Steve Granitz / Getty ImagesThe wild western Appaloosa debuted at the Academy theater in Hell-Ay yesterday, and we got our cowboy boots and ten gallon hats on for the occasion. It ain't our usual style, but if Jessica Simpson can fake-enjoy country couture, then we sure as hell can, too.
And who needs glam star Renée Zellweger, anyway? Babe refuses to gab to a helluva lotta reporters (and not because anything we said for a change, just so all you Ted-haters out there realize we ain't the only sassers who get sassed back 'round these parts, 'K?).
Appaloosa's writer, director and lead actor is the respectable gent Ed Harris, joining the ranks of every ego-inflated actor who thinks he can do everything, from Mel Gibson to Zach Braff. Chatting with the Renaissance man (who effing should have won an Oscar for Pollock, but Russell Crowe's thighs in Gladiator overshadowed, unfortunately), we wondered what made Eddie H. jump on the H'wood Old West bandwagon? Seriously, cowboys are all the rage nowadays, whether they're dark and moody like Brad Pitt in The Assassination of Jesse James or burying their spurs deep in the closet in Brokeback Mountain.
"Hey man, cowboys are fun to watch," said E.H. "They're cowboys! They're sexy and they're usually in charge and they know what they're doing." Really? We know one ranch hand in the White House who is none of those things.
What about dealing with triple the work? "I guess it was a challenge, but that's why I did it. I like a challenge." Harris-hon's costar is the absolutely gorge Viggo Mortensen, who looks handsome even when he's cutting bad guys up naked in a bathhouse in Eastern Promises. "He's just a classy guy, a good citizen of the country, of the world," said Ed about Vig. "A really, really great actor, a bizarre sense of humor, kind of like myself. We have a mutual respect for each other."
Oh, and one more thing Eddie added to his already long list of attractive Viggo attributes: "He's good on a horse." More on the roughrider himself tomorrow.
—Additional sass by Becky Bain