Expectant star has tounges wagging at premiere

The movie may be all about "Le Divorce," which opens in Salt Lake City Aug. 29, but at the star-filled premiere in Westwood Tuesday night of that newest Merchant-Ivory film, all the talk was about a certain real-life pregnancy.

It was pretty obvious that Kate Hudson, the film's leading lady, and her attentive husband, Chris Robinson, have no intention of following the story line of the film, in which a pregnant Naomi Watts is left in the lurch by her cad of a French husband.

No, the happy couple, who are expecting their first child in early 2004, dressed in concert. Hudson was in a sweeping, form-fitting (and expanding-belly revealing) gown with a '60s hippie vibe. Robinson was doing even more of that hippie thing, with full bushy beard, long hair, John Lennon specs, and gauzy white shirt with faded jeans.

Hudson admitted that she has given up some of her vices because of her pregnancy but not others. "I quit smoking. It wasn't as hard as I thought that it was going to be. I'm actually enjoying it, and so, I don't know if I'll smoke again," she said happily. "And I've cut out caffeine, too."

But in keeping with a line that Watts utters in the film, Hudson jokes that there are just some things that a mother-to-be simply can't let go of. Like wine, which she is still sipping.

Lots of wine was consumed at the low-key after-party held in the courtyard of the Armand Hammer Museum, as Hudson, Robinson, Watts (who attended sans boyfriend Heath Ledger), and many of the film's other principals -- Stockard Channing, Sam Waterston, Leslie Caron, Jean-Marc Barr, Matthew Modine, director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant -- dined on smoked salmon, marinated beef and seared tuna Nicoise sandwiches.

Other friends of Merchant/Ivory in attendance included a well- behaved Nick Nolte, Playboy Playmate of the Year for 2001 and ex- "Baywatch Hawaii" babe Brande Roderick, and red-hot "Seabiscuit" ingenue Elizabeth Banks.

Copyright C 2003 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.