As we know, Matt Damon and his family have been in Ireland during lockdown because production on The Last Duel moved there. Apparently there’s been a local radio station, Spin 1038, trying to get him to call in. So he finally called in. And complimented Ireland’s Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar for being a “badass”, saying that:
"You've got a president who just goes to the hospital and starts working! I mean what a badass, it's just on another level."
The unspoken part here is who he might be comparing Leo to. But you didn’t come here to talk about that f-ckwit in America. You’re here for Matt Damon and the way he casually dropped into the conversation that it was Bono who was on him about reaching out to Spin 1038. And it was over video chat.
During the discussion, Matt revealed that while he and Luciana are with their three younger daughters in Ireland, their eldest daughter, Alexia, is in the US. She was in school in New York at the start of the pandemic and, along with her roommates, tested positive for COVID-19. They are OK now but it obviously must have been distressing for Matt and Luciana to be so far away from her. Apparently he’s heading back to LA soon and Alexia will join them. Video of the full conversation is below.
Time now for some Gossip Nostalgia. Matt and Luciana will celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary this December. But 20 years ago, exactly this week, is the anniversary of his breakup with Winona Ryder after dating for two years. At the beginning of 2000, Matt and Winona attended the Golden Globes together.
Obviously things seemed fine, then. By May 2000 though it was over. No one really knows why and there were all kinds of rumours involving Penelope Cruz and Richard Gere but they’ve both said in subsequent years that it was an amicable breakup – in Matt’s words, more “pedestrian” than people were willing to admit. I believe it. Looking back, they were never well-suited.
But we can reminisce. Because that foursome was great gossip at the time: Matt, Winona, Ben Affleck, and Gwyneth Paltrow.
This moment in Gossip Nostalgia was brought to you by Minnie Driver.
