Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz are splashing out $11.5 million on a new home. The couple – who married in a surprise ceremony last June – are set to buy a three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment in New York’s SoHo district. The 4,350 square foot property boasts an additional 2,000 square feet of outdoor space – including a private roof garden with its own kitchen – and facilities including a media room with a woodburning fireplace, the New York Post newspaper reports. Meanwhile, city records show that Rachel has just sold her old house in the city – with the buyer being her former partner, director Darren Aronofsky. The Wrestler filmmaker – who has a five-year-old son, Henry, with Rachel – paid $2.52 million for the five-storey townhouse. The sum is considerably less than the $3.4 million the former couple paid for the 11.5 room property in 2005 and the house is said to be worth an estimated 3-4 times more than what Darren has just paid. Though it is unclear how many bedrooms the house has, it also boasts a terrace off three second-floor kitchen, a double parlour, and a garden.

Source: Contactmusic

Rachel Weisz is set to co-star with Colin Firth in The Railway Man. The Deep Blue Sea star is in final negotiations to take on the role of Patricia ‘Patti’ Wallace, the second wife of Colin’s character Eric Lomax, a second lieutenant in the Royal Corp of Signals who is captured by the Japanese army in Singapore during World War II. Eric is sent to a POW camp in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, where he joins thousands of other prisoners and forced to work on the infamous Burma to Siam ‘death railway’ and the bridge over the river Kwai. The real life story is based on former army officer Eric’s book which details his experiences as a prisoner of war, and how he set out decades later to track down his tormentors and exact some revenge. Patti was responsible for helping him to confront his fears and she also wrote to the man Eric held responsible for his torture. War Horse star Jeremy Irvine will play a younger version of Colin’s character during his time in captivity. Jeremy told the Daily Mail newspaper: “Lomax suffered cruel and horrible treatment. I’ve been studying what happened to him and it was grim.” Jonathan Teplitzky is directing the film, with Frank Cottrell Bryce and Andy Paterson writing the script. Teplitzky previously said in a statement: “The Railway Man is an amazing story and to have the chance to make it with Colin Firth as Eric is really the best gift any director could hope for.”

Source: Contactmusic

Rachel Weisz struggled with “anti-authority issues” when she was a teenager. The Oz: The Great and Powerful actress acknowledges she was a disruptive pupil and was even “asked to leave” one school when growing up in London. She told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper: “I was asked to leave North London Collegiate, but my mum doesn’t like me to say I was expelled. “I didn’t try to burn down the school or anything like that; it was just anti-authority issues. I didn’t think the teachers had the right to tell me what to do. “I would just disobey, talk in the classroom, get very bad grades. “I was not a good person to have in the classroom, to put it mildly.” The 41-year-old actress eventually turned her life around and went on to study at England’s prestigious Cambridge University, which she largely credits to an English teacher, Miss Gough, at her next school, Benenden and St Paul’s. She adds, “I was very nearly asked to leave that school, too, for ongoing disobedience – the French teacher refused to teach me – but Miss Gough, who later became headmistress, completely inspired me. She saw through me and she scared me and I guess none of the other teachers did that.”"I started to read everything and ended up studying English at Cambridge.”

Source: Contactmusic

Director Terence Davies had no idea of Rachel Weisz’s star power when he decided to cast the actress in new film The Deep Blue Sea. Davies spotted the Brit as he watched her 1997 film Swept from the Sea, and was so impressed by her talent he called his manager to arrange a meeting with her, but was baffled to learn Weisz was already famous. Producer Sean O’Connor tells Britain’s Telegraph magazine, “Terence phoned his manager and said, ‘I’ve just seen the most fantastic girl called Rachel Weisz, have you heard of her?’ And his manager said, ‘She’s an Academy Award-winning actress…’ But Terence doesn’t know anything about that. He’s really not interested.” Weisz jokes, “I’m not sure he knows who anyone is in colour movies.”

Source: Contactmusic

Rachel Weisz has opened up about her whirlwind marriage to Daniel Craig, revealing they have known each other for years after meeting at university while in their twenties. The British actress hit headlines in June 2011 when she married the James Bond star in a secret ceremony in New York after just a few months of dating. The couple has since remained tight-lipped about the romance, but Weisz has now revealed she has known her new husband since they attended Britain’s prestigious Cambridge University together. They became friends while performing in a play called Les Grandes Horizontales, which was produced by Weisz’s university drama group. She tells U.K. magazine Stella, “We have actually known each other a long time, since our early twenties,” but she refuses to reveal any details about their marriage, adding: “I’m sorry. I’m a newlywed. I’m still a blushing bride and it’s really private. I can’t tell you anything. Come back to me later.” However, Weisz does dismiss rumours suggesting she has given up drinking because she is pregnant, adding, “I do drink wine. I read that I wasn’t drinking alcohol because I was pregnant. It’s not true… Oh my Lord, I was asked (if I’d like children with Craig) recently by a journalist and I think I said, ‘You never know,’ and it was turned into something else entirely. I’m not complaining, I am just realising that anything I say…”

Source: Contactmusic

Daniel Craig is adamant he will never open up about his wedding to Rachel Weisz, because he has already “got away with” keeping the big day secret. The James Bond star married his fellow Brit in a secret ceremony in the Big Apple in June 2011, and the pair has kept tight-lipped about its big day in subsequent interviews. Now the notoriously private actor has warned fans they face a long wait if they are expecting any details about the nuptials to be released. He tells GQ magazine, “We got away with it. We did it privately. And I’ve got a lot of people to thank for that. But that was the point. We did it for private reasons. Because we didn’t want it f**ked up, because that would be sharing a secret. And the whole point is that it was a secret. A secret is a secret in my mind. “And Craig admits he fears any remarks he makes about his marriage will come back to haunt him in the future, but insists he is with Weisz for the “long run”. He adds, “Ultimately, if I start making comments of any sort… Look, I’m in love. I’m very happy. And that is as far as I’m prepared to go. Life is long, life goes wrong, and I don’t want to say something now that might be thrown back later. “Ultimately, people are saying, ‘Give it six months.’ Well guess what? I’m not responding. Life is long and I’m hopefully in this for the long run.”

Source: Contactmusic

Rachel Weisz is always worried she will be unemployed. The Oscar-winning actress admits she is constantly concerned she will not have any work even though she has been working constantly for the last few years. She said: “I know I’m doing more than when I started. I don’t really know if it ever gets easier. “We all love to get jobs, but every actress is worried that they’re gonna be unemployed even at times when you’re doing very well.
The British actress will soon be seen in the role of Evanora, the sister of the Wicked Witch of the West in Sam Raimi’s Wizard of Oz prequel Oz, The Great and Powerful, and she reveals she is trying not to judge her while playing her. She told Total Film magazine: “I don’t really think of her as evil. The Wicked Witch of the East knows how to get what she wants, I guess. “I mean she’s bad, she’s very, very bad, but you know I try not to judge her while I’m playing her.”

Source: Contactmusic

Daniel Craig and his wife Rachel Weisz have made their red carpet debut as a married couple, more than six months after they exchanged vows. The James Bond star and his fellow Brit wed in a secret ceremony in New York last June 2011 and they made their first public outing as husband and wife a month later (July 2011) at an afterparty for a screening of Weisz’s movie The Whistleblower in Manhattan. They have now stepped out on the red carpet together for the first time at the premiere of Craig’s latest film, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, in Madrid, Spain on Wednesday (January 04). The pair happily posed for photographs as Craig placed his hands around his wife’s waist.

Source: Contactmusic

Nicole Kidman’s new film The Danish Girl has been shelved following the departure of actress Rachel Weisz, according to a U.K. report. The movie was due to star Kidman as Lili Elbe, the first person in the world to undergo a sex change, and Gwyneth Paltrow was initially signed up as the lead character’s wife. Paltrow pulled out, as did her replacement Charlize Theron, and the project, backed by Kidman’s Blossom Films company, was due to move forward with Weisz in the role. Filming was due to begin in Germany in September 2011, but the movie has now reportedly been put on hold following the departure of Weisz and director Lasse Hallstrom. A source tells the Mail on Sunday, “Nicole initially approached Gwyneth Paltrow to play the artist’s wife and fellow artist Gerda Gottlieb, but she was too busy. Charlize Theron then took the role but had to pull out because of scheduling conflicts. “Rachel Weisz signed up last year but now she’s pulled out and the whole production has been thrown into disarray. Nicole is still determined to make this film, so she’s gone back to the drawing board.”

Source: Contactmusic