SCREEN SAVER: Take a tip from actress Kate Hudson – the next time you are out shopping for that “perfect” bridal-shower gift, forget the sexy lingerie or the kitchen appliance. A TV is an absolute necessity for newlyweds, Hudson advises me.
She reckons watching television helped hubby Chris Robinson to understand women and their tantrums, outbursts, compulsive shopping and constant indecisiveness. She says he learned the valuable lessons for a happy marriage by tuning in each week to HBO’s “Sex and the City.” Hudson says she also picked up a few tips for her latest role.
If imitation is the finest form of flattery, Sarah Jessica Parker, a k a Carrie Bradshaw, New York’s most famous single columnist, should be “twirling her Manolos” with the release of Hudson’s latest flick, “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.” Hudson plays a magazine columnist who challenges dating techniques and targets the sexy Matthew McConaughey as the subject she wants to dump.
In real life, Hudson says her relationship with Robinson is “happy and healthy” thanks to the “Sex and the City” girls. “When Chris started watching the show it changed his assumptions about women completely,” Hudson told me. “He freaked out asking me if girls really talk like that.”
Hudson says she had to explain the specifics to her new husband and I imagine he’s still shaking his head. Hudson says her new film is just as educational, for men and women. “You get a peek into both the female and male side of the spectrum, and hopefully all can learn from it,” she said. So ladies and gents, you have your homework assignment!
STAND-UP GAL: More than six years after being imprisoned for refusing to testify in the Whitewater investigation, Susan McDougal is finally starting to talk about her experience. She admits she has only one regret – and it’s not the 21½ months she spent behind bars. It’s that she and ex-hubby Jim McDougal never reconciled before he died.
While Jim ratted and rolled to the grand jury and special prosecutors, Susan stood steadfastly loyal to Bill and Hillary Clinton. Jim died in March 1998.
“We weren’t speaking at the time of Jim’s death,” Susan confided last week. “I wish we had reconciled – and that will haunt me forever.” Despite her personal sorrow, Susan has no reservations about her decision not to cooperate with the investigation. “It was never an option,” she said. “I would not lie and as a result I was sent to prison.”
Later granted an executive pardon by President Clinton, an act she calls “an incredible offering,” McDougal found a new focus for her life during her incarceration. Her jailhouse journal tells how she got to know murderers, thieves and prostitutes and, in the process, gained a new direction for her life. “Some of these women are innocent victims with babies at home – desperate women in desperate situations who saw no other way out than to sell their bodies or steal for food,” she said.
THE FAMILY THAT PLAYS TOGETHER: His own team may have dropped the ball and fumbled their chances to reach this year’s Super Bowl, but that didn’t stop Giants star Tiki Barber from hosting a “touchdown” victory celebration!
Last week at B’Lo, Tiki gathered family and friends to celebrate the silver and platinum championship ring won by twin brother Ronde as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tiki told me that in many ways he was able to “feel” his twin’s joy at beating the Oakland Raiders in San Diego last Sunday.
“We are super close – when one of us goes through something great, we both do!” he said.
That holds true even in family planning – almost. Tiki and wife Ginny have a 6-month-old son, A.J., and Ronde and wife Claudia have a 1-year-old daughter, Yammile Rose. Ronde’s second child is due this spring, but Ginny tells me she and Tiki may wait a year before trying for another baby.
VICTORIA’S SECRET: Rapper Lil’ Kim is a tough lady. During filming of her new video on the Brooklyn waterfront last weekend, she wore a chinchilla bikini as wind chills dipped to 10 below. How do I know? I was there with her, freezing in my full-length mink.