Cannes is officially underway and it all kicked-off with a little indie we’ve never heard of already mega-hit starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan, The Great Gatsby.

Ms. Mulligan was stylin’ in a Balenciaga by Alexander Wang LBJ (little black jumpsuit, it’s a thing) at her photocall and she stunned in a long white dress and a sleek ‘do for the night’s big premiere. Her co-star Leo didn’t look too shabby either–nobody wears a goatee/mustache beard combo like Mr. DiCaprio. Isla Fisher was a vision in white lace Dolce & Gabbana. Later, at the evening’s Opening Ceremony, she pulled out all the stops in a red hot number.

Looks like this cast’s fashionable red carpet getups will be hard to top.

Cannes officially kicks off tomorrow and the stars are already arriving in France for the big film festival.

Celebs like Emma Watson, Carey Mulligan and Leonardo DiCaprio are just a few of the folks who have touched down ahead of their big premieres. We can’t wait to see more arrivals for the star-studded event.

We’ve already counted down our 10 favorite looks from the festival’s past considering we’re super excited to see what kind of couture will be hitting the carpet this year. Stay tuned!

Once upon a time, in the long-past golden era of Hollywood (the late ’90s) there was a group of famous friends called the p*ssy posse. Mostly actors who’d grown up auditioning together, the group consisted of Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Lukas Haas and Kevin Connelly as well as magician David Blaine and screenwriter/director Harmony Korine. The young friends spent much of their time chasing women, which is how they got their tasteful nickname.

It’s hard to know what exactly broke up the pussy posse and since then they’ve mostly gone their separate ways; the passage of time has a way of changing us. As they aged, they grew up — except for DiCaprio who still remains dedicated to dating all the models.

On The Late Show last night, Tobey Maguire told David Letterman what it was like working with his old friend Leo on a little-heard-of indie flick called The Great Gatsby.

Well we had fun. I will say there was a day on set where Leo had to be, as Jay Gatsby, very stern with Nick Carraway and, I don’t know, it was, like, what he had to say to me and his attitude and the blocking  – he like goes up a couple of steps and like turns around very serious to me and says this stern thing. And I just started breaking up laughing.

What follows is a half-day-long giggle fit between the two comrades-in-bep*ssyed-arms.

They may not be taking last minute private jets on exotic vacations or shutting nightclubs down anymore, but it’s good to know that the pussy posse is still wreaking havoc somewhere, anywhere, even if it is on the Sydney, Australia Great Gatsby set.

Gisele Bundchen, Bar Refaeli, Erin Heatherton… Leonardo DiCaprio has had his fair share of beautiful women over the years.

But at 38-years-old he’s still very much single and now he’s confessed to Esquire magazine that work might just be the reason.

“Six months of being on location or being off in Morocco or some place like that is not the best thing for a relationship,” he told the May issue.

DiCaprio, who has been nominated for an Oscar three times without ever striking gold, is about to hit the road again to promote Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby.

Despite being at the top of the Hollywood food chain for more than 16 years, the L.A.-born actor still takes nothing for granted.

“And so you have to understand – getting your foot in the door is like winning the lottery. It’s literally like winning the lottery if you get to have a career,” he added.

“I’ve always felt, Okay, now I’ve gotten this shot, and I’m lucky to have gotten this shot, and if I don’t do this to the best of my ability.

“If I don’t work my a** off and make a life of it — I’ve squandered this incredibly golden opportunity. And that’s always been what has propelled me.’

The star announced recently that he was going to take a break from movies after working on Django Unchained, the The Great Gatsby  and Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street back-to-back-to-back.

The actor became a heartthrob at age 22 when he starred in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and Titanic, but admits he struggled to cope with his newfound fame and success.

“I really didn’t understand what fame was and I didn’t understand what being in a giant hit was and I didn’t understand what a giant hit Titanic was compared to other giant hits,” he told the magazine.

“Most recently, in the last few years, I feel way more comfortable than I’ve ever felt.”

The Great Gatsby, which also stars Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire, opens across America on May 10.

And who knows — now that he has more time on his hands maybe Leo might settle down?

What do you think? Tell us your comments.

After taking her gams out for a spin at Williams-Sonoma Friday night, and showing off the “butt of a 22-year-old stripper” the day before, Gwyneth Paltrow rounded out the week by throwing her son, Moses a 7th birthday party in LA.

A cast of thousands gathered in Paltrow and Chris Martin‘s backyard on Saturday, including Gwen Stefani, dreamboat Gavin Rossdale, Tobey Maguire, Jennifer Meyer, Ruby Maguire, Otis Maguire, Jon Favreau, Joel Madden, Harlow Madden, Cameron Diaz, Maria Shriver, Christopher Schwarzenegger and Katherine Schwarzenegger.

Nicole Richie, meanwhile, has been on holiday down in St. Barts with Jessica Alba.

Paltrow dressed down in a white tank and gauzy, cream pants for the occasion, and still managed to look 15 years younger than her actual age.

Well played, Gwynnie.

Do I spy a Euro-sized ombre tee on Rossdale?

Feast your eyes on Gatsby — in character poster form.

Over the weekend, Warner Bros. unleashed six new character posters from the upcoming big screen version of The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the title character.

The Baz Lurhmann film will mark the sixth time the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic has been transformed into movie form.

Jay-Z will produce and perform on the movie’s soundtrack, which itself is also one of the most anticipated releases of the year.

Earlier this week, the film debuted its first TV spot, featuring new clips and voiceovers from Gatsby and company.

Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire and Joel Edgerton also star in the film.

The Great Gatsby opens on May 10 and will also open the 66th Cannes Film Festival in France.

Launch the gallery, above, for new posters from The Great Gatsby. Then tell us: are you looking forward to the film?

[Posters via. The Lebanese Cinema Movie Guide]

Meat is so passé. At least in Hollywood.

More A-listers than ever are sticking to strict vegan or vegetarian diets — and being kinder to animals in general. Among them: Jessica Chastain, Russell Brand, Kristen Bell and Kristen Wiig.

“I don’t want to torture anything — it’s about trying to live a life where I’m not contributing to the cruelty in the world,” Chastain said after being named one of PETA’s sexiest vegetarians. “While I am on this planet, I want everyone I meet to know that I am grateful they are here.”

Chastain’s new menu options have also had an unexpected, positive effect on her waistline.

“I used to think about dieting,” she told Harper’s Bazaar in August 2012, “but I’m vegan now, so it’s not really a problem.”

Click on the gallery above to check out other famous vegetarians.

Then tell us: Are you meat-free, or could you never give up a juicy cheeseburger?

Ben Affleck better watch his back: John Krasinski is on a mission to become Matt Damon’s BFF.

“I would love to have a bromance with him,” Krasinski told PEOPLE magazine on Tuesday.

“But I don’t even know if I could even use the word ‘bromance’ because he and Ben are so tight and like a married couple that I’ll never get in there.”

The 33-year-old actor stars in the new Gus Van Sant film Promised Land opposite Damon, 42, who also shares producing and screenwriting duties with The Office alum.

While Krasinski can continue to dream big about his new buddy, he’s got some big Hollywood bromance shows to follow.

There’s Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire, whose tight-knit circle also includes Entourage star Kevin Connolly. Next May, DiCaprio and Maguire will reunite on screen in Baz Luhrman’s film adaptation of The Great Gatsby.

“I’m at the stage in my life and I’m married and have children, so I don’t get to see my buddies as much as I’d like and just the fact I was forced to see one of my best friends everyday was fantastic,” Maguire told Celebuzz in October about working with his pal.

“Then, I got to go to work with one of our greatest actors and be inspired by him. So, I felt very grateful for that time. It was great.”

George Clooney and Brad Pitt have also sustained one of the industry’s longest friendships. But as Pitt gets ready to marry his longtime love Angelina Jolie, it looks like the Ocean’s Eleven actor will look elsewhere for life advice.

“What can [Clooney] tell me? Other than how to protect my liver!” Pitt told PEOPLE in November.

Over the years, the small screen has also seen bromances blossom between the likes of Zach Braff and his Scrubs pal Donald Faison, and Jon Stewart and his former Daily Show correspondent Stephen Colbert, who of course now has his own program.

Promised Land, starring John Krasinski and Matt Damon, will open in limited release Dec. 28.

For more Hollywood bromances, check out the gallery, above. Did we miss any? Comment below.

They’ve been best buddies for years, but Tobey Maguire is still in awe of Leonardo DiCaprio.

Speaking to Celebuzz at the premiere of his new film The Details at the Arclight in Los Angeles, Calif. Maguire, 37, opened up about how glad he was to have worked with his pal on The Great Gatsby.

“It’s fantastic,” he said of getting to spend some time with his A-list friend. “I’m at the stage in my life and I’m married and have children, so I don’t get to see my buddies as much as I’d like and just the fact I was forced to see one of my best friends everyday was fantastic.

“Then, I got to go to work with one of our greatest actors and be inspired by him. So, I felt very grateful for that time. It was great.”

Maguire – who stars in The Details with Elizabeth Banks, 38, and Laura Linney, 48 — also spoke about politics and what he would do if he was the American President.

“I would like to say I want all of our systems to be built logically,” he said when asked what he would aspire to do if he won the upcoming presidential election. “That the incentives are in the correct place, that we take corruption out of things and that we treat people with respect and dignity. Therefore, getting into specific things like marriage equality.”

“I think there are so many things to do I’m glad I don’t have the job and I hope we get a lot done in the near future,” he added.

For the full red carpet interview and to see what he says about his new flick and waving goodbye to the Spiderman movies watch the Celebuzz video above.

The Los Angeles Press Club has recognized Celebuzz with multiple nominations for its fifth annual National Entertainment Journalism Awards.

The site’s exclusive report exposing the feud between Community star Chevy Chase and the show creator Dan Harmon — complete with leaked audio of the veteran Hollywood actor calling the NBC comedy series “just a mediocre sitcom” — was named one of five finalists in the Best Online News Report category.

It will compete for the top online honor against peers The Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg News, The Wrap and Hollywood.com.

The story published on Apr. 10, 2012 made international headlines.

69-year-old Chase, who plays Pierce Hawthorne on the primetime series, was recorded telling Harmon, “I want people to laugh and this isn’t funny. It ain’t funny to me because I’m 67-years-old and I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve been making a lot of people laugh a lot better than this.”

Five months after Celebuzz posted its story, Harmon was fired as the show runner of Community.

Celebuzz Editor in Chief Dylan Howard was also nominated for an industry leading six National Entertainment Journalism Awards, more than any other individual nominee, including the coveted Entertainment Journalist of the Year, an award he previously won in 2011.

The full list of nominations can be read at the L.A. Press Club’s website, here.

The body of work that saw Howard nominated for the highest accolade included scores of memorable exclusives, including the expose series on the underground Hollywood high-stakes poker circuit — implicating A-Listers Tobey Maguire, Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, the secret Desperate Housewives feud between Teri Hatcher and her costars, an investigation into the world of Scientology and its relationship to Tom Cruise, and the publication of a dossier of evidence that that compelled the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to take a new look at one of Hollywood’s most enduring mysteries, the drowning death of actress Natalie Wood in 1981.

Other noms for Entertainment Journalist of the Year include LA Weekly‘s Gendy Alimurung, RadarOnline Legal Editor Jen Heger, Orange County Register media reporter Gary Lycan and Kim Masters, Editor at Large of The Hollywood Reporter and KCRW.

Howard’s reporting of Whitney Houston‘s drug induced death on Feb. 11, 2012 was also recognized for a social media nod.

Howard’s poker expose and Natalie Wood revelations were nominated twice in the same category for entertainment related investigative story.

The series on the high-stakes gambling was also recognized as the best hard or breaking news print repot in the entertainment industry. The expose first appeared in Star magazine, where Howard previously served as Senior Executive Editor.

The awards ceremony will also honor Jane Fonda with their first Visionary Award, as introduced by Robert Redford, on Nov. 18th at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

It’s rare enough for an actor of  Tobey Maguire‘s stature to be cut from a film. It’s even rarer that the dirctor who cut him is also the one who gave him his first big break.

Yet that’s what happened with upcoming Oscar hopeful Life of Pi, directed by Ang Lee, who gave Maguire two of his earliest starring roles in The Ice Storm (1997) and Ride With the Devil (1999).

Their latest partnership, which had Maguire filming a brief role as a writer in Lee’s adaptation of the Yann Martel bestseller, was interrupted this month when the filmmaker announced that he’d snipped out Maguire’s performance in Pi and replaced it with one by another actor.

Who took Tobey Maguire’s slice of Pi?

Rafe Spall, who played a scientist in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and the milquetoast boyfriend of Anne Hathaway’s character in One Day, was cast in the role that Maguire played after the former Spider-Man star was considered “too famous,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Maguire not only accepted the announcement that he’d ended up on the cutting room floor, but offered one of his own in support of the decision.

“I fully support Ang’s decision to go a different direction for this role in Life of Pi,” Maguire said in a statement to THR. “Ang shared a lot of the film with me, and what I saw was absolutely beautiful.”

Lee said of the decision, “To be consistent with the other casting choices made for the film, I decided to go with an entirely international cast. I very much admire Tobey and look forward to working with him again in the future.”

Maguire is the latest star to be cut out of a movie, but he isn’t the only one: just weeks ago, Rachel Weisz revealed that her performance was removed from Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder. (Jessica Chastain, Amanda Peet, Michael Sheen and Barry Pepper were also cut out of that film.) And Uma Thurman, who once played Blake Lively’s mother in Oliver Stone’s Savages, is absent from the finished film.

Life of Pi is scheduled for release on November 12, 2012. Watch the trailer for the film below.

Ellen DeGeneres – you’re a star … literally!

On Monday, the 54-year-old talk show host (and thirteen-time Emmy winner) was finally given her very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and judging by the big smile on her face, it seems like Ellen is really happy about it.

What other celebs had a great day?

Tobey Maguire was all smiles as he took his daughter Ruby for a walk in Malibu, Calif. and Salma Hayek also seemed to be having a great day when photogs snapped photos of the birthday girl as she was leaving the Cipriani Hotel with her husband, Francois-Henri Pinault on Saturday (we love the shades, Salma!).

Kate Hudson hit London, Cheryl Hines visited Massachusetts and Enrique Iglesias was seen cozying up to longtime girlfriend Anna Kournikova at Miami’s LIV nightclub, following his show on Saturday night.

All in all, it seems like it was a really happy day for some of our favorite celebs, who look like the long weekend did them a lot of good!

What was your favorite shot of the day? Tell us in the comments below!

Looking for an actor to play a nerdy science whiz who’s been exposed to dangerous radiation? Tobey Maguire’s your man.

Having survived three movies as a teen bitten by a radioactive arachnid in the Spider-Man series, Maguire will now produce and star in the post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller Z for Zachariah, reports Variety. He’ll be working with the director of a controversial new independent movie that opens on Friday.

It’s the latest addition to a suddenly full plate for the 37-year-old star, who hasn’t been seen much since he handed Peter Parker’s webs over to Andrew Garfield.

Read more about Maguire’s latest thriller after the jump.

Z for Zachariah is based on the novel by Robert C. O’Brien about a teenage girl who believes she is the only person to have survived the apocalypse. But she soon finds a chilly scientist (the character Maguire is to play) swimming in a contaminated stream and nurses him back to health. A battle of wills ensues as he tries to play Adam and Eve with her.

The screenplay adaptation, by Nissar Modi, landed in 2009 on the Black List, the semi-official list circulating in Hollywood of the best unproduced screenplays.

Maguire hasn’t been seen on screen in three years, but September sees the release of his long-delayed dark comedy The Details, and next summer, he’ll appear opposite his pal Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan in next summer’s The Great Gatsby. And he’s currently filming Jason Reitman’s thriller Labor Day. No word on when Z might go before the cameras.

Directing Z will be Craig Zobel, whose latest movie is the Sundance submission Compliance, starring Dreama Walker of the sitcom Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23. It’s another story about a teen who faces off against a manipulative stranger. Compliance doesn’t open until Friday, but it’s already been the source of controversy (detailed here and here, for instance) that it blurs the line between art and humiliating exploitation.

In Hollywood, that just means the director has buzz and heat.

UPDATE: (Thursday, August 16, 10:00 a.m. EDT) Yet another item on Maguire’s increasingly lengthy to-do list: Pawn Sacrifice, a biopic of chess legend/reclusive weirdo Bobby Fischer, which Maguire will produce and star in. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the movie is one step closer to production now that Ed Zwick (Love and Other Drugs) has come aboard to direct, replacing David Fincher (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo).

A powerful man like Bradley Ruderman rarely answered his office phone. But on this occasion, the multi-millionaire hedge fund manager picked up. Just as well. When the caller identified himself, Ruderman was taken aback. It was Tobey Maguire. The Tobey Maguire.

Ruderman was used to mixing with the rich and influential; his hedge fund managed millions of dollars of other people’s money from offices in Beverly Hills. This, though, was different. Maguire was Hollywood A-list. And there was more. An intriguing invitation, extended to him: ”He said, ‘Hey, we have this game … Would you like to play?’”

Spider-Man was asking him round to his house to play poker.

Now, for the first time, Celebuzz can reveal exclusively the exact details of how Ruderman — who is currently serving time in a Texas prison after being convicted of embezzling $25 million from his investors — was drawn into a clandestine world of high-stakes illegal poker games; a secret society that included Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio as some of its most noted alumni.

It was a story that was to end in multi-million dollar fraud, jail and violence. One that has no heroes, but plenty of victims. Today Ruderman — a mini-Madoff — has every reason to bitterly regret taking the call that fateful day in 2006. But Maguire will almost certainly wish he never made it.

Rudeman’s tale is documented in a 206-page deposition that was conducted on March 29 at Taft Community Correctional Facility in Kern County, Calif. Celebuzz exclusively obtained the transcript of that interrogation and can now tell the full story of Hollywood’s high-roller card sharks for the first time, in Ruderman’s words.

His videotaped testimony, on oath and under the penalty of perjury, tells the explosive tale of his fall from grace, beginning in 2006 when he was still chief executive of Ruderman Capital Partners.

It was not, however, Maguire’s call that began the sad case of a man corrupted by the twinkling lights of fame and danger. That came a few weeks earlier, after Ruderman was walking along the pristine Pacific Ocean coastline in Malibu.

Ruderman, then in his early 40s, was strolling on Carbon Beach — the star-studded enclave of the rich and famous — when he bumped into a friend who was at a barbecue on the sand. It was no ordinary family barbecue. The host was Rick Salomon, otherwise known as Paris Hilton’s infamous sex-tape partner.

At the party, Ruderman got talking to a beautiful brunette. She was 33-year-old Molly Bloom, the sister of two-time Olympic skier and Philadelphia Eagles player, Jeremy Bloom.

“She asked me if I would be interested in playing in a game that they were coincidentally having the following night at that house,” Rudeman told lawyers in the deposition, “and she asked if I would be interested in participating, and I said, sure.”

Ruderman needed little convincing. “She just told me it was a traditional Texas Hold’em game … that if I enjoyed gambling and enjoyed ‘action’ that it would be worth my while to come.  I figured, you know, why not? I have nothing else to do that night and I certainly love to gamble, and it was close and it made for an easy scenario.”

He was in.

The call from Maguire, whom Ruderman had never previously met, confirmed the hedge fund manager’s place on the secret card circuit. Ruderman recalls in the deposition: “He had mentioned that he knew that I had played in a prior game that Molly had organized, and asked if I liked it, and I said yes.”

“He says, well, that’s good because we actually have a regular game that she organizes,” he continued. “It’s not on the beach, it’s in town, and here’s the facts about it and would I be interested, and I said yes.” That game, it turned out, was at Maguire’s Los Angeles house which he shares with his wife Jennifer, the daughter of Ronald Meyer, President and CEO of Universal Studios, and their two children Ruby, 5, and three-year-old Otis.

Soon Ruderman was playing regularly, usually every other week. The routine became familiar to him. Bloom invited players by text, often mentioning when stars were expected. Ruderman said in his testimony: “She [Molly] would include into your personal text message, Dave’s showing up, Tobey’s showing.”

Bloom’s games were strictly invitation-only, to venues such as the Four Seasons, the Peninsula, the Beverly Hills Hotel and the world famous Viper Room on Sunset Boulevard, a venue once owned by Johnny Depp. You had to be vetted by Bloom to get in. “You had to have pedigree,” said Ruderman.

By 2009, Ruderman told lawyers, he was well-known on the circuit as someone who paid his debts. These were no ordinary games. Secret passwords were needed to play and the door was sometimes manned by armed guards in bulletproof vests. Everything was laid on, even shoulder massages during games to relieve tension.

Ronald Richards, one of the lawyers questioning Ruderman in prison, noted: “Molly built a service business for herself by bring friendly, attractive girls to serve drinks and she provided a stable location and staff to host a game.”

Ruderman said the idea that attractive girls and drinks were the reason players showed up was wrong. “The reason people show up at the game, in all due respect to Molly, is not Molly. It’s the other players.” Like Maguire and Co., the highest-wattage members of the circle.

Bloom, it was said, could get whatever you needed. A source said illegal drugs would be part of the action. “It was known to a handful of us that one player would keep two hookers down the hall of the hotel in another room,” an insider said.

“He would disappear for 30 minutes at a time, leaving the main players in the game frustrated. In reality, he was going to do blow [in a room with] two hookers.” (There is no suggestion any of the people named in this story used drugs or hookers; indeed Celebuzz has chosen not to name the individual identified by multiple sources.)

If the extras on offer were unusual, the stakes involved were mind-blowing. In fact, there was no financial limit in the secret, unlicensed Texas Hold’em games. On one occasion, a player lost $300,000 in a night.

Maguire, 37, was a winner, however, taking as much as $1 million per-month over a period of three years, a source suggested. “That means he could have made up to $30 to $40 million from these games,” another said.

Ruderman agreed. “Tobey Maguire is the best player and a winner,” he confessed to FBI agents Jeremy Tarwater and Steve Goldman in a separate, earlier interview, according to transcripts provided to a Los Angeles court and obtained by Celebuzz.

Asked about the pot, Ruderman said in his most recent testimony: “If there are eight people playing and eight people have $50,000 in chips in front of them, that there’s $400,000 potentially that’s at risk at any moment because it’s a no-limit game.

“I believe the highest pot I ever saw, which I was not in the hand at that time, was $950,000.”

Every game, players would show up and buy in, usually for $50,000, according to Ruderman. Bloom was on hand to take the money – and her cut.

“If I lost my initial $50,000 and wanted to buy in for another $50,000, she’d hand me $50,000 in chips, and I would be in for $100,000 that night,” he said. “And she would keep track of that for every player, and at the end of the night, less expenses, she would have an accounting of who owed what to whom.”

Bloom would pocket around $6,400 per-night, Ruderman said, but she was not the house, merely a clearing agent. The next she would arrange for an assistant to pick up any money owed and deliver money won.

“She would sit in close proximity to the table with a computer typing in all the various notations,” Ruderman explained.

“If you were a loser, you knew that you had lost, and you knew that in the next couple of days she would be in contact with you to write a check in an amount or amounts to the various winners of that game. And usually what would happen is you couldn’t play in the next game until you made good on your debts for the prior game.”

Ruderman and Bloom’s A-list clientele preferred private games. Why? “It’s the convenience factor of playing in a controlled environment with a stable group of people where you don’t have to go into a casino, and you don’t have to subject yourself to, A, getting to a casino, and, B, dealing with all the riffraff that’s at a casino,” Ruderman explained. “It’s easy. It’s user friendly and that’s why I played.  And, you know, on top of the fact that I was hooked.”

The atmosphere was undoubtedly heady and adrenalin-laden, but there was one big problem for Brad Ruderman: He was a poor player. As Academy Award-winner Damon says at the start of the 1998 poker movie Rounders: “Listen, here’s the thing: If you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker.”

Unsurprisingly, others were delighted to have Ruderman play. “He was easy to take advantage of,” said one of the game’s big winners. “Ruderman was one of the biggest losers in the game. For the core group of players, having someone with deep pockets and no poker skills was a dream come true.”

Ruderman eventually accepted that he was indeed the sucker. As his losses spiraled out of control, he stole more than $5.2 million from his clients to pay off his card carousing debts. He told the FBI that Bloom preyed on him because he was “not a good gambler.” Bloom “was very aggressive to get me to keep playing,” Ruderman said in a 2009 interview.

He was clearly addicted to gambling and prepared to do anything to satisfy his craving. “I was a loser,” Ruderman said in the deposition. “I’m thinking like any gambler is thinking or any pathological gambler is thinking. You’re not keeping track of the actual numbers. You’re thinking, I’m that much closer to going on the big run. That’s the juice.”

In his testimony, he confessed: “I traded securities every single day. I tried to make clients money. As it turned out, I didn’t do it every well and I misrepresented those performances figures to my clients.”

“You would just literally take client money and take it out of the fund?” he was asked.

“That’s why I’m here [in jail] today.”

Ruderman was constantly pressed the legality of the games during his testimony. It was a crucial question, one that was to provide an unusual twist as the story played out.

Q: “I’m just trying to establish a real obvious fact. Tobey Maguire didn’t think he was breaking any laws playing poker with Brad Ruderman. Right?”

A: “I can’t surmise what Tobey knew, but I wouldn’t presume that, no.”

Q: “I mean, you guys didn’t hide — you’re playing at the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Four Seasons. Right?”

A: “Correct.”

Ruderman recalled players discussing whether the games were legal. Did they consult a lawyer, he was asked.

“No. I never did… everybody plays cards at homes.  Playing cards at home is not illegal.  It happens all the time.  It’s okay to do that…” he said.

“What made this different was the fact that we had Molly Bloom and she was performing a function that was, shall we say, unusual for a typical home poker game,” he continued. “And so many of us at the table one night, I vividly remember this, were discussing that very fact like, Hey, you know, she’s taking a piece of the action, and what’s her role here?”

Some people were invited, but rebuffed the group. “There were people that didn’t want to play in this game because they were concerned about that.”

He was instructed to name names.

“I’d rather not say, but they’re very, very prominent people,” said Ruderman.

“I’m going to request that you answer the question,” a lawyer said.

He finally relented. “Was this person’s name brought up at the table?” a lawyer asked.

“Did I bring it up? ” he responded. “No. But was Jeffery Katzenberg’s name brought up? Yes.”

Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation and the former chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, wasn’t the only big name name checked in the deposition. Also playing were pro player Kenny Tran, Nick Cassavetes, director of The Notebook, and billionaire businessman Alec Gores, who once tried to buy the film studio Miramax.

But by far the most intriguing is Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez – all the more so because his spokesman has long denied this author’s reporting that the man known as A-Rod played in the high-stakes ring.

In his testimony, Ruderman was specifically questioned by lawyers about one particular game.

“I can give you some of the names I remember,” he told the attorneys. “Kenny Tran, Alex Rodriguez.”

“The baseball player?” one lawyer asked, somewhat surprised.

“Yes,” Ruderman said.

Even though a cavalcade of stars kept joining the circuit, things were souring and the atmosphere turning ugly. By 2009, Ruderman had had enough. The game was up and the chips were down.

Once his clients discovered that their savings had been squandered, an FBI investigation into the fund’s finances revealed the shadowy world of the A-list gambling club. Ruderman surrendered to prosecutors in Los Angeles and confessed to bilking investors out of $25 million in a Ponzi scheme and using $5.2 million of that money to settle poker debts.

He was sentenced to 10 years in jail for two counts of wire fraud and two counts of investment adviser fraud and ordered to repay his investors, something he is unable to do.

That, though, was not the final paragraph in the story, just the end of a chapter.

Investors in his hedge fund – whose money Ruderman taken to pay his debts – got to thinking. If the games were unlicensed and illegal, any transactions from the games were void. Investors’ money handed to winning players like Maguire could be clawed back through civil suits.

This was an unexpected twist. Getting a fish like Ruderman to swim upstream had seemed a smart idea at the start. Now it didn’t look so clever.

As one player recounted: “The irony of it all is that the game finally found the biggest fish ever, Ruderman, and we did our best to bury him every week and win his millions. Now those who fleeced him of millions are embroiled in this lawsuit. It’s like he turned the tables on us with no skill, just sheer stupidity.”

The civil cases soon found their targets. Cassavetes, Salomon and Welcome Back, Kotter star Gabe Kaplan were also sued. Details soon started leaking out. It was said that Ruderman lost $311,300 to Maguire, including one losing hand of $110,000 in 2007. The actor countered by saying that his winnings only amounted to around $187,000 and insisted he lost nearly as much as he won.

Hollywood-watchers were gearing themselves up for the full public hearing, where all the details would come out. But it never happened. All players in the ring did the sensible thing and settled. In all, the 22 people who sued to recoup poker winnings received a total of more than $1.75 million. A slew of famous names breathed a sigh of relief. They did not have to appear in court.

That is why Ruderman’s deposition, made before the settlement, is so important in shining a light on the underground poker ring. He says he is only speaking out to help the victims of his crimes, but he knows it is not without risk.

When Ruderman surrendered to FBI agents after being charged, he was concerned players would try to kill him.

One player turned up unannounced at Ruderman’s home before he turned himself in. But Ruderman wouldn’t open the door. “Couldn’t take the chance,” he said. “I had no idea if he had any other intentions in mind. At that time, I didn’t know, you know, who wanted to do what to me.”

Others were equally fearful. After Ruderman was arrested, Bloom left him phone messages. He told lawyers: “She said, ‘Call me.  We need to talk.  I heard about what happened, and I have to talk to you.’”

Bloom herself relocated to New York that year to set up a new operation for Wall Street brokers. Russian mobsters are said to have joined in and violence ensued, during which Bloom was said to have been roughed up. Some insiders believe the gangsters wanted to intimidate Bloom before she was questioned by feds.

Hollywood’s A-list poker kings may have been spared the indignity of appearances in open court, but Ruderman, the man they regarded as a sucker, has had the last laugh.

Ruderman is no angel. He defrauded people out of millions and ruined lives. But at least he had the dignity to speak out.

As he says in his deposition: “My testimony, both on the record and off the record, is always first and foremost, with the victims in mind.  My actions, I have to take consequences for them, and whatever happens happens.  But it’s the victims that matter first.”

Late nights at Tobey Maguire’s will never be the same again.

Andrew Garfield isn’t the only Spider-Man in town.

The 28-year-old Brit is starring in The Amazing Spider-Man, opening around the world on June 3. But he’s just one of many celebrities who’ve donned the superhero’s red and blue suit.

From Beyonce to former Spider-Man actor Tobey Maguire, several Hollywood stars have been snapped in all their Spidey glory — click through the gallery above to see them.

Let’s just hope those celebs had an easier time with their costumes than Garfield did…

The actor, who’s currently dating his Amazing Spider-Man costar Emma Stone, recently revealed that he had trouble using the restroom when he was in costume.

“It sucks,” he said on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. “Spandex isn’t fun.”

If his skin-tight costume wasn’t bad enough, Garfield had an onset photographer tailing him on the set. Fortunately, the lenseman had a sense of humor, and the two ended up taking some very creative photos.

“We had a Day in the Life of Spider-Man. I was so frustrated certain days in that suit that I needed to do something stupid,” Garfield recalled. “So we just went around the Sony lot. I think there’s one of me taking a s***.”

This sexy story just gets better with time!

Leonardo DiCaprio and his real-life buddy Tobey Maguire get all tuxed up for their roles in The Great Gatsby as they both vie for the affections of Carey Mulligan‘s infamous literary character Daisy Buchanan.

Set to be released this Christmas, the movie (headed up by Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann) features gorgeous costumes and lots of glitz. Oh, and a steamy sex scene between Leo and Carey.

If you’re unfamiliar with the F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby is about:

Midwesterner Nick Carraway (Tobey) is lured into the lavish world of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby (Leo). A love triangle then arises between Nick, Jay and Daisy (Carey). Soon enough, however, Carraway will see through the cracks of Gatsby’s nouveau riche existence, where obsession, madness, and tragedy await.

Given the beloved book’s story line and what we’ve seen from the Sydney, Australia set, will this flick be a hit? Gives us your opinions in the comments, and check out the trailer below:

Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and a slew of Hollywood identities can rest assured — the secrets of their illegal high-stakes poker games won’t be spilled in a Los Angeles court.

Twenty-two people who sued to recoup poker winnings from a crooked hedge fund manager have all settled their cases for a total of more than $1.75 million, Celebuzz has exclusively learned.

“All of the poker defendant cases are settled,” confirmed Howard Ehrenberg, the bankruptcy trustee who sued Maguire and others in a bid to claw back as much as $5.2 million they won from Ponzi schemer Bradley Ruderman, at underground poker games.

“The settlement of every poker related case without having had to incur the cost of taking any of them to trial means that the fund available for the victims has been maximized.”

Ruderman bilked investors out of $44 million in a wire fraud scheme before he was caught, in 2009.

The con man, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail, in 2010, spent at least $8.7 million of investor money on personal expenses, including a summer rental in Malibu and two Porsches. He lost $5.2 of the fund in Texas Hold ‘Em games played on a regular basis at the homes of the Tinsel town card sharks, including Maguire’s, or in five-star hotels in Beverly Hills, such as The Four Seasons, between 2006 and 2009.

Ruderman wrote checks and wire transfers to Spiderman star Maguire, totaling $311,200 to cover poker losses, according to one of the lawsuits filed and later settled. Maguire, 36, was one of the first to settle, agreeing to fork over $80,000 to be dropped from the litigation.

In total, Ehrenberg was able to settle the cases for roughly 30 cents on the dollar. The money will be used to repay victims of the scheme, which Maguire and other players were unaware of.

“To be completely clear: Three of the cases were resolved by default or bankruptcy, so the funds recovered are from 19 cases,” said Ehrenberg.

Other celebrities targeted in a lawsuit launched last June were The Notebook director Nick Cassavetes, Welcome Back, Kotter star Gabe Kaplan, Paris Hilton‘s ex-boyfriend and sex tape partner, Rick Salomon, and record label owner Cody Leibel.

Other A-list stars, including New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, were tied to the poker games, with had a $50,000 buy-in — but like DicCaprio, Affleck and Damon, he was not sued.

Whilst details of the ring’s inner workings won’t get a public airing, Celebuzz has viewed the FBI’s nearly 1,000-page dossier on the case which identified Maguire as the shadowy club’s “best player.”

The sensational files on the sophisticated and organized illegal poker group were created when Los Angeles-based agents spoke to Ruderman, who became their ultimate snitch.

As part of his confession to the Ponzi scheme, Ruderman ratted out Maguire, declaring: “Tobey Maguire is the best player and a winner.”

Ruderman also turned over to the Feds a trove of evidence, including eight boxes of documents and computer drives, which revealed how he wrote seven checks in total to Maguire during a period of just 10 months, from July, 2007, to May, 2008.

Ruderman also sang like a bird to FBI agents Jeremy Tarwater and Steve Goldman about the poker group’s ringleader, Molly Bloom, in the hope that turning informant would deliver him a more lenient sentence for his white-collar crimes.

He said Bloom, the 33-year-old brunette dubbed the ‘Princess of Poker’, preyed on him because he was ”not a good gambler.”

Bloom “was very aggressive to get me to keep playing,” Ruderman said in the interview with the Feds, on April 30, 2009.

Look out Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, there’s a new Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson.

While Tobey, 36, and Kirsten, 30, captured our hearts in 2002 with their upside down kiss, real-life couple Emma Stone, 23, and Andrew Garfield, 28, are absolutely adorable in the upcoming trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man, hitting theaters this summer, July 3.

Though it’s hard to compete with the Spider-Man/Mary Jane smooch, there’s is a bit of competition with the new cast.

Check out both kisses below and let us know which kiss is your fave in the comments! Cast your vote!

First up, Tobey and Kirsten:

Now for the newbies, Emma and Andrew:

In these outfits, the cast of The Great Gatsby looks ready to hit the red carpet for award season! Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire were all tuxed-up as they shot a formal party scene in Sydney, Australia on Friday alongside the lovely Carey Mulligan who was stunning in a gold gown.

 Get a good look at these set pics, because the film isn’t set to come out until Christmas Day 2012! If you’re unfamiliar with the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby is about: 

Midwesterner Nick Carraway (Tobey) who is lured into the lavish world of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby (Leo). Soon enough, however, Carraway will see through the cracks of Gatsby’s nouveau riche existence, where obsession, madness, and tragedy await.

A love triangle arises between Nick, Jay and Daisy Buchanan (Carey). Given the beloved book’s story line and what we’ve seen from the Sydney set, will this flick be a hit? Gives us your opinions in the comments!

We don’t know about you guys, but we can’t for this movie to hit the big screen!

Tobey Maguire was spotted in Australia on set of his latest film, the Baz Luhrmann directed adaptation of The Great Gatsby, and looked rather dapper in a brown, three-piece suit.

Also starring in the film (out Christmas 2012) is Tobey’s good friend Leonardo DiCaprio, who was seen hanging at his Aussie pad with a mystery woman on Monday. While we weren’t sure who she was at first, it looks like her identity has been revealed!

The mystery brunette has been identified as Madalina Ghenea. While we don’t know much about her, we do know they make one gorgeous duo!

Check out the photos of their down under hang out sesh below.

Do you think these two are dating? Let us know in the comments!