A Minute With: Amanda Peet getting 'Bent' on TV

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After last starring on television in the short-lived series "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," Amanda Peet("The Whole Nine Yards," "Syriana") returns to television once again in the new comedy "Bent," which premieres Wednesday night on NBC.

The 40-year-old actress plays a newly divorced, high-strung lawyer and single mom looking for a fresh start by renovating a new home. She hires a reckless, womanizing, recovering addicted gambler as her contractor, and finds herself attracted to his charming ways even though he is everything she cannot stand.

Peet, who is married to Hollywood screenwriter David Benioff, with whom she has two daughters, Frances, 5 and Molly, 2, sat down with Reuters to talk about her new show, being a mother and how married life has changed her.

Q: What made you return to television?

A: "I like the idea that she's a single mom trying to keep it all together. I think most working moms have this sinking feeling that they're failing, so I related to that. And I like the idea of an adult dating show that's sexy and not just for gags - that kind of romantic suspense where you're like, 'Are they going to have sex or not?' I love that she despises the fact that she's attracted to (her womanizing contractor)."

Q: Is the show meant to be realistic or a fantasy?

A: "I'm not sure yet, actually. We definitely want to make people laugh. We have J.B. Smoove and Jeffrey Tambor so we want everyone to escape and laugh. But hopefully it's more on the realistic side."

Q: Later this year, you will star with Ben Affleck and Jessica Chastain in a new Terrence Malick movie. How do you figure in to the plot?

A: "I don't know what I'm allowed to say, but I'm a love interest of Ben's. We shot it in Ohio. I was breastfeeding at the time, so my memory of it is very, very foggy. I didn't have the normal amount of brain cells."

Q: Your husband is the executive producer of the HBO hit series 'Game of Thrones' which shoots in Europe. How do you guys make it work?

A: "Everyone packs up and goes. For the last three summers we lived over there. In season one I came back with the girls and did a play in New York. This past year I shot 'Bent,' so David commuted from Belfast to L.A. He'd make little videos for (daughter Frances) so at breakfast she'd see David on a glacier in Iceland and all the actors were in costume saying 'Good morning Frankie!'"

Q: Would you and David ever work together?

A: "I really hope so! I've only been sleeping with him for seven years now! What am I gonna get out of this? (laughs)"

Q: Do you have rules about working or not working together?

A: "We don't have rules about much of anything. We don't have rules about how long we're going to be apart or about working together. We tried to have a rule about getting off the computer at a certain time each night. It didn't work."

Q: How has motherhood changed you?

A: "I'm fatter, I'm saggier. And I'm still a jealous, ambitious person. (laughs) I think my perspective on things was changed more by being with David than having children, in terms of work. I used to do projects thinking it would be a launching pad to something, but when I met David, he was like, 'Stop doing that, do it only if you want to do it.'"

Q: What do you consider your big break?

A: "'The Whole Nine Yards,' hands down. It was a great role - a contract killer who was obsessed with being an expert contract killer. The movie did really well and at the time, I didn't realize how special and rare it was. So rare that it's never happened again! (laughs) If that ever happened now, I would be drinking champagne and doing cartwheels. At the time, I just didn't even know."

Q: Innocence can be a good thing.

A: "Oh, I was very innocent and took the role very seriously. Matthew Perry and Bruce Willis would be going out and having fun in Montreal. I was like, 'I need to figure out what my objective is in this scene tomorrow!'"

Q: Television is such a precarious and fickle business. Will you be disappointed if the show doesn't get renewed?

A: "Yeah, but I've been doing this for a long time. I feel like I've been around the revolving door and spit out the other side and come back around again. I'm used to this feeling and I'm used to being in this position. I have my health, my children's health and my husband's health. The older I get, the more I feel if I have (those three things) then we're doing really well."

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Obama’s fundraising haul for February: $45 million

President Barack Obama's re-election campaign announced Monday that it raised $45 million in February—and immediately found itself in a fight with Republicans who claimed the number proved the incumbent was struggling.

The Obama campaign posted a summary of its monthly totals on its official website, saying that 348,000 people opened their wallets in February, 105,000 for the first time, with an average donation of $59.04.

On the Twitter feed run by campaign staff, aides said 1.64 million people had donated to re-elect the president since that effort formally launched in April 2011.

But the Republican National Committee pounced, noting that Obama's February total was well off his pace of four years ago, when he scooped up nearly $57 million.

"After three years of policies that have left our country with record debt, high unemployment, and soaring gas prices and healthcare costs, it's clear President Obama is having a hard time convincing voters he deserves another term," said RNC spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski.

The Obama campaign's chief spokesman, Ben LaBolt, responded via his own Twitter account, saying: "The $ the GOP candidates are raising will be spent on the air carpetbombing each other. We are raising $ for our gen elect infrastructure."

But top campaign aides—and Obama himself—have acknowledged that they face a struggle to recapture the magic of his historic 2008 run for the White House. The president has even built that into his regular fundraising pitches as a warning to any complacent Democrats.

"I know I'm a little grayer now and it's not as trendy to be an Obama supporter, because it's not as fresh," he told donors at actor and director Tyler Perry's estate in Atlanta on Friday.

"And so I hope that you are game to work just as hard, if not harder, in the coming months to make sure we finish what we began," said the president, who has stepped up the pace of his fundraising.

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Rihanna calls Chris Brown music reunion "innocent"

 Pop star Rihanna called her recent musical collaboration with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown "innocent," after critics and fans split on the duo working together three years after Brown assaulted the pop star.

"We did two records, one for my fans and one for his fans, and that way our fans can come together. There shouldn't be a divide, you know, it's music and it's innocent," Rihanna told Ryan Seacrest on his syndicated morning radio show on Thursday.

Rihanna provided vocals on a remix of Brown's new dance song "Turn Up The Music" while Brown lent his voice to Rihanna's sexually-charged "Birthday Cake." Both tracks were released last month after the Grammy awards on February 12.

"I reached out to him about doing "Birthday Cake" because that's the only person that really it made sense to do the record, just as a musician, despite everything else, that was going to be the person," Rihanna told Seacrest.

"I thought about rappers and I've done that so many times, and the hottest R&B artist out right now is Chris Brown, so I wanted him on the track," she added.

Brown nearly derailed his career three years ago on the night before the Grammys, after he was arrested for beating up his then-girlfriend, Rihanna. Since that time he has tried to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of fans with mixed results.

The musical reunion of Rihanna and Brown had social networks abuzz as fans split on the pair working together with some making cynical comments, others calling it a publicity stunt and many embracing the new songs.

Brown has yet to comment openly on the collaboration.

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Britney Spears rejects $10M bid host 'X-Factor'

LOS ANGELES, March 9 (TheWrap.com) - Britney Spears has rejected a $10 million offer to host the next season of "The X Factor," TheWrap has learned.

So the question is: How much is Fox going to have to pony up? Try $20 million.

Reports this week that the pop star was considering a $10 million offer to host next fall's seasons of "The X Factor" are out of date, according to a knowledgeable individual in Spears' camp.

The singer rejected that offer three weeks ago and is instead thinking about an offer to become a resident performer at a Las Vegas hotel in the fall, a la Celine Dion.

So here comes a game of chicken. Fox desperately needs a big name to announce on the judge's panel of Simon Cowell's show, now that NBC's hit show "The Voice" will be competing with them in the fall.

Spears' camp wants $20 million.

It's becoming an arms race for singing talent being paid to sit behind tables and… talk.

NBC has put its money where its mouth is, paying Christina Aguilera upward of $10 million to come back and judge the new season of "The Voice." They've given handsome paychecks, if not as much, to the other judges as well.

That pales in comparison to what Fox has shelled out for the "X Factor" judges. Paula Abdul was paid $2.5 million for the last season, according to another knowledgeable insider, and she was announced at the 11th hour.

She was also fired, as were judge Nicole Scherzinger and host Steve Jones.

"X Factor" is already recording its audition phase, but won't need the judges until the end of May.

What the network wants is a big piece of news to present to advertisers at their upfront sales presentations on May 14.

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