Contemplating 'Divorce'

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Sunday August 10, 2003

SOCIAL CLIMES
Contemplating 'Divorce'

By Steven Barrie-Anthony, Times Staff Writer

Reporters and cameramen jostle for position on the red carpet at the Mann Festival Theater in Westwood. Across the street, fans stand tippy-toed and stare through disposable camera viewfinders, intent on capturing a celebrity or two. But take them all away, and the "Le Divorce" premiere July 29 might well be a family picnic. Everybody is just so relaxed.

A pregnant Kate Hudson, star of the hour, stops to adjust her multicolored Missoni maternity dress. She leans toward the reporters and confides, "As the breasts expand, the dress starts to not fit right."

Hubby Chris Robinson, former Black Crowes singer, never lets go of Hudson's hand. She looks lovingly at him. "Oh, you have lipstick all over!" she says, and reaches up to wipe it off.

"What can the French teach Americans about love?" somebody yells.

Mathew Modine, who plays a buffoonish expatriate stalker in the Paris-set film, fields this one. "I would have to say, what can the French learn from Americans about love?" he says.

"Are you proud of Kate?" a reporter asks Robinson, who drapes his arm around his wife.

"I'm always proud of Kate," Robinson says. "I guess on the proud spectrum, I'm a little extra proud tonight."

Walking into the theater, Hudson and co-star Naomi Watts share a bucket of popcorn and whisper into each other's ears -- looking much like the sisters they play in "Le Divorce."

Opening credits roll, and the audience cheers for every name.

At the after-party held in the UCLA Hammer Museum courtyard, spotlights turn the trees red. Waiters wander, asking, "Crab cakes, anyone?" Three makeshift bars offer all the essential alcohols, and vitamin water. By the buffet, a woman bites into a beef skewer and exclaims, in a heavy French accent, "Delicious!"

As Watts mingles, she curls her hair around a finger. Hudson, chewing gum, sits and laughs with friends.

At a neighboring table, Nick Nolte is talking about the movie. He is garbed in black, his glasses are migrating toward the end of his nose, and he is smoking a cigarette.

"I found it very meaningful," he says. "It's not just light comedy. It reminds me of love lost, love found, loveliness, despair, and a broken heart."