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Early in his career, actor Christian Slater was often compared to Jack Nicholson, but he soon broke free of that unintended shadow and became a star in his own right.

Having acted since he was 9, he experienced sudden fame after the release of “Heathers” in 1988. But with fame came trouble and as a young man he had several run-ins with the law. Since he turned 40 last month, those are distant memories. Slater has been married and divorced, and he has two children. He stars in ABC’s new crime drama, “The Forgotten,” which airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m.

Excerpts from an interview:

Q. Does turning 40 stir up any regrets or resolutions?

A. Well, let’s see, I think it just stirs up, you know. You live long enough, you have experiences, you do the journey and hopefully by the time you get to 40 you are a little bit wiser. Obviously, it’s a reflective time. I was thinking I no longer want to be identified with what it is I do for a living, but how I behave as a man.

Q. You’ve already been through a lot. Do you think you might be immune to the midlife-crisis syndrome?

A. We’ll see. It would be nice to be immune to something.

Q. Were you at all reluctant to get involved in another crime drama because there are so many on TV now?

A. Sure. I mean when I read the script and saw the character I did feel emotionally connected to this guy, Alex Donovan. I like the premise of the show. I thought it was very interesting, and I do like crime-story types of shows and books. …

People love crime stories and these kinds of shows. This one is a little different in the fact that these people aren’t experts by any means. They are kind of volunteers who are doing this for their own personal reasons and to heal whatever wounds they have within themselves. They are all trying to fill a particular void they have within themselves.

Q. I’m wondering what your emotional connection to the character of Alex was when you read the script.

A. He’s a guy who has gone through something that is extraordinarily difficult. I’ve never gone through anything quite as extreme as he’s gone through.

I mean, his daughter was kidnapped at the age of 8. She’s always on his mind.

Every time he gets involved with one of the cases, he’s looking for either some answers to his own situation, or the opportunity to give closure to the other families he’s dealing with. Closure he’s been unable to find himself.

via Q&A: Christian Slater getting past his past | recordonline.com.

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Tyler Perry took to his website to reveal in a letter to his fans his childhood physical and sexual abuse.

Hi there.

I know I’ve been a little quiet lately but I’ve been in silent reflection, quiet meditation, and prayer. Turning 40 is such a blessing. Especially because as I child I always thought I would die before I grew up.

If life begins at 40, then I owe the little boy that I was my life. Case in point, not long ago, I was brought a film to watch to see what I thought of it. It’s called PRECIOUS, based on the novel PUSH by Sapphire. I sat at home watching this movie not knowing what to expect. After the movie was over, I sat there for a long time just thinking about what I had just witnessed. I watched all the things that Precious, a 16-year-old girl in the film, went through. I watched her mother be unusually cruel to her and I realized at that moment that a large part of my childhood had just played out before my eyes. It hit me so hard, I sat there in tears realizing that somehow, by the grace of God, I made it through. My tears were tears of joy, being thankful that I made it.

Believe me when I tell you, PRECIOUS is a powerful film. After seeing it, I had to be involved. I didn’t write it or direct it, nor am I making any money from it. Oprah and I both are giving any proceeds we would make to charity. I just wanted to get as many people to see it as I can. It gave me so much hope after watching it. For everyone who has been a Precious, male or female, this movie will make you so glad you made it through.

It took me through some raw emotions and brought me to some things and places in my life that I needed to deal with but had long forgotten. It brought back memories so strong that I can smell and taste them. Like, when I was very young, my mother decided to leave my father…she had had enough of his insanity. She loaded me and my two sisters up in an old Cadillac that he had bought for her, and drove to California. When he realized she was gone, he called the police and reported the car stolen, as it was in his name. My mother was arrested and my two sisters and I were put in the cell with her. He and my uncle drove from Louisiana to California to get us. We spent several days in jail waiting for him. He bailed her out and couldn’t wait to get her into the car. He got into the back seat with us and beat her black and blue from California to Louisiana, as me and my sisters watched  Even though I was only two or three, I know that this had to have some effect on me.

I’m tired of holding this in. I don’t know what to do with it anymore, so, I’ve decided to give some of it away…

Brett Favre held his weekly press conference Wednesday and naturally he was asked about turning 40 on Saturday.

“I was thinking coming out to practice today, ‘You know, I’m about to turn 40, I don’t need to be out here practicing today,” he said, laughing. “Of course I was out here practicing. I’m just thankful that I am still able to do it and up to this point do it at a high-level. I think that is a pretty good testament.”

Favre said he doesn’t have any special birthday plans.

“For the most part, for the past 19 years, all of the holidays, including my birthday, I’m either playing or getting ready to play,” he said. “It’s no different this week… unless Brad [Childress] is going to throw me a big party. I think it deserves something. I really do. I am going to throw that out there. Forty. [laughs]”

Favre will become only the 17th quarterback in league history to play after turning 40. Only one quarterback in NFL history has made the Pro Bowl at age 40 or older (Warren Moon in 1997). None has started a playoff game.

Favre obviously is still playing at a high level. He ranks third in the NFL in passer rating after four games.

via Favre talks about turning 40 | StarTribune.com.

In 1969 Richard Nixon became president, the “Miracle” Mets won the World Series, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the very first lunar stroll, and Led Zeppelin’s debut album was released. In addition to these historic events, 1969 was also the birth year of several Hollywood A-listers, including Jennifer Aniston, Renee Zellweger, Cate Blanchett, and this month’s birthday girl, Catherine Zeta-Jones.

While there are plenty of reasons to venerate the year 1969, there is one catch to having it be your birth year. And that would be that the time has now come to bid your 30s adieu and face the most dreaded of b-days, the big 4-uh-0. Up until not too long ago, turning 40 in Hollywood meant that an actress’ career was about to enter a middle age induced coma.

“There are only three ages in Hollywood: babe, district attorney, and ‘Driving Miss Daisy,’” an indicative, little wisdom pearl from Goldie Hawn’s character in the 1996 comedy “The First Wives Club.” Fortunately, however, turning 40 in Hollywood is no longer likened to having leprosy. The aforementioned quadragenarian actresses are still among the most beautiful and most bankable stars in the industry, and they are showing plenty of staying power.

Born on September 25, 1969, Catherine Zeta-Jones, a native of South Whales, was born to parents Patricia, an Irish seamstress, and David “Dai” Jones, a Welsh candy factory owner. As a child, Catherine got her first taste of acting while performing as Tallulah in “Bugsy Malone” and in the Swansea Grand Theater’s production of “Annie.” Her interest in theater quickly developed into a full blown zest, so she decided to enroll at “The Arts Educational Schools” in Chiswick, West London.

Carter Smith/ELLE

When we were first introduced to Gwen Stefani she was a young, aspiring star. She was a single woman, and had all the time, ambition, talent and style she needed to take the music scene by storm. Nearly 15 years after No Doubt’s breakthrough album, Gwen is now a household name, pulling double duty as a wife and mom of two while managing a stratospheric music career and mega-successful clothing, accessories and fragrance brands, L.A.M.B. and Harajuku Lovers. A hot, trendy, musical mom with a fashion empire? One might say Gwen has it all.

Now that Ms. Stefani has reunited with her old bandmates, she reflects on her long career journey and making the huge transformation from young, single rocker, to full-time married mom in the latest issue of ELLE. And from the looks of it, running a household while maintaining a career as a superstar hasn’t been easy.

On being a mom: “It’s one thing when you have an infant, but when you have this two-or three-year-old going, ‘Mommy, what’s the deal?’ it’s harder. Kingston’s whole thing is, ‘I need, I need.’ He is insane right now. We’re just hoping for the best and that he’s not going to turn out to be a freak, but we’ll see.”

ELLE

On how her priorities changed from band to family: “I wasn’t even married. Now I’m a wife and a mother of two. It’s a really different role. I always referred to No Doubt as a marriage, because that’s what it’s like to be together for so long and go through what we’ve been through. I can’t really have that relationship with them anymore. My priorities are always going to be my husband and my family now. That’s a huge, huge thing.”

On turning 40 and potentially losing her touch: “I just feel very in between at the moment. Like in my cocoon waiting to blossom into whatever’s going to be. But like, I’m screwed right now, okay? I’m so screwed. I might never be able to write another song. Who knows? I did try. So here we are, going on tour without a new record.”

On joining No Doubt amid a mostly male ska/punk scene: “Whenever I went on stage there was the automatic assumption that I couldn’t get the audience going because I was a girl. I just ignored that, like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to be all made up, and I’m going to destroy you.’”

On leaving No Doubt: “Everybody’s making it like there’s all this new tension, you know, like I stepped away from the band and now they’re jealous of me, and look, maybe there is a little bit of that.”

On being a celebrity: “Obviously, I’m not anything more than I am. I’m just, like, totally normal. The fact that any of this has happened, that we’re sitting here at the Beverly Hills Hotel just gets me going, like, What?”

For more on Gwen Stefani’s life as a rocker mom, head over to ELLE.com

BY Patrick Huguenin

Brown/Getty

Jennifer Aniston celebrates her 40th birthday on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, one of the most scrutinized women in Hollywood faces the most scrutinized of Hollywood birthdays. Jennifer Aniston turns the big 4-0.

But when it comes to the actor made internationally famous by “Friends,” whose easy onscreen relatability is matched by her guarded public persona, true feelings about the milestone are hard to divine.

She has discussed turning 40 for the past year, sticking to blithe declarations that she has never felt better. (A nude GQ ­cover seemed designed to prove it.)

Here and there, though, cracks in her interviews revealed reactions to one of the most humiliating breakups in all of stardom — when she split from hubby Brad Pitt after he took up with Angelina Jolie on the set of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” in 2005. The tabloid catastrophe left Aniston serially single while the Jolie-Pitts trot the globe with an ever-expanding family.

But as a rule, Aniston is stoically ­smiley. In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres last week, Aniston admitted that the sight of one of her long gray hairs “brought me to tears slightly,” but then it was back to the usual ­sunny subjects: fitness, her best friend Courteney Cox Arquette, flimsy allusions to her current romance with John Mayer.

To assume that the star is not where she would have wanted to be by 40 is foolish. At the very least, it ignores the scale of her success — 10 seasons on one of the most famous TV shows in history. Worse, it ascribes to her an outmoded schedule on which she must have kids and “settle down” before she begins a process of aging that, for any celeb besides Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep, seems shrouded in dread.

“I don’t like to plan for anything,” Aniston has said. “I’ve never been a woman who dreamed about getting married and having children and having that house in Connecticut.”

While she has worked steadily since the “Friends” finale in 2004, the breakout role that distinguishes Aniston from her girl-next-door character, Rachel, has yet to materialize.

Her movie career, Vogue once wrote, promised to “breathe new life into the romantic comedy,” but it is a different kind of comic — the Tina Feys and Judd Apatows — who are credited with administering rom-com CPR. In fact, the only awards Aniston has won since “Friends” have been Teen and People’s Choice.

Nevertheless — or perhaps precisely because she has not rocketed to Angelina-level Academy accolades — Aniston remains one of the most recognizable and talked-about celebrities in the world.

On “Friends,” she wasn’t neurotic like Monica or kooky like Phoebe, and her relative ordinariness made her the heroine of the show. Just so, the fact that Aniston isn’t an ethereal do-gooder, that she seems to have trouble with this whole dating thing, and that she still has to work to be taken seriously as an actress, make her all the more important to her fans.

It may be true that, for Aniston, 40 isn’t the point where a string of superlatives and relationship successes add up to pop perfection — why should they?

Every time Aniston tells an interviewer she has never felt better in her life, the current of another message rises to the surface: She isn’t finished yet.