Dennis Quaid's Cocaine Regrets; 'The Conspirator' Escapes Shutdown

Ray Gustini
Dennis Quaid's Cocaine Regrets; 'The Conspirator' Escapes Shutdown

Happy Monday, Smart Set. Every morning, we bring you the gossip coverage, filtered. The peeks behind the scenes, a moment in the life, a more intimate look at the people who fascinate. Today we have: Darren Arronofsky's lunch, Dennis Quaid on his past addictions writes, and The Conspirator premiere escapes a government shutdown.

  • Darren Aronofosky bailed on directing the new Wolverine-goes-to-Japan movie a few weeks ago because he wanted to spend more time with his family. Or did he? The director has spent a lot of time recently "turning East Village eatery The Smith into his own Hollywood commissary," taking lunch meetings with Leonard DiCaprio and his former Wolverine star Hugh Jackman. [Page Six]

  • You can add Dennis Quaid to the list of celebrity correspondents for the new Newsweek. His edition of thier My Favorite Mistake feature begins: "My greatest mistake was being addicted to cocaine."  [Newsweek; PopEater]

  • The best piece of news to come out of Friday night's deal to avoid a shutdown of the federal government, at least in the eyes of star-starved Washingtonians: Robert Redford's new Lincoln assasination thriller The Conspirator, was able to hold its premiere Sunday night at Ford's Theatre as planned. (The theater is part of the Smithsonian.) Famous-for-Washington names like Max Baucus, Dee Dee Myers, Eric Holder, and Joe Lieberman rubbed elbows with famous-for-Hollywood types like Redford, Robin Wright, Evan Rachel Wood, James McAvoy, Tom Wilkinson, Alexis Beidel, Tom Wilkinson, and Kevin Kline. [The Reliable Source]

  • Boardwalk Empire good-but-creepy guy Michael Shannon has been cast as bad-and-very-creepy guy General Zod in director Zack Snyder's reboot of the Superman franchise. [Vulture]

  • New Jersey State Sen. Joe Kyrillos is still fuming over the $32,000 speaker's fee Rutgers paid to Jersey Shore star Snooki. He told students during an appearance at the school yesterday he is planning on "introducing a law that will allow students to pay [speaker's fees] for only the events they go to." [New York Daily News]

  • Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg is following Donna Karan's lead and debuting a line of branded homewear this week, including dishes, silverware and "all other assortment of things that help you get food and drink from the table to your face." On the whole, unBeige prefers the von Furstenberg collection, which is "a lot more fun than the quieter pieces" Donna Karan debuted in February. [unBeige]