Gossip roundup
· Comedian Chris Rock's reaction to Matt Drudge's report that Rock had been instructed by DreamWorks not to badmouth President Bush while promoting their new film, Head of State: "I never met Matt Drudge, but if I see Matt Drudge, I'm going to take my red-blooded American foot and put it up his un-American ass for trying to disrupt the opening of my movie." [Page Six]
· Producer Scott Rudin goes sour on Paramount execs (including Paramount chief Sherry Lansing) planning an upcoming movie based on the Lemony Snicket children's books: "I found the amount of energy being poured into this circle jerk frustrating and debilitating and completely unrewarding and painful...These people can give you a lot of pain when they're trying to make a movie with you. Imagine what they can do when they're just trying to give you pain." [Page Six]
· Jon Stewart on Germany's refusal to join the U.S.-led coalition: "Poland wants to fight and Germany doesn't? That's crazy. It must be like the way an alcoholic doesn't want to go into a bar. They'd start bombing and wake up the next morning and say, 'Did I just invade Czechoslovakia last night?'" Richard Gere thinks that if Tibet were turned into a big spa resort, the Chinese government would allow the Dalai Lama to return to his homeland. [NY Daily News]
· The Word reports that CEO Steve Florio may be the next exiting executive at Conde Nast. [The Word