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What Does Zsa Zsa Gabor Want With Nicole Kidman?

Exclusive! Get the scoop on why ailing 94-year-old socialite-actress wants a word with the Aussie Oscar winner. Plus, Mark Ruffalo addicted to new movie...and more from Independent Spirit Awards

By Marc Malkin Feb 27, 2011 6:01 PMTags
Nicole KidmanSteve Granitz/Getty Images

Zsa Zsa Gabor has a thing for Nicole Kidman.

The Oscar winner is the 94-year-old socialite-actress' first choice to play her in her biopic...

"She wants me to talk to Nicole Kidman today because she wants her to play her in her life story," Gabor's husband, Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, told me at yesterday's Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica.

Why?

"Nicole made the new Moulin Rouge and Zsa Zsa did the old Moulin Rouge," he explained. "She always says, 'Nicole was perfect in Moulin Rouge! She should play me in my life story.' "

Despite Gabor's failing health (most recently, she was treated earlier this month at a hospital for internal bleeding a couple of weeks after having part of her right leg amputated), Prinz von Anhalt says she's in good spirits. "She's doing OK...She hanging in there," he said, adding, "As long as she smiles, it's all OK for me."

Also at the Spirit Awards, I got word that Mark Ruffalo is reteaming with The Kids Are All Right cowriter Stuart Blumberg. He'll star as an addict in Blumberg's directorial debut, Thanks For Sharing. "It's a comedy about addiction," Kids and Sharing producer Jordan Horowitz told me. "It's all kinds of addictions—sex addiction, alcohol addiction, drug addiction."

In other Spirited news, Dale Dickey (who was named Best Supporting Actress at the Spirit Awads for her work in Winter's Bone) told me she'll be playing a homeless woman opposite Robert De Niro in Another Bulls—t Night in Suck City.

"It's a very small role, but I'm very excited because it's in New York and it's with Robert De Niro," said Dickey, who's also set to play a "bar slut from hell" in the upcoming indie adaptation of Del Shores' play The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife. "So when my agent called me and said, 'Hey, you wanna play a homeless woman,' I was like, 'Absolutely! With Robert De Niro? Are you kidding me? I'd play anything!'"

Meanwhile, backstage at the show, Jesse Eisenberg was spotted hanging in the Piaget lounge before hitting the LG Cinema 3D HDTV Gift Lounge to check out running shoes at the New Balance Revilte booth with celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak.

Nicole Kidman held hands with bestie Naomi Watts as they made their way through the Elle Green Room into the LG lounge. Vanessa Hudgens hung around with her Journey 2: The Mysterious Island costar Josh Hutcherson while Paul Rudd snacked on popcorn compliments of AMC. I also spotted Jason Ritter picking up some boardshorts from Nautica.

And then there was Jeremy Renner. I love me some Renner, but The Town star continued his recent habit of avoiding the press. With his head down and sunglasses on, he raced down the arrivals carpet. Asked by photographers to take the shades off, Mr. Renner said he couldn't because he had only gotten two hours of sleep.

Let's hope he's in better shape for today's Oscars.