out and about
Updated: August 18, 2009, 8:04 am	Share    Print    Email

Renee Zellweger to star in new movie. Photo by Eileen Casey

Southampton - Is Bridget Jones the perfect cure for "The Hangover"? Don't be surprised if you run into our lovely Academy Award winning neighbor Renee Zellweger and her new beau Bradley Cooper at Renee's favorite date spot, The American Hotel in Sag Harbor. Despite the constant denials from both actors publicists, the two are definitely an item. While in Spain the couple was caught smooching outside a Barcelona church. Bradley was there promoting his summer hit "The Hangover" and Renee was heading across the pond to begin shooting a sequel to "The Bridget Jones Diaries" anyway, so what's a little weekend in Spain.

Previously the duo have been spotted in New York restaurants and working out at a gym in L.A. Everyone put their sightings down to the fact that they are teaming up for a new thriller "Case 39" but the camera doesn't lie and now the cat is out of the bag. Wonder what Jennifer Aniston has to say about all this hand-holding and cuddling? Previously, Cooper has been linked to Aniston, his "He's Just Not That Into You" co-star, although he claims that they were always just friends.

Michael J. Fox honored in Hollywood. Images courtesy of Google Images

Don't expect wedding bells anytime soon - both have gone through painful marital splits. In 2005, Renee's surprise marriage to country star Kenny Chesney only lasted a few months. The following year, Cooper married actress Jennifer Esposito, but their marriage also lasted less than a year. Not a good prognosis.

Quogue's favorite new citizen, actor Michael J. Fox was honored in Hollywood last week by the Holyrod Foundation for his on-going work to raise awareness on Parkinson's disease.

Fox's commitment goes beyond his Michael J. Fox Foundation that researches treatments and cures for Parkinson's disease. His foundation has raised almost $100 million since he launched it in 2000, 10 years after he was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's. He was very pleased when, earlier this year, President Barack Obama overturned a ban on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, getting politics out of science.

But perhaps an even greater contribution, to himself and others who are afflicted with the disease, was when he came out of the closet, helping to overturn taboos and the shame that comes along with the debilitating disease. He continues to appear on talk shows and is not afraid to tackle even a return to comedy. As well, the books he has written on living with Parkinson's have also been well-received.

Laila Ali commends Fox.

TV personality Laila Ali, whose father boxing great Muhammad Ali suffers from the disease is all too familiar with Parkinson's. At the celebration, she praised Fox for his courage and said: "Michael carries himself with such dignity. He doesn't try to hide his symptoms from the public and I think that's excellent. He's a great man." Clearly, Hollywood thinks so too.

My Southampton neighbor Rachel Ray has been so upset by the stories of the hundreds of thousands of abused and abandoned animals that have to be taken into shelters each year that she has just launched a web page "Rachel's Rescue" to spotlight caring organizations which are dedicated to helping animals in need. She is so much behind the many helping organizations that she also launched a new line of pet foods, Rachael Ray's Nutrish. Rachel is donating a portion of the proceeds from sales to organizations she has spotlighted on the new website rachelrescue.org and to other animal welfare groups around the country.

Meanwhile, she has been traveling up and down the Northeast checking out eco-friendly inns and lodges for a new series of shows for Food Network. I don't know when she and hubby John Cusimano and their cute pit bull Boo will be able to enjoy a little beach time out here. Boo-Hoo!

Barbra Streisand cleans out her closets for charity.

Another Southamptonite continues to do really good things. George Soros whom I told you gave a $50 million challenge grant in May to the Robin Hood Foundation to fight poverty in New York, has now made another enormous "Thank you" gift to New York State which he loves so much. The philanthropist plans to commit $35 million to an effort that will provide a $200 back-to-school bonus for each of more than 850,000 low-income children in New York State this fall. George wants every kid to be able to start the first day of school with new shirts, jeans, sneaks and school supplies.

I hope a chunk of that may find its way to Maryann Tupper at the Human Resources of the Hamptons who is struggling to continue HRH's annual Back Pack kids program since the number of children in need has grown enormously with the recession. Are you listening George?

Pay attention all you Babs fans. Barbra Streisand is cleaning out her closets and putting tons of her costumes, jewelry, memorabilia and tchochkes up on the auction block at Juliena's Auction on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18. Over 400 lots will go under the gavel, including a wicker chair from her sunroom, a baby grand piano, scores of designer dresses, costumes from films such as "Funny Lady," "The Way We Were" and "Meet the Fockers," an old phonograph she bought when she was 18 and one of the first pieces of furniture she ever bought - a dental cabinet. Selections from the auction will be on public view aboard the Queen Mary II during its trans-Atlantic cruise this month and then in Ireland, New York and Beverly Hills.

Matthew Broderick to star in new play.

Proceeds from the auction to be held at the Beverly Hills Hotel will go to the Streisand Foundation, which gives grants to national organizations working on preservation of the environment, voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women's issues and nuclear disarmament and has given large donations to programs related to women's health. A big chunk of the money from the auction will go to the Clinton Foundation for the climate change initiative.

Good news for theater buffs. Two-time Tony Award winner Matthew Broderick is teaming up with his childhood chum and former Walden School classmate two-time Oscar nominee Kenneth Lonergan for the premiere of Kenneth's new play "The Starry Messenger" at The New Group. The play focuses on Mark (to be played by Broderick), a 40-something married man who works at the Hayden Planetarium and whose life turns upside-down when he meets a pretty young single mother played by Oscar nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno ("Maria Full of Grace").

The play had been originally scheduled to premiere at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre and then at Manhattan Theatre Club but things change, in this case for the better for The New Group which premiered in 1996 Lonergan's "This is Our Youth."