Great googly-moogly, the man can work some stubble.

gasp. that look.

New photo from Hong Kong magazine MILK, via Keanuweb, who will have a translation of the interview soon.

Must. Go. Change. Underwear.

Club-Keanu has unearthed some gorgeous "new" photographs from the infamous Greg Gorman photoshoot with Keanu. Click here to see the others...

Thanks to Joy for this Entertainment Weekly Celebrity Photography link featuring Keanu.

Photograph by Robert Maxwell October 19, 2003 Los Angeles

''What I like about Keanu is the sense of shyness about him,'' says Maxwell, who shot the Matrix Revolutions stud at an empty soundstage. ''You'd expect more of a cocky, suave [guy] since he's such a sex symbol. But he was very simple.'' Hence Maxwell's ''rebellious'' decision: forgo a sci-fi-centric setup for one with a relaxed vibe. ''I tend to wing every shoot, and I found him just sitting there a thousand times more interesting.''

I've liked Maxwell's work for a while, and now I like his attitude as well.

Ah, Eddie Kasalivich. With your slavic last name and your college degree, you're the type of boy I could bring home to meet my father.

How I love your scruffy, bulky, machinisty goodness.

You make hypothermia sexy.

I love you so much Eddie, that even though your movie kinda sucked, I still defend you and your ability to outrun a massive explosion on your motorcycle. Even if it involves yelling at Roi to "shut up and get out of my car!"

Your breath smells of sardines, and you're sort of a slob but you have good taste in winterwear and I still and always will hold you in a special place in my heart, Eddie.

That's why it's so sad that you grew up to be a serial killer....

Big Love and thanks to Petra for scanning this scruffilicious picture and translating a nice fluffy article from German magazine, Brigitte.

A good name... The man was young and blond, unkempt and absolutely gorgeous. He was hitchhiking. Two women picked him up, both clearly older than him, and at the first motel he and one of them hopped into the creaking bed. Afterwards, the woman was as young and happy as never before in her life. The title of the film was ‘Thelma & Louise’, the teenage hitchhiker’s name was Brad Pitt, who after this memorable little appearance became the biggest movie star and heart-throb of the world. And the moral of this story? No other role can enchant women as much as the role of the younger lover. Another example? Dustin Hoffman’s breathtaking career took off in 1967 with “The Graduate” - in which he plays a young man just out of college, who has a hot affair with one of his parents’ friends. In Keanu Reeves’ case, things are a little bit different, but only a little bit. After all, Keanu Reeves had already been a movie start when every woman in every cinema around the world fell in love with him. He was a big action hero; do ‘Speed’ and, of course, ‘Matrix’ ring a bell? The women who saw these films thought Keanu Reeves was not too bad, and kept on dreaming about Brad Pitt. Until this year, when they discovered Keanu in the funny, romantic film ‘Something’s Gotta Give’ with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. In this film, he plays an extraordinarily well brought-up young doctor, sensitive, with feeling, and charming. And guess who he is in love with? Exactly. Diane Keaton. Who could, without any mathematical sophistries, be his mother. And his love for her is so wonderfully genuine, and he never ever does anything wrong. With this role, Mr Reeves has won every woman’s heart. Without exception. Ask any woman you know. You say, ‘Keanu’, and the woman will blossom and won’t get tired of going into raptures about this marvellous creature’s velvety brown eyes. Without fail. Give it a try! However, what’s funny about this is: For his romantic coming-out, Keanu Reeves had to be nearly 40 years old - his birthday is on 2 September. Which only goes to show once again: The role of the younger lover carries a magic that overrides all rules. -STEFANIE HENTSCHEL

Also, speaking of his scruffiness, Keanuweb has a cute In Touch mag scan on the topic as well...

So, Keanu....did you feel any different when you woke up this morning?

Not really, huh?

I'll bet that being forty isn't so bad and that being Keanu Reeves at forty?...is actually pretty fucking awesome.

I hope you're having a great day surrounded by those who mean the most to you, and I hope that you know that the whole world is full of people that adore you more than you can imagine. Be sure to thank your mum for us, ok?

Here are Forty Reasons Why I Love You...

1. The belly scar
   
2. The indescribable vibe you radiate that fills any space you're in and touches everyone in it
   
3. The bass lines in "One Thing" and "Denial"
   
4. Your dedication to your work
   
5. Your laugh
   
6. "Whoa"
   
7. Your eyes, they're better than chocolate
   
8. "It wah. It just wah-wahs"
   
9. Your humble generosity
   
10. Your commitment to your shoes
    
11. Your outside is lovely, but inside you're even more beautiful
    
12. The way you look in a tux
    
13. The way you look in jeans and a t-shirt
    
14. Sometimes, you sing along
    
15. "Questioning absolutely everything has always been a part of my nature."
    
16. You turned me on to Archers of Loaf
    
17. Your lip scar
    
18. The way you faint in Feeling Minnesota
    
19. Spaceland
    
20. You're genuinely funny
    
21. Your mysteriousness
    
22. Your openess
    
23. Your integrity
    
24. You're a damned good goalie....(in the first period)
    
25. The way you stomp when you play bass
    
26. The fact that combing your hair is "optional"
    
27. You're deliciously tall
    
28. ...and you have a great ass
    
29. The way you wag your head when you're lost in the music
    
30. "It's a little owl. And its eyes wiggle!"
    
31. "...if you can make a woman laugh, you are seeing the most beautiful thing on God's earth"
    
32. Your pigeon-toed-ness
    
33. The incredible velvet wrecking-ball that is your voice
    
34. You're an amazing storyteller
    
35. You're so damned nice...
    
36. ...yet sometimes you're fierce
    
37. "Yeah"
    
38. Your goofball smile
    
39. The things you inspire in others
    
40. The things you inspire in me
    

According to the Aveeno Lip Report (?!) , Keanu has been voted as having Canada's most kissable lips. -via Keanuweb

I actually think he has the most kissable everything, especially further south...

...you know, of the Canadian border.

Like the fine wines he loves, Keanu himself just gets better with age.

Just a reminder that in two weeks he'll be leaving his 30's behind and along with the inevitable greetings and posts from the Keanurati on that day you can also leave a greeting on the fan-created virtual birthday card sites for him HERE, created by Lynn and HERE created by Cleo from Brazil. If anyone else has set up a site to welcome Reeves to middle-age, let me know!

Hope everyone has a great weekend, here's a dose of scruffy, brown-eyed goodness.

Hard to believe this guy's leaving his thirties behind in September, huh?

If you'd like, you can leave him a birthday wish on the virtual birthday card created by keanufan43.

-via keanua-z

Sigh....

"I just hate seeing pictures of myself where I have this look in my eye where it's like 'Ooh, I'm so sensitive and deep,'" he says, offering advice on Sky Magazine's cover shot. "Do I have some fucking puppy dog look on my face? Oh no, man! I'd rather be cross-eyed and kind of making some stupid face rather than that sombre, actor look. I don't think I'm the most handsome guy in the world, but I know I'm not quite a dog."

I wonder if Keanu ever completely changes the way he plays a song the night before a gig?

Ack.

Time to re-boot....

-Johnny Mnemonic images from Club-Keanu

I wonder what makes Keanu laugh?

I'm off to pick up some Two Buck Chuck and start the weekend.

I know, I have a lot to catch up on, more later...

Also, Happy Birthday to Niobe :)

*smoooooch*

The Ultimate Decadent Chocolate Cake

• 16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, broken into small pieces
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 10 eggs, separated
• 1/4 cup Grand Marnier or Kahlúa
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Butter a springform cake pan. Dust the pan with unsweetened cocoa. Set aside.

Melt the chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler. When melted, slowly add 3/4 cup of sugar and stir until dissolved. Remove from the heat.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks until they are a lemon color. Add 1/4 cup of the hot chocolate mixture to the yolks and mix together. Add another 1/4 cup of the chocolate mixture to the eggs and mix. Continue this process until all the egg yolks are blended with the chocolate.

Return the chocolate mixture to the double boiler and cooked until slightly thickened. Add the Grand Marnier or Kahlúa and vanilla extract. Mix well.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer, slowly adding half the remaining sugar to the egg whites, and beating until soft peaks are formed. Slowly add the remaining sugar and cream of tartar to the egg whites. Beat until stiff. Gently fold the chocolate mixture into the egg whites.

Pour the batter into the springform pan and bake for 3 hours.

Remove from the oven and cool. Handle the cake carefully because it can fall slightly. When room temperature, slide a knife around the sides of the springform pan and then remove the sides. Using a large knife, slice between the pan and the cake. Place the cake on a plate. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar and chocolate shavings.

Serve within several hours after removing it from the springform pan.

Serves 12.

what truths
lie behind
those eyes

the look
that took
my breath
my sighs

make me
so light headed
deer

take me
now
take me
here

(pic from keanufan.com)

Have a great weekend everyone.

Dear Keanu,

You make me all creamy inside, like a cadbury egg.

-k

One of the songs I've learned recently was Something by George Harrison and it reminded me of this article, one of my favorites.

Something in the way he moves

In defense of Keanu Reeves.

By Charles Taylor

Is there anyone in the movies who allows the camera to drink him in the way Keanu Reeves does? Movies have always yielded to performers with charisma and beauty. Sometimes the mechanics of a movie -- plot, dialogue -- can seem frozen for an instant as the camera basks in the person in front of it. There have been histories of the movies written in terms of genres and filmmakers. Perhaps one needs to be written in terms of erotics, the moments that break movies down in our minds into images of faces, bits of movement, a snatch of music on the soundtrack. Those moments seem to reveal other, more delicate, movies inside the one we're watching, as if we were in the midst of reading a novel and a symbolist poem had floated up between the lines.

"The Matrix" has already broken down in my head to moments of Keanu Reeves striding through crowded city streets, dank back alleys and the decaying rooms of ghost town tenements. Reeves' movements have always conveyed an unsettled mixture of eagerness and wariness (just as the combination of his muscular build and fine-boned face convey a mixture of strength and grace). Maybe it's the way he seems to be led forward by his shoulders as he walks, or the way he has of looking from side to side as he strides forward, scanning the scene he's already trudged into. If the film's protagonist, Neo, is a role that Reeves seems born to play, it's because it's the one that allows us to revel in his physicality, which has always been such a strong component of his acting.

Movement is accepted as part of the performance of a dancer or a comic. And certainly talking about the physicality of, say, Olivier as Henry V, or Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet, wouldn't surprise anyone. So why does it still startle some highbrow moviegoers and critics that, in an action movie, the way an actor moves is the performance? In her Entertainment Weekly review of "The Matrix," Lisa Schwarzbaum claims she "can't get [Reeves] in focus as an actor," but as for his "fine form," well that she can "clearly see and appreciate."

I don't think that the way Keanu Reeves looks or the way he moves is all there is to appreciate about the guy. But I often get the feeling that admitting to enjoying his physicality means that I'm failing my critic's responsibility of treating cinema as a serious art form, that having a sensual or kinetic response means abandoning intellect, that I'm forgetting to maintain that even failed or boring or pretentious art is more worthy of serious consideration than successful entertainment.

Let's face it: Love him or hate him, nobody wants to envision the movies without Keanu Reeves. If it weren't for him, what would snobs do to amuse themselves?

No doubt there are people who just don't dig Keanu Reeves. But I've almost never heard anyone content to say they merely dislike him: They loathe him. Subjected to more ridicule than perhaps any other movie star, Reeves is attacked with the enthusiasm people reserve for someone who truly drives them crazy. "Young, dumb and full of cum," is the way Reeves' hard-ass FBI boss describes the character he plays in "Point Break," a line that the Keanu haters themselves might have coined. I'm guessing, but I suspect that part of the vitriol directed at Reeves stems from the way he stirs up all the old arguments about the differences between actors and movie stars. Reeves is also a repository both for the lingering resentment over the attention and devotion that beauty continues to command in pop culture and the way in which he represents a subversion of traditional sex roles

In "Girlfriend," her new book about cross-dressing, Holly Brubach argues that drag sends conventional sex roles topsy-turvy, that while maintaining traditional images of femininity it "upholds the very definitions that it subverts; it is at once radical and deeply conventional." I'd argue the same applies to Reeves. Looking at good-looking people has been one of the great pleasures of the movies since the silents. But the performers who have offered themselves most willingly to the camera have almost always been women. Their seeming passivity has disguised the position of power they hold over the viewer. Ready for worship, they have presented themselves as if they were the sacred icons of pop culture. Men, on the other hand, have traditionally acted to deflect attention from themselves, as if doing anything less would seem unmanly or feminine.

Reeves is one of the few contemporary male stars whose presence acknowledges that people are out there in the dark looking at him. He's not narcissistic, just comfortable with himself, and his slight languidness encourages looking. That willingness to be looked at evokes -- in women as well as men -- a homosexual panic. I don't mean that as a sop to the rumors that have hovered around Reeves' sexuality -- though it's significant that we can conceive of a man comfortable with his good looks only as being gay -- but as a suggestion of how some people still feel threatened by men who don't conform to their ideas of what men should be.

For someone who's been most successful as the star of action movies, Reeves hasn't shown any interest in macho bluster. He may be playing hot dogs in "Point Break" and "Speed," but he doesn't swagger, not even in the scenes with his leading ladies. Like other actors of his generation -- Eric Stoltz, James LeGros, John Cusack -- Reeves is remarkably generous, even deferential, to the women he plays opposite. Look at the scenes between him and Sandra Bullock in "Speed." Reeves doesn't play them as a testosterone-jazzed cop out to show who's in charge -- he treats her as an equal partner in disaster, encouraging, even leaning on her, without once seeming less heroic or masculine.

It's surprising then that audiences that enjoy that sort of gender switcheroo haven't embraced Reeves. Maybe it's because they're the same kind of audiences that buy into fashionable notions about beauty being a false, oppressive standard. Reeves demonstrates that movies have never abandoned their veneration of the beautiful, and he does so at a time when that impulse is deeply suspect.

A film critic I know recently said to me that he thinks people look at Reeves and see nothing going on. He said they weren't looking too hard. Instead of the "serene blankness" Schwarzbaum described, I have almost never seen Reeves play a scene -- regardless of whether he or the movie was good or bad -- where he didn't seem completely concentrated. That commitment may have sometimes worked against him, leading him to appear overly serious in a crummy movie. But I'd prefer that to an actor condescending to a scene by signaling his contempt. Or to the furious scenery chewing that is often praised in the movies as fine acting -- Jennifer Jason Leigh in "Georgia" or "Kansas City"; John Malkovich in "Jennifer Eight" or "Rounders"; Gary Oldman in almost anything.

That sort of showy self-consciousness is often mistaken for off-screen intelligence. Unfortunately, people still assume that actors are the characters they play. Reeves is often talked about as if he is the slow-witted dude he played in the "Bill and Ted" movies. It's almost always his voice and the accents that he affects that's used as evidence against him. Sure, his British accent in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" was noticeably strained, and it's often counted against him. But nobody was good in that movie. (Coppola seemed more interested in his production design than in directing the actors.) If actors are often confused with the roles they play, they are also held accountable for the follies of their directors. Which is also what happened to Reeves in "Little Buddha": Any actor would have looked ridiculous done up in eyeliner and prancing around as Siddhartha. And yet, who could blame Reeves for wanting to work with Bernardo Bertolucci, especially after being so consistently mocked as a nontalent.

Dismissed as a slacker Ken doll whose work has been mostly teen comedies and action films, Reeves has been even more ridiculed when he's attempted to stretch himself. Reeves played Hamlet in a Winnipeg, Manitoba, stage production and received good reviews, but most of the attendant press about the performance mocked the very idea of him attempting the role. As Don John in Branagh's film of "Much Ado About Nothing," Reeves took a functional, nondescript villain and gave him an undercurrent of malevolence that the movie's brightness couldn't entirely dispel. (The element of inexplicability Reeves brought to the don's treachery made me wonder whether Shakespeare might have used the part as a first sketch for Iago, a character he wrote three years later.) The reviews were predictably nasty, but it's always a giveaway when people spend more time deriding the notion of a performance -- Keanu Reeves in Shakespeare! -- than the specifics of the actual acting.

Movies are only occasionally high art. And even when they are, they need the link to their tradition of sensual pleasure that Reeves stands for. Performers with his sort of charismatic sexiness can make you feel plugged in, alive to that pleasure. In a world of movies that are too often (to steal a phrase from a Mekons song) the empire of the senseless, Reeves is the red pill.

Yeah, I'm completely evil for PUNK'D-ing you all but oh man, was it worth it. I wish the web were interactive enough that I could see some of your faces.

The comment that filled me with the most glee?

Smit too: "Man. You suck."

Hee! Precisely the effect I was going for, along with that slight nagging in the back of your mind that maybe I really had gone off the deep end into Kelso-land.

The key to a good fool is to carry it on way longer than needed.

Thanks to everyone, especially Red at AKN and the real Kutcher fans for being good sports.

Here's a little something to cleanse your palate with.

More yummy KEANU goodness in the morning.

Promise.

The very first time I saw Something's Gotta Give in the theater and saw Keanu as Dr. Mercer against the background of beautiful blue sky and clouds I thought "damn, that's going to make some sweet screen captures...."

Well, big love to Keanuette. She has outdone hereself with a glorious SGG capture album over at KeanuA-Z.com.

Go check it out and get a healthy dose of yummy Dr. Mercer goodness.

And don't forget to pick up your own copy of the DVD tomorrow.

I didn't use these in the post yesterday but didn't want them to go to waste.

Niobe sent this Hiroshi Homma photo to complete the set of pictures in this entry.

Also, this week from freewillastrology.com...

Virgo (August 23-September 22)
Speaking on your behalf, I hereby give notice to the cosmos that it must try harder to please you. Its lukewarm support will no longer be considered sufficient for your needs. Its roundabout approach to helping you fulfill your dreams must become more direct and straightforward -- or else! Specifically, I demand that the gods, fates, dispensers of karma, or however they want to be referred to, must, no later than March 13, 2004, begin to provide you with a steady stream of satisfying interpersonal encounters. This must include, though it is not limited to, more tender intimacy, more engaging friendships, and more interesting conversations.

I'm thinking of an interesting conversation I'd like to have with him right now....

Club-Keanu has a whole bunch of hand-rubbing, lip-pouting, goat-throwing, just-plain-cute screen captures from last year's MTV Moviehouse interview to promote Reloaded.

Check them out at the gallery.

These scans are from Interview Magazine - 1991. You can see the full pages and read the article at Reeves Drive.

I love his crinkle.

"I hate the term sex symbol" Reeves says quietly.
"I don't think I'm a sex symbol. I don't think I look like a sex symbol either."

- Platinum - May/June, 1995

What would be a perfect date?

One where we mutually had an exceptional time that had the wonderful thing that can happen on a first date where you are intoxicated with each other's company and everything becomes good in the world and there's hope and you're just excited to see them. And you have great ease with them. Just a good experience.

Are you single?

I am currently single.

And looking?

Begging, pleading.

Do you ever want to get married?

I think so.

Would a girl need to commit to riding around on a motorcycle to date you?

No. It would be fine if she didn't.

Do you like women to approach you, or do you prefer to approach women?

Yes. All of it. Any which way.

What are you still trying to figure out about women?

The figuring out is the fun part. It's always wonderful to get to know women with the mystery and the joy and the depth.

Is there anything you know to be true about women?

That if you can make a woman laugh, you're seeing the most beautiful thing on God's earth.

What's a turn-on?

I'm pretty easily amused.

Anything in particular? Eyes, legs, hair, cleavage...?

Oh, those all sound so good.

Do you have a least-favorite body part and a favorite body part?

I'm not telling you that. Are you crazy?

Where is the most outrageous place you've ever had sex?

I don't know...what is outrageous anymore? What I thought of as outrageous when I was 17, and now being 39, you know, that doesn't count.

Right, because at 17, having sex in your parents' bed is outrageous.

Yeah, and now you just shouldn't be doing that - it's creepy. You probably shouldn't have been doing it before, but you were 17. So let me think. I've made out in a cab, but I've never gone all the way in a cab. Or have I? No, you'd remember that right? Or maybe you wouldn't and that would be the only way that you did it. You know what? Okay, yeah, I did, but I don't remember. You can't be sober and have sex in the back of a cab.

Exactly. What's the craziest thing you've ever done to get a woman's attention?

I haven't done the letter-writing airplane in the sky or the ''Come over for dinner and now we're going to Paris'' thing. I can't wait to do those things, but I haven't done them yet. If I ever meet someone, we're going to have a good time, because I'm making a list.

-If ever there was an interview likely to cause spontaneous panty combustion, it's this one from Cosmo Men, November 2003...

"Romance is giving joy to someone you love, and giving them something that you know as well. A moment's gesture, giving your love, giving your feeling. The romance is the specialness of the moment and the event and the gesture"

Apparently, today's all about the football.

ADDED 8:42 pm--
Thanks Niobe! Aieeeeee!

Have I mentioned that I require him like no other?

"The outside view of Hollywood, in terms of being a celebrity, is kind of a myth to me. It's ephemeral, it's like something that's not real. I can understand why people get confused, because, if you're outside it, it's fantasy.

For those of us that don't have the day off....a couple more pics from Roadshow

V. Big Love to the fan that sent these scans from January's Roadshow magazine..

Great

Googly

Moogly

-from Club-Keanu's Gallery

Thank you to the Keanu Pic-of-the-Day Club for these gorgeous DeChristo pictures...

...and for the translation of a French Premiere article about the session.

Friday, April 23, 1999, Miauhaus Studio on La Brea Ave. After a few uncertainties, we were worried that he wouldn't show up. Keanu Reeves suddenly appears on his motorcycle wearing a helmet and a grey three-piece suit. The bike, the same old black 70's Norton.

His agent, who also handles public relations worldwide for Sharon Stone, Christina Ricci and half a dozen of other clients, gives us exactly two hours to interview and photograph him. Therefore, the meeting will take place during his make-up session.

After turning down Speed 2 for The Devil's Advocate, Keanu Reeves totally disappeared from the media during a whole year. Thus, his name was no longer being associated with any of the multi-million-dollar Hollywood projects. He doesn't hide the fact that it was not only a choice... After a fourteen-year career, fatigue had accumulated even though his amazing face and look didn't show it. With a gross of 100 million dollars in only three weeks, The Matrix is the perfect movie for a comeback. If Keanu makes efforts to promote this film, he also knows how to remain a star: he accepts only a few rare photo sessions. For the simple reason that he hates them (like three quarters of the actors, by the way).

Reeves doesn't seem to be aware of the endless transactions that preceded his arrival after a night spent rehearsing with his band Dogstar. "May I smoke?" he worries. "Of course! It's for the French Premiere!" In Hollywood, the French are the worst "smoking polluters". Reeves hasn't shaved and is not willing to do so at all. "Depends on the razor you propose..." After five minutes of intense reflection, we tell him that it's not that important and that his morning shadow suits him quite well. Which, suddenly, makes him want to shave absolutely. "Now that we tell you it's okay, you want to shave! You really do have a contradiction streak!" - "Yeah, that's me", he says with his mocking smile. He goes to the bathroom. During the lathering stage, we talk about motorcycles a bit: no, he's never driven with Johnny Depp for the simple reason that he doesn't know him; he has a 70's Kawasaki 750, yes; otherwise, he's an ardent admirer of Nortons. We get back to make-up and questions.