Will Toni do a Muriel?
Toni Collette is radiant. She has just made the film she calls the best of her career, saved another from disaster and fallen passionately in love. The new man in the life of the “Muriel’s Wedding” star is (insert optional drum roll here) Jonathan Rhys-Myers, the Irish actor from Michael Collins. “I’m in love,” gushed an ecstatic Collette. “It’s brilliant! It’s pretty overwhelming. I can’t spend 10 minutes away from him, let alone 10 days. I can’t wait for him to get here.” The pair met on the set of Collette’s latest film “Velvet Goldmine”, a look at a David and Angie Bowie-esque couple in 1970s glam-rock London. Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting, The Full Monty) and Christian Bale (Little Women ) co-star in what British critics call “an amazingly imaginative, ground-breaking film”. It’s the first lead role for Rhys-Myers, whom Michael Collins director Neil Jordan compared to “a young Tom Cruise”. “It’s such a cliche,” the 25-year-old Collette told The Diary. “We play husband and wife and we ended up moving in together. But he moves around as much as I do so we’ve managed to do it together. He’s very much into his heritage. He loves traditional Celtic music and he’s a very good musician.” Collette, chic in a cropped new hairdo, came home to launch her new Australian movie, “Diana And Me”. The romance, about a Wollongong girl named Diana Spencer trying to meet her royal namesake, was nearly derailed. “The film had been completed then Diana died,” she said. “It changed from an irreverent comedy. It inherited a certain weight which had to be dealt with.” The film was rescued when Collette returned to shoot extra opening and closing scenes.
