Kate Winslet Got The Idea For Her Golden Hat Foundation

Who could say no to Kate Winslet? Apparently, not a single soul.She's candid, funny, and drops the F-bomb in that charming way that only the British can. And she's got George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Justin Timberlake, Angelina Jolie, Anna Wintour, Sting and, of course, her Titanic co-star and close friend Leonardo DiCaprio among other A-listers rounded up for a special project to help raise awareness for autism.

"Even I can't believe it," says Winslet of the overwhelming willingness of stars wanting to be involved with The Golden Hat: Talking Back to Autism (Simon & Schuster, $29.95), out today. "The truth is, I don't really know these people. They're not my friends. I am just like everyone else … I don't really know that many famous people, that's not my life. I'm a mum, I go to work, and then I'm a mum. It really was a case of bribing people for phone numbers."

The premise was simple: take a picture of yourself wearing a "golden" hat provided by Winslet — a favorite fedora plucked from the actress' own closet — and answer the question, "if you could only say one thing, what would that be?" The resulting 100 self-portraits and their words are featured in the book. Proceeds go to the Golden Hat Foundation, founded in 2010 by Winslet and Margret Ericsdottir to improve the lives of people with autism.

Why autism? Winslet is a mother to 11-year-old Mia and 8-year-old Joe — neither of whom has the developmental disorder. But in 2009, she provided the English-language narration for the Icelandic documentary, A Mother's Courage: Talking Back to Autism (originally called The Sunshine Boy),produced by Ericsdottir about her son, Keli Thorsteinsson, now 14 . He lives with a severe form of non-verbal autism and is unable to speak.

Winslet and Ericsdottir became "very close, very quickly," says Winslet, 36. Upon returning home after working on the narration, "My daughter, who watched the documentary with me, turned to me and said, 'Could you imagine if I couldn't tell you I loved you?'"

The thought, says Winslet, was mind-blowing. "I had this feeling of, 'I need to do something else.' It wasn't just a case of 'what can I do to help the cause?' It was something much more profound than that." The idea for the book hit Winslet "while I was brushing my teeth. I'm like everybody else, in a way, you think of an idea like that, you know, we all have to start somewhere."

The celebrity photos, taken in wide-ranging locales including bathrooms, inside dressing rooms and on movie sets, all feature the exact same hat, which Winslet proudly clutches in her lap. "I've personally taken it everywhere (for the book)," she says. "If I couldn't, I'd try to find someone who could."

Winslet says her favorite photo in the book comes from Michael Phelps. "Phelps had just won his eight gold medals, and Mia and Joe are big swimmers and so they had seen him win every single one. I had an opportunity to go to a training session that he was at in Baltimore, so I drove the kids and they met Michael Phelps and swam in the pool."

The men, says Winslet, took much longer deciding on a photo than the women. "Ben Stiller was (with the hat) in the men's room of a cafe downtown, and actually, I'm sure he wouldn't mind me telling this story, but he was in there for like 20 minutes. I was like, 'Dude, what are you doing?' "

Stiller was no doubt searching for the perfect snapshot all in the name of a good cause. Winslet, who admits at first she knew "shamefully little" about autism, rattles off one statistic after another. "I'm not a doctor or a scientist, and I don't have a cure, and I'm not trying to find a cure," says Winslet, who speaks passionately on the subject. "But I'm certainly trying to get people to open up their mind to what this condition actually means to these individuals, and to also find a way of breaking down those barriers that do surround these individuals which more and more push them into a world of entrapment."

As for Keli, "he does know that I'm famous … he knew that I was the girl for Titanic, even though he'd never seen the film," says Winslet, who spent Thanksgiving 2010 with her children, Keli and his mother in Austin. "It is like family. He's so grateful, and expresses that. He still can't speak, and may never develop functional speech."

Winslet realizes there's much at stake. "Here's the other thing: None of this may work. And that's a huge risk that you take. But there's no point in life sitting around and saying, 'well, maybe.' I don't want to live my life on any kind of (expletive) maybe."

But what's in it for Winslet? "Nobody's asked me that," she says, pausing for the first time during her chat. "I suppose it gives me another choice in life. Another choice to be able to try and make some changes for people that really need some changes to be made. One more choice, one more privilege."

With that life of privilege comes many questions, and when one is raised inquiring into the actress' romantic prospects, she plays coy. "I tell you something, now, more than ever, there is literally no turning back on the personal privacy thing," says Winslet, who announced her split from husband Sam Mendes in 2010. "The gate has fully come down, and I just won't talk about my private life. … It's no secret I have gone through a substantial amount in my private life, and I'm just done with having that debated upon, and discussed and ultimately judged because that is what people do, without meaning it. I'm sure I do the same thing. I'm not up for discussion anymore when it comes to that stuff."

On a professional level, Winslet begins filming a drama, Labor Day, with Josh Brolin and director Jason Reitman this summer, but won't go into much detail. "I have such a tempting fate about talking about it before I play the character … just a little quirky (expletive) kind of thing."

One thing she will talk about is Titanic's return to the big screen on April 4, when it will make its 3-D debut. "I do feel very excited about it, because I can tell that a whole new generation is going to get to experience the film," says Winslet. "Mia and Joe still have not seen it. So it is very exciting that I can actually sit with them — together — and we can all watch it together in a movie theater, and that is going to be quite amazing, actually."

Seeing herself in 3-D form was something else, says Winslet. "I was literally like, ''Oh my God, make it stop! Is that me? Oh my God, that's me.' "

"Once" With Steve Kazee And Cristin Milioti At Jacobs Theater

Sometimes how cool you look depends on where you’re standing. When I first saw the musical “Once” at the New York Theater Workshop last December, it registered as a little too twee, too conventionally sentimental, for the East Village. Yet on Broadway — at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater to be exact, where “Once” opened on Sunday night — what is essentially the same production feels as vital and surprising as the early spring that has crept up on Manhattan.

It’s not just that what seems hokey downtown can read quirky in Midtown, where overpriced-ticket buyers tend to prefer familiarity to novelty. True, “Once” — adapted from a wistful low-budget Irish movie about two young songwriters who seem destined to make sweet music together — is exotically modest by the standards of loud, expensively dressed Broadway. But in its new incarnation this musical reveals itself to be a show that was always meant (and probably lusting) for a brighter limelight and a bigger stage. You have to watch out for those shy ones.

In some ways “Once,” which is directed by John Tiffany, has followed a typical route for Broadway musicals, in that it was inspired by a film; and in translating that film to the stage it made the implicit explicit, and the understated overstated. (See “Sister Act” or “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” for corroborating evidence.) I had made the mistake of watching the enchantingly low-key 2006 movie only hours before I first saw the musical downtown. And while there was much I admired in the stage version then, its scaled-up adorability factor got on my nerves.

What annoyed me then — which was mostly inherent in the show’s book, written by the generally terrific playwright Enda Walsh — hasn’t been erased from “Once.” It still has too many lines like “You cannot walk through your life leaving unfinished love behind you.”

But the greater distance between stage and audience that comes with a move to a Broadway house softens the edges of its exaggeration. And what was always wonderful about “Once,” its songs and its staging, has been magnified. In the meantime its appealing stars, Steve Kazee and Cristin Milioti, have only grown in presence and dimensionality. Who would have thought that this soft-spoken little musical would have found itself by raising its voice?

Mr. Kazee and Ms. Milioti play characters named Guy and Girl (yeah, I know, but bear with me — and them), parts created on screen by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who also wrote the songs (which are used here too). Guy, who is Irish, and Girl, who is Czech, meet in Dublin and discover they share a knack for creating folk-rock tunes that ripple with melancholy and rue.

They’re different too, in complementary ways. Guy’s a brooding quitter; Girl’s a never-say-die doer. And together — with the help of their standard-issue wacky friends — they just might make it after all. Professionally I mean. Romantically they’re both otherwise engaged. Or are they?

You’ve heard it all before, right? Except you haven’t, quite. Because “Once” uses song and dance in a way I’ve never experienced in an American musical (even if its sound will be familiar to alternative radio listeners): to convey a beautiful shimmer of might-have-been regret. Of course the anguish produced by the man or woman that got away has been a staple of musicals and opera for centuries. Heck, it accounts for at least 50 percent of chart-topping pop hits. (Hello, Adele.)

What lends a special, tickling poignancy to Mr. Hansard and Ms. Irglova’s songs is their acceptance of loneliness as an existential given. These are not big ballads that complain angrily about how we could have had it all, you and I. An air of romantic resignation, streaked in minor-key undercurrents, tempers the core heartache of numbers like “Leave,” “When Your Mind’s Made Up” and (the Oscar winner for best song from the movie) “Falling Slowly.” (Martin Lowe is the excellent music supervisor and orchestrator.)
And because every member of the ensemble here is a musician, functioning as both the show’s band and its cast of characters, this savory-sweet sadness feels both organic and universal. (Bob Crowley’s single set, given multifarious life by Natasha Katz’s expert lighting, suggests the kind of pub where people come to lose themselves in song as well as drink, and the audience is invited to join in an improvised preshow hootenanny on the stage.)

This is not music that lends itself to the usual chorus-line kicks and shimmies. Instead, Steven Hoggett (who collaborated with Mr. Tiffany on the National Theater of Scotland’s marvelous men-at-war play “Black Watch”) sets the songs to stylized physical movements that are as distinctive and evocative as any Broadway choreography since Bill T. Jones’s work on “Spring Awakening.”

Whitney Houston's Death Have Wrapped Up

Investigators of singer Whitney Houston's death have wrapped up the logistical part of their inquiry by having contacted all physicians and pharmacies with ties to Houston, and nothing so far appears criminal, sources close to the investigation said Friday.

Authorities, however, said they're still reviewing additional medical information that will be used in their final ruling on her cause of death, and Houston's toxicology report should be complete "on or around March 23rd," the sources told CNN.

Officials are still trying to speak with Houston's only child, Bobbi Kristina Brown, 18, before closing the case, the sources said.

Investigators have contacted her relatives, but it's unclear whether the daughter will agree to be interviewed, sources said.

The daughter was interviewed briefly by Beverly Hills police the day her mother died, but she was too distraught to offer helpful information, the sources said. She was taken twice to a Los Angeles hospital briefly after her mother's death, a source close to the family said last month.

Houston, 48, died February 11 in her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the day before the music industry gathered for the annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.

Last month, officials with the Los Angeles County coroner's office said her body had no visible signs of trauma and foul play wasn't suspected. Her cause of death was listed last month as "deferred," officials said.

More official details on the investigation haven't been released because the Beverly Hills Police Department was granted a "security hold" on the case, the coroner's office said. Common in high-profile cases, the hold restricts the release of information in a case.

Authorities have said that police and fire officials were called to Houston's room at the Beverly Hilton after her unconscious body was found in the bathtub, just hours before she was to attend a pre-Grammy party at the hotel.

Houston won six Grammys and sold 170 million albums, singles and videos over her career.

A Los Angeles County coroner official last month downplayed the suspicion that drugs had played a major role in her death.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said that "not many prescription bottles" were found in the singer's hotel room after her death. The amount of medications recovered by investigators was less than usually present in deaths attributed to overdoses, Winter said.

"I know there are reports that she maybe was drowned or did she overdose, but we won't make a final determination until all the tests are in," he said last month.

In recent years, the singer's accomplishments were overtaken by her struggles with drug addiction.

Ethan Zohn Is Feeling Like A New Man

Forget feeling like a million bucks. Ethan Zohn is feeling like a new man.

The "Survivor: Africa" champ underwent a stem-cell transplant Wednesday to treat a recurrence of his Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer--and he has his brother to thank for the immuno-boost.

Outwit, outlast, outplay has never quite meant so much.
More from E: Ethan Zohn and Jenna Morasca dye their hair pink to raise awareness for World Cancer Day

"Today I leap into a healthy new body. Today is the start of the rest of my life. Thank You to my bro Lee &all who have supported me. Love!" the reality star tweeted presumably before undergoing the transfusion.

And of course, Jenna Morasca, Zohn's girlfriend and winner of "Survivor: The Amazon," was right there with him the whole time.

"Thanks @JennaMorasca for being by my side. Love you," he added in a follow up.
Just before the transplant, Morasca wrote on Twitter: "Today @EthanZohn gets new stem cells &new cancer free life FOREVER! And we get our lives back. Send positive healing vibes #getbetterethan"

More from E: 'Survivor' Ethan Zohn's cancer returns
During the operation, Zohn's gal-pal kept her nerves calm and distracted herself by drawing a little self-portrait which she subsequently posted as a twitpic.
After it was over, Morasca was all smiles.

"Very happy girl right now," she tweeted.
Getting a new lease on life hasn't been easy for the former Boran tribesman, though change is (see he and Morasca's recent cut and dye job in honor of World Cancer Day).

In May 2009, Zohn first learned he had a rare form of the disease called CD20-positive Hodgkin's lymphoma, after doctors found a swollen lymph node and a mass on the left side of his chest. After undergoing intensive rounds of chemotherapy, the 38-year-old professional soccer player's cancer appeared to be in remission until Nov. 2011 when new cancer cells were detected, localized this time in his lung.

More from E: Take that, cancer! Ethan Zohn completes New York City marathon
In an interview with People, Morasca said that despite the setback, her beau has every intention of whipping this latest challenge, just as the Survivor stud did when he successfully ran last November's New York City marathon.
"Ethan asked the doctor what was the record time for getting out of here, so he wants to beat that," she told the magazine. "His doctor said there was no prize, and Ethan said, 'Yes, there is. You're going to tell the other patients that I made it out in three weeks.' "

She added that Zohn also received the transplant at the same ward where he was first diagnosed with Hodgkin's, something that's been tough for the pair.