Maria Bello’s Anti-Marriage Vows

by Jesse Kornbluth

“I do have that. Especially my best friend, my ‘everything’ person. She makes me see things differently. We’ve been passing a 25-pound barbell between us for 12 years.”

“Any male friends?” I ask, half-expecting to hear that “friendship” with men is at best a fond fantasy.

“As for my best guy friend,” Bello says, “he’s a 77-year-old mover-shaker producer-artist. We tell each other: ‘Thank God there’s someone I can share my pain with.’”

Okay, she’s got perspective on men. I think of Maria Bello’s good looks—she’s at least the young Faye Dunaway— and of all the guys who surely hit on her years ago when she was tending bar in New York. To say nothing of the interest she generates now among men who can’t quite recall the last book they’ve read. “Is there,” I ask, “a burden of beauty?”

“Absolutely not—as long as we’re talking about internal beauty,” Bello says. “There are a lot of people who shine and glow wherever they go because of their internal beauty. And on days when internal and external come together, that’s terrific. People look at Jackson and say, ‘Oh, your son is beautiful.’ I reply: ‘Yes…inside and out.’ I want him to know they’re both important.”