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Robert Pattinson: Interview With the 'Twilight' Vampire

Ineedclarity — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:47:32 -0800

The 22-year-old British actor got off to a rocky start with fans when he was cast -- but what a difference a year makes. Now the darling of the Stephenie Meyer universe, the question becomes: Is he ready for the rush of fame?

By Karen Valby

Less than a year ago, Robert Pattinson, a British actor known only for a small part in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was picked to play Edward, the brooding, beautiful vampire at the center of Stephenie Meyer's best-selling Twilight saga. Fans revolted immediately. They were furious over the surprise casting of a relative unknown who failed to live up to their idea of the immaculate demigod from their book's dog-eared pages. By the time Pattinson's mother told him she'd read online that her only son was wretched and ugly and had the face of a gargoyle, the author found herself awash in guilt. ''I apologized to Rob,'' says Meyer, ''for ruining his life.''

But teenage girls have their mood swings. It wasn't long before the Twilight universe - 17 million worldwide readers addicted to the tortured romance between Edward and a mortal schoolgirl named Bella - embraced the 22-year-old actor. Twilight won't hit theaters until Nov. 21. (The series' debatable reputation as ''the next Harry Potter'' was reinforced when The Half-Blood Prince jumped to next summer and Twilight slid happily into its old release date.) Still, this past July, when the cast participated in a hype-building panel at the Comic-Con festival, all Pattinson had to do was smile or shift in his seat to send the thousands of besotted girls into fits of red-faced screaming. After the panel, the shaken actor bruised some tender hearts when he likened the sound of the collective squeal to something one might hear when entering ''the gates of hell.'' Fame, clearly, would take getting used to. ''There is going to be a group of girls who will follow his actions from now on,'' says Meyer. ''I asked the producer, 'Is Rob ready for this? Have you guys prepped him? Is he ready to be the It Guy?' I don't think he really is. I don't think he sees himself that way. And I think the transition is going to be a little rocky.''

For this story - the first in-depth interview of Pattinson's young career - the actor's manager suggested that Hollywood's next It Guy be interviewed at the Chateau Marmont hotel, in L.A., over a civilized lunch on the chic outdoor patio. So on a recent afternoon, Pattinson, looking slightly befuddled, wearing secondhand black jeans, what he assumes was once a rather large woman's bowling shirt, and old Chinese slippers with his big toes sticking sadly out of large holes, folds his lanky six-foot frame into a tiny chair. He speaks softly, hunched over his water. Tugging at his unkempt hair, he tries to explain why Jack Nicholson is his favorite actor, before admitting that he feels absurd. ''Why are we here?'' he wonders, looking around at the uptight crowd. ''I feel judged!''

After ditching the hotel - ''Okay, let's think, everything is all schmancy and industry around here'' - he suggests a low-rent heavy metal bar in West Hollywood where he's sung and played guitar at a couple of open-mike nights. Pattinson, who owns every album by his favorite musician, Van Morrison, hopes to record an album soon. He laughs at what a cliché he must sound like. ''Every actor I meet here says they're a musician as well,'' he says. On the ride to the bar, he apologizes for the state of his car, a rattling 1989 black convertible BMW that he recently bought for $2,000. The roof is broken, the old dashboard that caught on fire while he was driving on the highway is chucked in the backseat with the rest of his junk, and he insists that the red flashing light on the new dash is nothing to be alarmed by. ''If I crash,'' he pleads with an impish grin, after nearly rear-ending a sleek Mercedes, ''don't mention it in the article, will you?''

At the Rainbow Bar & Grill, where the waitresses look like world-weary biker chicks, with back tattoos and painted nails, Pattinson orders a Pacifico beer and describes his new life in Los Angeles. The studio has him set up in a temporary apartment (outside of which there's always a few eager Twilighters camped) where the only things he keeps in his fridge are peach Snapple and a freezerful of pepperoni Hot Pockets. ''And I wonder why I feel so terrible all the time!'' he says with a laugh. Pattinson has made only a few friends in town, most of them through cheesy industry events. ''So the only people who I hang out with seem to be club promoters and PR people,'' he says. ''I keep getting photographed coming out of these lame clubs. It's so embarrassing. There was a week where every single night I was going out and getting photographed by the paparazzi or TMZ and I realized 'Oh, my God, I look like a complete alcoholic!'''

Pattinson was 17 years old, and attending a prestigious private school in London, when he booked the part of doomed bloke Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter. After the film wrapped in 2005, his English agent pushed him to pursue similarly earnest roles, but they no longer interested him. Instead, he landed a lead as a troubled young man in the London stage production of the German play The Woman Before. ''At the time I really thought, 'Wow, I must be great, I'm like f---ing Brando!''' he says. ''I had this specific idea where 'I'm going to be a weirdo, this is how I'm going to promote myself.' And then of course I ended up getting fired.''

There followed a strange couple of years where Pattinson lived off his Harry Potter paycheck, drifting between obscure parts in small films and TV. In December, during a two-week run of auditions in Hollywood, he tried out for the role of Edward, a teenage vampire who is rich and perfect and princely in the way 17-year-old boys rarely are - and who falls not for the sexy cheerleader but the shy new girl in town. ''I'd read the book and liked the book, but it made me really uncomfortable trying to picture myself in this part,'' he says. ''Here's this guy who seems to be the embodiment of every single perfect guy. Okay, I'm going to look like a complete idiot if I just try to do that - like give a half-Fonz, half-George Clooney impression. I went in thinking I would just break into hysterical laughter. But then I did it with Kristen and it was completely different. We had this chemistry that just worked.''

Meyer, who had a fat book of head shots of the thousands of actors who wanted the role, says the producers needed someone who was both pretty and scary. ''The one guy that kids were always saying they wanted for Edward was Tom Welling from Smallville. He's beautiful! But could you ever imagine being afraid of him? We did not have a good option until Rob came along. And the movie rests entirely on his shoulders.''

Two months before filming began, Pattinson went alone to Oregon, where the cast and crew would eventually join him. He pored over both the script and Midnight Sun, Meyer's unfinished version of Twilight that is narrated from Edward's perspective, determined to mine the deepest meaning from every line. In the book Edward is described as being all sinew and six-pack, so he spent long hours at the gym, shedding pounds at an alarming rate. ''Then three weeks before shooting the producers were like, 'What're you doing? You look like an alien!''' he laughs. ''Oh, well, I thought it was a cool idea.''

Pattinson's idea to play Edward as a manic depressive also made people nervous. The producers took to trailing after him on the set with highlighted passages from the book of all the times Edward smiled. ''It was like, 'Argh! I was going to smile at some point.' Or everyone would be like, 'Well, let's try to make this bit funnier!' But it wasn't funny. I tried to play it, as much as possible, like a 17-year-old boy who had this purgatory inflicted on him. I just thought, 'How would you play this part if it wasn't a teen-book adaptation?'''

Director Catherine Hardwicke could see that her star was torturing himself. ''So I had a little thing - 'Rob, let's just rehearse the scene all the way through without tearing it down and criticizing it.' We'd get two lines out, and then he would say, 'No, no, no, it's not working!''' Stewart laughs when reminded of Pattinson's inner turmoil. ''Rob made himself crazy the whole movie, and I just stopped and patted him on the back through his neuroses,'' she says affectionately, then pauses. ''He would punch me in the face if he heard me right now.''

Pattinson and Stewart's onscreen chemistry is crucial to the movie's success, so the actor can be forgiven if he acted smitten with his costar when the cameras weren't rolling. ''In the beginning I thought to myself, 'Because she's so serious, I've got to be really serious,''' he says. ''I didn't speak for about two months so I would seem really intense. I would only ever talk about the movie. And I kept recommending all these books. It didn't really work, though. Then I started falling apart and my character started breaking down. I felt like an idiot just following her around, saying, 'You really should read some Zola - and there's this amazing Truffaut movie.' And she started calling me on things: 'Have you actually watched this movie? Yeah? What's it about?' 'It's about a guy on a train.' 'Did you just look at the photo on the cover of the DVD?!''' On more than one occasion, Pattinson was overheard asking Stewart to marry him - proposals that the actress, who's had the same boyfriend since she was 16, got used to shrugging off.

If the shoot had him in knots, Pattinson is determined not to be psyched out by the rigors of promoting a possible franchise. ''I got sent to media training and my agent got back messages like, 'He's resisting the media training,''' he says with an amused shrug. Before the Comic-Con panel, the cast was given prepared answers, but Pattinson refused to stick to the script. ''Even little kids don't want to hear you say the same pat stuff,'' he insists. ''It's boring! I'm thinking about my career in long terms, rather than just trying to milk one thing for whatever it's worth. You either have to be off book from the beginning or be on book forever. And I've never really seen the point of being on book.'' He laughs and signals the waitress for another round of beers. ''Watch, though. I'm going to be completely destroyed.''
While Pattinson is on deck for any Twilight sequels, he's also trying to take advantage of Hollywood's new interest in his career. ''It's funny how quick everything changes,'' says Pattinson. ''Literally, the trailer came out and people who've met me, like, six times are suddenly like, 'Hey! It's really nice to meet you.' After having a big period of unemployment, you think, 'Okay, I'm not going to mess this up again.' So no matter what the meeting is now, even if it's for some dumb movie, even if I don't want to do it, I'm going to go to the meeting and give the most complicated character breakdown I can think of.''

Pattinson stars as Salvador Dalí in 2009's independent film Little Ashes, and is set to play Dennis Hopper's grandson in writer-director Brian Horiuchi's still-unscheduled indie drama Parts Per Billion. He's sifting through higher-profile scripts, amused to find himself in the same conversation as stars like Shia LaBeouf for a role in a Gladiator-style period movie. And he's been pining for the chance to play Jeff Buckley in the biopic, though he imagines if the long-gestating movie ever gets made the role will go to the singer's look-alike James Franco.

It's hard for a boy on the brink of stardom to answer just what he wants out of sudden fame. Despite his appearances now in two wildly popular franchises, Pattinson says he's not interested in grabbing at big-money roles. As soon as he comes into cash, he has a tendency to blow it all anyway. ''Not on cars, obviously,'' he laughs. ''I have very, very low expenditures, but still I manage to spend it all. I guess Hot Pockets are more expensive than I thought.'' He orders another beer and grimaces at his ringing cell phone before putting it back unanswered in his pocket. (It was his agent, reminding Pattinson to read the script for the Sarajevo drama and not to be late to their meeting with a casting director. Which he was.) ''My only real answer, to be completely honest, is I don't want to be completely f---ed after this,'' he says. ''I don't want to be an idiot, and that's always a distinct possibility.''

When Pattinson was on the set of Harry Potter, he wrote obsessively in a journal that he carried around with him everywhere. ''It was my diary, but it became more and more and more about requests to the Fates: 'I will do this if you provide me with this.' It sounds absolutely ridiculous, but I had so much faith in this little book. I remember one time I wrote, 'Please don't give me all my luck now. Make it all stretch. I don't mind waiting. Make it stretch for 70 years.' And now with Twilight - it was pretty lucky getting it, and I've been pretty lucky so far with all the attention, and if it's successful, then that will be a lot of luck used up. Maybe I'm just waiting for the point where I realize the luck has ended.'' He smiles ruefully, and rakes a hand through his messy shock of bronze-highlighted hair that the studio has forbidden him to cut. It's Edward's trademark, and he's stuck with it now.

Additional reporting by Nicole Sperling.

VOGUE's Year In Fashion

juicybabe527 — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:07:25 -0800

What goes up must come down. Last year at this time, we commented on the rise of irrational exuberance. In 2008, the world landed with a loud and well-documented thud. But before we swap our Louboutins for sackcloth and ashes, let's take a moment to cherish fashion in all its beauty, vitality, and fun (remember fun?). Because you can knock it all you want, but if it wasn't for fashion, you'd be reading this naked…

Because Symbols Mean Something
Why should French First Ladies have all the fun? Many Americans were outraged at the amount of attention paid to the Narciso Rodriguez dress Michelle Obama wore on election night, as if all that talk about her attire somehow trivialized the occasion. But we choose to see Mrs. O's fashion risk-taking as a small but potent sign that the next four (eight?) years won't be politics-or pantsuits-as usual. And if nothing else, Obama-who sparked a run on yellow J.Crew pencil skirts and cardigans after an appearance on The Tonight Show-could be a one-woman bailout package for one of the nation's key consumer sectors. Game on, Madame Bruni-Sarkozy.

Because There's Heart Beneath the Commerce
For her 40th anniversary celebration, Sonia Rykiel didn't fly her fans halfway around the world or lay on three days of parties. Instead, she dragged them to the outskirts of Paris toward the end of a grueling fashion week for a sit-down dinner and runway show. But such was the love in the room (from Jean Paul Gaultier, Dita Von Teese, and Zoe Cassavetes, among others) and the exuberance on the catwalk (Raquel Zimmermann and Lily Donaldson sashaying out in matching headdresses and massive grins) that, by the end, Olivier Theyskens and his tablemates were tossing roses about the place. Just don't tell anyone about this spontaneous outbreak of warmth-it could ruin fashion's reputation.

Because Without Fashion, Mad Men Would Just Be a Bunch of Attractive People Smoking and Cheating
Not since the heyday of fashion television in the eighties-the decade that gave us both Dynasty and Brideshead Revisited-has style played such a leading role in a small-screen series. (In Sex and the City and Gossip Girl, clothes are decoration; here, they're character development.) Jon Hamm's Don Draper sheaths his ambition and guilty secrets in gray sharkskin, while wife Betty (January Jones), like Hitchcock's Marnie, trys to rein in her issues in icily chic equestrian gear. Fashion, meanwhile, has returned the compliment. Matthew Weiner's AMC show inspired self-avowed fan Michael Kors' best collection in years, for Fall 2008: all camel-hair balmacaans, pencil-slim silk floral sheaths, cashmere twinsets, and ocelot-print pants.

Because Marc Jacobs Keeps Us Guessing
Jacobs was everywhere in 2007. Did that mean he'd lie low in 2008? Not a chance. First, there was the ongoing saga of his very public private life (this year's guessing game: Did he or didn't he get married to his Brazilian beau, Lorenzo Martone?). But all that falls away when the lights go down and the first model hits the runway. His Hall of Mirrors Spring 2009 collection gave New York a rare euphoric fashion high with its mad pileup of references, and he followed it up a few weeks later with another brilliantly dense show for Louis Vuitton. He ended the year by snagging Madonna for Vuitton's ads and showing up in a kilt in Miami. Whatever would we talk about over dinner if it weren't for MJ?

Because Runways and Magazines Finally Got (a Little) More Diverse
For an industry that prides itself on new ideas, fashion can sometimes be slow to change its ways. And while the consensus of a "Race on the Runway" panel in September was that there's a long way to go, 2008 at least saw an injection of color into the longtime whitewash. Some dismissed Vogue Italia's "A Black Issue" as tokenism, but Steven Meisel's images of veterans (Veronica Webb and Naomi Campbell), newly minted It girls (Jourdan Dunn and Chanel Iman), gorgeous unknowns (Arlenis Sosa and Sessilee Lopez), and even an America's Next Top Model (Toccara Jones) spoke louder than words. The issue, which quickly sold out and required a 10,000-magazine reprint, has had a (hopefully lasting) effect. Sosa was named the new face of Lancôme in September and Lopez recently posed for her first W magazine editorial.

Because Prada Just Cut Down on the Need for Ironing
Some found it a touch less complex than Mrs. Prada's typical layered oeuvre, but the unironed allure of her Spring 2009 show somehow seemed in step with these unsettled times. Style.com's Sarah Mower described the collection-archly feminine, purposefully rumpled shift dresses, pencil skirts, and bra-top twinsets, all ready to be undone at a moment's notice-as "Cinecittà without cliché" and a "visceral temptation" that was sure to get us shopping. Just remember: If you insist on taking that fish-print sheath to the cleaners, take extra pains to point out that the wrinkles are intended.

Because Otherwise Belgium Would Only Be Known for Beer and Chocolate
Despite his best intentions, Dries Van Noten failed to stay under the radar this year. First, he received the CFDA's International Award in New York, and then a few months later in Paris, he sent out a Spring 2009 collection whose refined simplicity seemed to have perfectly intuited the world's suddenly sober mood. The Belgian designer's enduring success is all the more remarkable in that he has done it on his own terms. The corporates learned to stop knocking on the door of his Antwerp castle, because Van Noten politely yet steadfastly declines to hand over the financial reins to anyone who might ask that he change his way of working-for example, he refuses to do pre-collections as it means handing work over to assistants. Looking ahead to next year, a new jewelry line threatens to raise his profile even higher.

Because Sometimes "Celebrity Designer" Isn't an Oxymoron
The only word pairing more terrifying than "celebrity designer" is "celebrity fragrance." But some brave souls-Gwen Stefani, the Olsen twins-have shown that it doesn't have to be that way, and now we can add another ultra-famous sartorialista to that list: Victoria Beckham. We admit we managed to avoid the sunglasses and jeans she previously launched under the name dVb, but Style.com's Nicole Phelps was quick to call Beckham's all-dress Spring 2009 collection "one of the hottest things going in New York this week." Sure they owe a debt to Roland Mouret, but the gorgeously simple slim sheaths are also the considered creation of a woman who spends her life in serious fashion (hence the grosgrain linings for perfect posture). And by all accounts, they're selling faster than Brangelina paparazzi pics at Bergdorf Goodman.

Because No Other Industry Can Make a Boy's Dreams Come True
Before this summer, hockey player Sean Avery was known as a tough guy on the ice, a party boy off it (lately with his very own VIP area at the Beatrice Inn), and a ladies' man to boot (Elisha Cuthbert, Rachel Hunter). But what Avery-who told an ESPN camera crew that he grew up playing with dolls-really wanted to do was…intern at Vogue. No word on how many coffees he actually fetched for editors during his much-publicized stint at the fashion magazine, but credit him with starting a trend. Now another modest chap, Kanye West, is gunning for his own fashion internship, and according to the blogosphere, only a post at Louis Vuitton or Jil Sander will do.

Because a High-Low Collaboration Can Still Knock Our (Polka-Dotted) Socks Off
In the last couple of years, those collisions of mass and class have gone from rare high points on the calendar to what seem like almost weekly occurrences (we're half expecting to see Dennis Basso for Target any day now). But Comme des Garçons' collaboration with H&M got our hearts beating a little faster this November. The Rei-verent pored with building anticipation over the Peter Lindbergh ad campaign and lined up for days in Tokyo and New York. And with good reason: The boiled wool jackets, deconstructed skirts, drop-crotch pants, and polka-dotted pieces-all made under the Japanese label's strict supervision-truly raised the bar on fast-fashion merch. Did you expect any less from Ms. Kawakubo?

Because It Designers Spring Eternal
Fashion's ceaseless pursuit of the new can seem a bit extreme, but without it there would be no next big things for everyone else to rip off. How to tell Balmain's Christophe Decarnin is the latest anointed one? a) His name is on the lips, and his clothes are on the backs, of super-cool girls like Vanessa Traina. b) The drop-crotch dhoti pants he designed for his Spring 2007 collection were everywhere on the Spring 2009 runways. c) At a moment when 70 percent off sales are making Fifth Avenue department stores look like Wal-Mart on the day after Thanksgiving, boutiques can't keep his five-figure, spangled eighties ultra-minidresses in stock. As Style.com's Sarah Mower wrote, "Balmain is a smack in the eye for fashion doom-mongering."

Because It Girls Spring Eternal
The good thing about It girls is that just as you're getting sick of one, another pops up in her place. And while America has done its bit in the service of It over the years-exporting Tinsley Mortimer's brand of platinum cutesiness to Japan, for example-it was Little Britain that took up the cause this year. Alice Dellal, Alexa Chung, and the Geldofs, Peaches and Pixie, all put a scruffed-up English accent on the phenomenon in 2008. And while it's easy to sneer at these fun-loving lasses, they selflessly fill a vital role in society: persuading us working stiffs that a life of nonstop partying must be a shallow, empty existence.

Three Letters: YSL
A crowd of nearly 800 people, including Nicolas Sarkozy, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Catherine Deneuve, his mother, Lucienne Saint Laurent, and nearly every designer in Paris, arrived at the Église Saint-Roche on June 5 to say goodbye to Yves Saint Laurent, who passed away at the age of 71. But even before that magnificently chic outpouring of grief, the tributes to YSL's genius and immeasurable influence on today's fashion flooded in: La Saharienne! Le Smoking! Art as fashion! Street-influenced couture! In fact, in the rehashing you realized more than ever just how much current runway fare comes from the revolutionary school of Saint Laurent-and will continue to do so. Not bad for a man who, in the words of his protector Pierre Bergé, was "born with a nervous breakdown."

Because After 20 Years, Martin Margiela Still Provokes (and Because No, He's Not Retiring)
There was a packed house for Martin Margiela's 20th anniversary show on September 29 in Paris, an event Style.com's Sarah Mower called "a reminder of the continuing relevance of Margiela's sidelong contributions to stimulating fashion over two decades." Or in other words: a catalog of all the seemingly outlandish yet forward-thinking ideas that have begun on the Belgian designer's runway and rippled out to change the wider course of fashion vernacular-the pointed shoulder pad, for instance. Here it was all capped off with a dancing satin birthday cake. Margiela's reps assure us that the enigmatic designer was smiling somewhere in the audience and that those retirement rumors are unfounded.

Because There's No Catfight Like a Fashion Catfight
Alessandra Facchinetti received mostly positive reviews for her first few collections at Valentino. Somewhere along the way, though, she crossed the Italian fashion mafia, and true to form they had her whacked. The execution was messy, even by the industry's notoriously messy standards. Facchinetti learned of her dismissal via press rumors as she was preparing to send the Spring 2009 line onto the catwalk, and her predecessors, Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti, added insult to injury by releasing a statement praising the "wise decision." Still, Gucci vet Facchinetti has already proved she's a survivor, and the rest of us get to watch as the old regime's handpicked subs, accessories designers Pier Paolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri, step into the fray.

Because Soon There Will Be a Reason to Shop Again
The global economic meltdown put a crimp in even the most dedicated shopper's agenda. And the current spate of drastic department-store sales is only adding to our confusion (70 percent off? Seriously, is that the best you can do? What if I wait another day? Will you be paying me to take that dress off your hands? Where's the bottom of this market?). But for New Yorkers, at least, help is at hand. After a series of delays, Topshop insists that its first American footprint, a 40,000-square-foot flagship at 478 Broadway in Soho, is on track to bow in March 2009-just in time for our reduced clothing budget.

Because Without Fashion, James Bond Would Be Just Another Jason Bourne Wannabe
OK, so no one would accuse Daniel "Buns of Steel" Craig of being a poor man's Matt Damon. But there was something rather too familiar about all that relentless running around in his latest Bond outing (like The Bourne Ultimatum, Quantum of Solace starts just seconds after the end of the previous installment in the franchise). What did set 007 apart was the cut of his thrillingly sober Tom Ford suits, which looked even better when splattered with a little blood and dust. Next up for Ford: his directorial debut, A Single Man, based on a Christopher Isherwood novel and starring Julianne Moore and Colin Firth. Aimed, we suspect, at a slightly different audience.

Because Nobody, Except Mickey Rourke, Does Better Comebacks
The good news about fashion's revolving-door policy is that everyone gets a second chance. Phoebe Philo, the rare designer who left a major label of her own accord, quit Chloé in 2006 to spend more time with her young family. Now this critical darling is returning from self-imposed exile to helm the design studio at Celine, and the once merely obligatory show-the house is owned by LVMH-will be one of Paris' must-see collections in March. And Philo is doing it on her own terms: One of her conditions was that her design studio be based in her hometown of London.

Because Without Fashion, We'd Be Lugging Around Ugly, Clunky Phones
Sure, the software's pretty nifty, but let's call the iPhone 3G what it is: a fashion accessory-in the best sense of the term, an object that combines form and function to create something that makes everyday life a little easier and more enjoyable. Don't believe us? You clearly haven't checked out Style.com's iPhone application.

Because Without Fashion, We Wouldn't Have This Guy
Coming to theaters in 2009: Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in Mesh T-Shirt.

xoxo,
juicybabe

SOURCE: style.com

Robert Pattinson Talks Bare Bellies, Biting Strangers

Ineedclarity — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:37:17 -0800

From E! Online.com

Sun., Nov. 9, 2008 9:07 PM PST by Marc Malkin

Things are getting weird for Robert Pattinson.

But considering he's starring as high school vampire Edward Cullen in the movie adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling young adult novel, Twilight, that's probably to be expected.

Still, just last week the 22-year-old British actor was at an Apple store in New York City when a 7-year-old girl asked to take a photo with him. No big deal, right?

“But then she went really quiet and she was like, 'Can you bite me?' ” Pattinson told me with a somewhat nervous laugh yesterday in a Beverly Wilshire Hotel room, where he’d been holed up doing press all weekend. “It wasn’t a joke...I looked at her and thought, 'Do you know what you’re saying?' There are these kinds of sexual thoughts that come out of people that they don’t even know are sexual.”

And to think the movie doesn’t even hit theaters until Nov. 21.

Pattinson insists he never actually thought he’d be cast as the mysterious and potentially dangerous vampire who falls in love with the new girl in town, Bella Swan (Into the Wild’s Kristen Stewart).

“I was embarrassed going into the casting because in the character breakdown, the first line is, 'Edward is the ideal perfect man,’ ” he said. “I literally put it off for five months and then I went in mainly because I had seen Into the Wild and I wanted to meet Kristen because I thought she was cool. But I felt like an idiot being like, “Hi, I’m here for the ideal man audition.“

And it only got worse from there. He had to take his shirt off for director Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) because Edward’s perfection includes a six-pack, something Pattinson didn’t have at the time.

But once he landed the role, he decided it was time to get fit. He began a two-month daily regimen that included three hours of kickboxing and at least two hours of running. He not only gave up beer but he also limited his meals to just one a day.

“I was just trying to lose like every ounce of body fat so when I took off my shirt, I would look like an alien,” Pattinson said, presumably meaning a hot alien. “I thought that kind of worked for the story. The idea of taking my shirt off and looking like some sort of Adonis? Everyone would just laugh.”

But then things went slightly awry. Two weeks before shooting, Hardwicke told him the shirtless scenes were being tossed because he had gone too far. He'd lost 30 pounds since the last time she had seen him. “I just looked so different,” he said. “I was so much more muscular than I had ever been in my life, but I looked weird.”

Hardwicke eventually relented and did shoot a shirtless scene or two, but Pattinson's stomach ended up on the cutting room floor because by that time, he said, “I was on a full cheeseburger diet.”

Pattinson and his costars take off this week for a six-city promotional tour around the U.S. Then it’s off to Australia. "I haven't really had time to reflect on it," Pattinson said. "It's pretty nuts. It doesn't seem very real at all. I just go to these different cities and people start screaming."

With Twilight being the first in Meyer’s four-part series, a sequel is likely. However, an official decision won’t be made until studio execs see box-office numbers. But Pattinson is confident they’ll be back for more. “I have ideas already about the second one,” he said. “I’m looking forward to doing a saga.”

Eaker's Workout Log July 25-27

eaker — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:42:54 -0700

I didn't workout Wednesday the 25th, but I did take my dog on a 30 minute walk.

The 26th I did arms. It is sometimes hard for me to remember if I'm making progress or not, so I'm going to post a break down of what I've been doing, with machine: #reps/weight.
Pullover: 15/50, 12/65, 10/80
Compound Row: 15/95, 12/110, 10/125
Bicep Curl: 15/35, 10/50, 4/65
Tricep Dip: 15/40, 12/50, 10/60, 4/70
Incline Press: 30/20, 24/35, 10/50
Seated Chest Press: 30/35, 24/50, 20/65
Lat Pull Down: 15/80, 12/95, 10/110

Then I did Arc Trainer, hill interval level 5 for 30 minutes. I was not feeling up to walking the dog again, so I threw her rubber chicken for her. It only seemed like five minutes but I was surprised to discover that it was actually around twenty. It probably helped that it was around twilight, so my dog didn't get overheated.

The 27th was legs. Here's the breakdown for that.
Abductor: 15/95, 12/110, 10/125, 8/140
Adductor: 15/110, 12/125, 10/140, 8/155, 6/170, 4/185
Leg Press: 15/140, 12/160, 10/180, 8/200, 6/220, 4/240
Single Leg Press: 15/60, 12/80, 10/100, 8/120, 6/140

Needless to say my butt still hurts. I did the elliptical on level 11 for 20 minutes before getting out of there. I am 90% sure that I took the doggy on a 30 minute walk when I got home.

I woke up early this morning to take the dog on a walk. I am not planning on going to gym today, there won't be any time between stuffing my face with someone else's birthday cake and drinking more beer than I should.