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HOLLYWOOD - Ryan Reynolds stars in Smokin' Aces, a movie in which decks of cards are outnumbered only by bullets.
So it's fitting Reynolds puts on his best poker face when the subject of his much-speculated-about personal life arises during the Sun's interview with him at the Four Seasons.
Namely, his relationship with Alanis Morissette.
Are they, like, together or what?
Reynolds, a nice enough guy, may have on his poker face, but the rest of him understandably squirms.
"You know," he says of the relationship which Internet gossip sites deemed off then on-again last year, "I don't want to get into it or even talk about it."
So what does he think, then, of the unfortunate, but undeniable, fact, plenty of other people do?
"It's a little bit gross," he says. "What's even more disturbing is that people draw conclusions from stuff they're reading on Internet sites. It's a little scary to think about that aspect.
"You can't control it, so I don't try ... Celebrity culture is becoming this thing everybody feels like taking part in. Who am I to say that's a good or a bad thing? It's just a fact of life.
"My lack of involvement (in that) is a byproduct of how I lead my life. I don't go to other people's movie premieres or Hollywood parties. I think, to a degree, you have to welcome that stuff in and I haven't been willing to do that."
Hence, his unwillingness to even discuss Morissette.
"I don't even want to address it because it just becomes fodder (for gossip), which is something I like to avoid."
Onward then, to business at hand, namely Aces, in which Reynolds stars as an FBI agent assigned to protect a mobbed-up Vegas magician (Jeremy Piven) turned government stoolie.
It's a volatile, intensely-bloody piece of cinematic mayhem - so much so even Reynolds, later on in the day at a press conference with his co-stars, notes, "I've never been in a film with this brand of unlinking violence before."
Sure enough, even though Reynolds has made strides to toughen his image in recent years (the vampire slayer he portrayed in the last Blade, the washboard-torsoed husband possessed in The Amityville Horror remake) he is probably best identified for such lighter fare as Van Wilder or Just Friends, which was shot during one typically frigid January in Regina. ("It was act fast, just act fast," he recalls of that time. "Nicest people on earth, though.")
And he'll continue to mix it up with his next projects. One of them, The Ten, just had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and he recently wrapped Definitely, Maybe, a romantic drama spanning two decades in the lives of its characters.
"I have the great fortune where I'm not pigeonholed into just one thing. I used to do something if the character was right -- everything else was superfluous," he says.
"Now, I'm just looking to tell stories in different ways. You look for a great script.
"The better the script, the better the material, the better the people it attracts, which makes it a more interesting experience as far as shooting goes."