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Getting to know “Passenger’s” Patrick Wilson

By Hilary Dickinson | October 28, 2008

He’s starred in movies with Kate Winslet, Ellen Page, Annette Bening, and now with Anne Hathaway in this weekend’s “Passengers,” but you may not yet know about Patrick Wilson.

His first big film role was playing an accused pedophile in “Hard Candy” with Page followed by “Little Children” with Winslet in which he played a philandering husband.

Before that the 35-year-old actor from the South was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance in HBO’s “Angels in America” and was nominated for two Tony Awards for his work on Broadway.

 “When I moved [to New York], I said the only things I wanted to do was originate the lead in a show, and if it was a musical, then do the recording, and get nominated for a Tony,” he said per Internet Movie Database. “So now that I’ve done all that, I don’t know what I’m going to do. Maybe I should dream higher.”

From the looks of his blossoming movie career, it seems he has indeed dreamed higher.

In “Passengers” he plays a mysterious plane crash survivor who gets romantically involved with the grief counselor (Hathaway) assigned to counsel the five survivors until she suspects he may have more to do with the plane crash.

Right before that he starred in last month’s “Lakeview Terrace” and next stars in the highly anticipated comic book adaptation, “Watchmen,” opening next year.

But he hasn’t given up his Broadway career. Currently he’s starring in “All My Sons” with John Lithgow, Katie Holmes and Dianne Wiest.

“I would never ‘abandon’ Broadway. I do want to expand my horizons and do more film work, but I’m interested in good roles, wherever they may be,” he said according to IMBb. “I refuse to acknowledge the gap between theater and film. I want to do both. On both coasts. So I will…unless I never get a job again, in which case I’ll go back to my first career choice: chimney sweep.”

He’s married to fellow Carnegie Mellon graduate, Dagmara Dominczyk, and two years ago they had a son, Kalin Patrick, whose initials are tattooed on Wilson’s arm.

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Politics and Celebrities Collide

By Hilary Dickinson | September 1, 2008

John McCain recently called Barack Obama “the biggest celebrity in the world.” If so, then it’s appropriate Hollywood’s biggest celebrities would come out to celebrate Obama and this week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver last week.

Among the stars included Oprah Winfrey, Scarlett Johansson, Steven Spielberg and wife Kate Capshaw, Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, Kerry Washington, Jennifer Lopez, Rosario Dawson, Jessica Alba, Charlize Theron, Angela Bassett, Ashley Judd, Kirsten Dunst, Chevy Chase, Forest Whitaker, Josh Brolin, Hill Harper, Fran Drescher, Annette Bening, Spike Lee and Jamie Foxx.

And it wasn’t just actors. Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson sang the national anthem, and singers Sheryl Crow, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Kanye West and the Black Eyed Peas were also on hand.

Celebrities publicly endorsing candidates and making a spectacle at the convention is both criticized and embraced by citizens – even among the celebrities themselves.

Private Practice and Wings star Tim Daly, who is the president of the nonprofit group Creative Coalition that brings stars together to discuss important issues, thinks celebrities have every right to discuss their viewpoints.

“Performers are citizens and in the U.S., we are allowed to talk about our beliefs. It’s also the privilege of people not to listen,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “The interesting thing about celebrity involvement is that they’re the only group of so-called lobbyists who stand to gain nothing from what they do, except to support the causes they believe in.”

Yet, Kid Rock tells Showbiz Tonight he thinks stars shouldn’t publicly endorse candidates. In fact, when a big star announces who he or she picked, he doesn’t want to vote for that candidate.

Nevertheless, the stars will continue to mingle with politics. Daly told the L.A. Times the Creative Coalition will also be bringing stars to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul this week.

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