“I’ve always talked about coming to Vancouver,” says actress Bryce Dallas Howard while scouring the clearance shelf in front of Book Warehouse, a shop she returned to again and again while filming The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. “It’s like the Emerald City.” And just like Dorothy, who returned home eventually, Howard will soon pack her bags for Portland, Oregon, to begin pre-production on Gus Van Sant’s new film, which she is producing and co- wrote (after that, she’s going back to school to get her MFA in creative writing). She stars this winter in The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, based on a lost Tennessee Williams screenplay, as Fisher Willow, an abrasive yet vulnerable character in the vein of Blanche Dubois and Maggie the Cat. “While shooting the movie in Louisiana,” she says, staring out at Vancouver’s idyllic waterfront, “I had a ‘mom moment’ looking at a magnificent sunset. It occurred to me that the purpose of the human experience on earth is to move through obstacles with grace.” She picks up her 2-year-old son, Theodore, and adds, “If you can do that, there will always be a sunset.”

● In time for the New Year, Angelina has told Brad that she wants to see other people -- oh she still wants to be with Brad, it's just that Angie would like to have sex with other men ... and women as well. [Showbizspy]
● What is a father of six to do with that news? If you’re Brad Pitt, you take your eldest sons (Maddox and Pax) for a raucous round of video games at Dave and Busters in low-key Times Square. [JustJared]
● If things do go south with Angelina, at least Brad has Guy Ritchie, who would like to re-team with Pitt for the forthcoming sequel to Sherlock Holmes. [Popeater]

Last weekend, I found myself sitting in a dark room with a friend watching old episodes of True Blood until dawn when we started discussing how Stephanie Meyer essentially grifted bits of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series for her own Twilight saga. This repurposing of essential bits of the Stackhouse chronicles wasn't exactly helped with not-actors who had to first learn how to portray actors before they could portray actors playing vampires. It's all very complicated. But whatever gap in legitimacy this franchise lacks it can probably make up for with a bit of Oscar heft coming in its umpteenth installment, Eclipse.

● Aubrey O’Day says she wants to be just like BFF Jenna Jameson -- a multimedia brand -- just, you know, without the porn part. [CraveOnline]
● Rachelle Lefevre is understandably upset and surprised that her meal ticket, er, rather her Twilight role, has fallen into the lap of Bryce Dallas Howard. [People]
● Now that Jessica Simpson is Tony Romo-free, she plans to get her old Dukes of Hazard-era body back; that’ll teach ‘em to dump you the day before your birthday. [OK]

In what's definitely an unexpected bite of credibility for the Twilight franchise, Bryce Dallas Howard has replaced Rachelle Lefevre as Victoria, "a red-haired, cat-like vampire," in the series' third film. What this basically means is that all the vague bits of staring and creepy standing that Howard summoned for her challenging turn as the titular character in The Lady In the Water will this time be complimented with furrowed brows to indicate maliciousness.

If you caught our recent interview with Bryce Dallas Howard, then enjoy this flashback to a 2005 cover feature on the actress.

I invade the lobby with my drink. There, curled up like a child waiting for a school bus, is Bryce Dallas Howard. When she looks up it's like a door blowing open onto sudden, clear countryside, and if you were as old as fuck, you'd suffer a hemorrhage of assurance that the future's going to be fine.

In the blasted post-apocalyptic future of Terminator Salvation, the ethereal beauty of Bryce Dallas Howard emerges through seared earth and homicidal machines that stalk the land, as a beacon of hope that Christian Bale’s John Connor returns home to after battling for our future. As Kate Connor, she is the film’s emotional rock, and Howard plays her with humanity in a world being quickly depleted of it. Perhaps best known for her roles in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village and Lady in the Water, Howard also starred in Manderlay, the second part in subversive filmmaker Lars Von Trier’s “America” trilogy. Here, the actress reflects on her Terminator fever, the Christian Bale scandal, and why McG, the film’s director, threw cookies at her.