Today's Evil Beet Gossip

Know Who I Love? Winona Ryder. Really.

photo of winona ryder elle magazine 2010 pictures

And I desperately wish that she’d get back up on the horse and start doing blockbusting movies yet again. Because though I really enjoyed her in Mr. Deeds (oh yes I did – don’t try to pretend that you didn’t just love that movie), I’d really like some Beetlejuice, or Girl, Interrupted, or hell, even The Crucible-type stuff. Ryder made that shit watchable.

But I guess, you know, when you’re busted for shoplifting a little bit at a NYC department store and claim that it’s all because of a pesky Xanax-eating problem, you sort fall from grace a bit. But you know what, I forgave Winona, like, ages ago for that BS. Shit happens, you know? I can totally understand. And I moved past it. However, not as many movie producers people are as graceful or forgiving as I am, and they just won’t let her live the now-infamous incident down.  Thankfully, though, Elle sort of grills her about everything else aside from The Incident, though you have to know that the topic just danced around the entire time, lurking in the interview room like the remnants of a Thanksgiving dinner fart.

On the way girlfriend was raised:

Her upbringing undoubtedly shaped her: Her parents, stalwarts of the San Francisco counterculture, hung with Allen Ginsberg and John Lennon. Ryder’s father, Michael Horowitz, is a rare-books dealer and Timothy Leary’s archivist. “My dad just gave me [Leary’s] watch for my birthday,” she says. “It’s called the Borel Kaleidoscope; it’s, like, this interesting kind of watch that when you look at it, you can stare at it forever—it moves in this weird way.”

On her choices in literature:

She’s a voracious reader (both Mom and Dad are writers) and begins a lot of her sentences with “Have you ever read that book?” As an avid collector of first editions, she’s a big believer in “paper and pen” and writing letters, and has yet to use the iPad Ron Howard recently gave her after wrapping this month’s date movie The Dilemma.

On trying to date with a celebrity status:

“I remember being at this bar called Tosca in San Francisco, and I met this guy one night. He was really cute, and we were talking, and then, like, he just said something about how he had always had a crush on me. And I was suddenly mistrustful about why he was talking to me. I wanted to be just a normal girl flirting with a normal guy. It’s like you meet people, and they know this stuff about you. It’s why you want to meet somebody who’s in the same business, only because they understand more. But you don’t necessarily want to be with another actor.”

On having a family of her own:

Ryder says she’s not seeing anyone seriously now but has thought about what course her career might take when she, “knock on wood,” has kids. “I would at least take a couple of years off.” Just don’t expect her to disappear altogether.

You bet your ass I won’t.

What were your favorite Winona flicks? My personal favorites? Great Balls of Fire and Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael. I’m serious – if you haven’t seen either of these films, go. Now. Netflix. Everyone’s got Netflix these days, don’t they (I don’t – I just cancelled mine. It so wasn’t worth it.)?

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