Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Will Smith, Hollywood marriage counselor.
In his new movie Will is an expert on relationships. Apparently he's considered one in real life too...
As it turns out, the "Hitch" shoot in New York last summer brought up its share of relationship challenges in Smith's own marriage - though he and wife Jada Pinkett Smith handled them with customary aplomb.
"I mean, wow, Eva Mendes is freaking gorgeous," Smith says - and he insists he would say the same thing to Jada's face. "Our perspective is, You don't avoid what's natural. You're going to be attracted to people."
"In our marriage vows, we didn't say 'forsaking all others,'" he adds - though he insists he'd never cheat on Jada without asking her permission.
"The vow that we made was that you will never hear that I did something after the fact. If it came down to it, then one [spouse] can say to the other, 'Look, I need to have sex with somebody. I'm not going to if you don't approve of it - but please approve of it.'"
Now, that doesn't mean that Will Smith is about to screw up Hollywood's last good marriage. For him, it comes down to one thing, he says: "Are you a person of your word or not?"
That's the secret, he says, to why his marriage has lasted, while so many other celebrity love matches have bitten the dust.
"I spend hours reading, studying," Smith says. "And my wife and I talk about things that work - and don't work."...
Will and Jada's solid relationship is such a Hollywood rarity other famous couples have turned to them to help salvage their unravelling marriages...
"With Bruce and Demi, we spent hours talking to them. And Tom and Nicole - hours..."
Of course, even the Smiths' expert marriage counseling couldn't save either of those relationships, but the experience, he says, has helped them in their own... [NY Post]
