forgive me."

After early success in British theater, television and film, with a notable turn as a criminal mad dog in "Gangster No. 1," Bettany clicked with U.S. audiences as ribald poet Chaucer in "A Knight’s Tale."

Following "A Beautiful Mind," Bettany worked again with Crowe as a shipboard doctor in "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World." In "Wimbledon," Bettany was a fading tennis veteran who becomes an underdog sensation after striking up a romance with a hotshot American player (Kirsten Dunst). He co-starred with Nicole Kidman in "Dogville," director Lars von Trier harsh indictment of America.

Most recently, Bettany was the black-hearted mastermind who holds Harrison’s Ford’s family hostage in the high-tech heist tale "Firewall."

Bettany got into acting after a prolonged period of grief and isolation after his younger brother died in a fall. He said he made the mistake of talking about his brother’s death and its aftermath in interviews before but now declines to discuss it to avoid "me having to have a bad day because I’ve had to go back to the darkest place in my personal history."

He’s effusive about his family with Connelly, though. Besides a stepson from Connelly’s previous relationship, Bettany has a son of his own with the actress and looks forward to more kids.

"I would like to just repetitively make children and practice making children in between," Bettany said.

British actor Paul Bettany is still adjusting to his life in the United States with wife Jennifer Connelly but insists he won’t give up his English sense of style. The star left his homeland to join his Oscar-winning wife in Brooklyn, New York City, and is still getting used to the transition. He explains, "When I first arrived here to live, Jennifer had brought me over like a mail-order bride. I turned up in this tiny one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan where she had been living for 10 years. We had a baby on the way, and I thought, ‘No way am I living like this.’ So we found this neighborhood in Brooklyn with lots of kids and great bars and restaurants." Bettany insists he won’t compromise when it comes to his sense of style because it would just look wrong. He adds, "I’m English, so I can’t wear a baseball cap. I’d look like white trash, like I should have a beer and a dog called Skeeter. I do wear a (New York) Mets (baseball) jersey, though - but simply to annoy my father-in-law."

One of my favorite husband-wife pairs in Hollywood is Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany.  Their son Stellan Bettany (pictured above) turns 3-year-old in August and was named after one of Paul’s best friends, Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård.  Jennifer Connelly, 35, and Paul Bettany, 34, have been married for three years. The Da Vinci Code movie will open this year’s Cannes film festival on May 17, two days before it is released worldwide (May 19).  It stars Paul Bettany, of course, as well as Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, Sir Ian McKellen and Alfred Molina.  Bigger pictures in the gallery!

UPDATE :: Yep, kiddo’s huge!  Paul is 6′3" and Jennifer is 5′7½".