Warren Beatty Fumes as New Book Calculates His Bedroom Stats: '12,775 Women, Give or Take'

Wonderwall, Monday, January 4, 2010, 8:11am (PST)

By Kat Giantis

Warren Beatty hasn't just been around the block. He's worn a groove in the block, repaved it countless times and had it renamed in his honor.

Now with his 73rd birthday fast approaching and his notorious playboy days long behind him, has the characteristically close-to-the-chest-playing Oscar winner decided to open up about the mind-blowing number of notches on his bedpost?

Not according to his attorney, who is taking issue with claims that Peter Biskind's new biography, "Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America," has been authorized by the formerly bed-hopping big-screen icon.

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In a statement to the Huffington Post, Bertram Fields, Beatty's legal pit bull, dismisses the tome as "tedious and boring," contending that it "contains many false assertions and purportedly quotes Mr. Beatty as saying things he never said. Other media should not repeat things from the book on the assumption that they are true or that the book is an authorized biography."

One of the "things" from the bio that the actor's lawyer is likely referring to is its staggering conquest tally, which Biskind quantifies using "simple arithmetic" (and, we hope, plenty of protection), according to the New York Post.

The supposed magic number: "12,775 women, give or take, a figure that does not include daytime quickies, drive-bys, casual gropings, stolen kisses and so on."

What that figure does apparently include is such famous names as Madonna, Jane Fonda, Julie Christie, Diane Keaton, Joan Collins and Annette Bening, for whom Beatty renounced his famed bachelor status when they wed in 1992 (they have four children).

And so, with a boulder-sized grain of salt, we offer up a few highlights (or, in Warren's opinion, lowlights), from the hot-and-heavy book, which hits stores this week.

How he was initially misjudged by Jane Fonda:

"I thought he was gay." That's Fonda, recalling the quick, heat-free kiss Beatty gave her during his audition for a film called "Parrish" in 1960. When the director urged him, "Grab her, boy, grab her. Don't be shy," he did just that. They soon began dating, and he eventually adopted the director's advice as a personal motto, writes Biskind.

How he seduced (and exhausted) Joan Collins:

While dining out one night in Los Angeles with Fonda, Beatty, then 22, spied older woman Collins. Faster than you can say, "See ya, Jane," they were an item (and engaged in 1961). But Warren's carnal appetite was apparently "too much of a good thing" for the actress, asserts the author: "One Sunday morning, exhausted, she stumbled out of bed. Dragging on a forbidden cigarette, she said, 'I don't think I can last much longer. He never stops -- it must be all those vitamins he takes."

How he was teased by Madonna and her pals:

Madonna, who fell for Beatty's well-honed charms after he gave her the role of Breathless Mahoney in his 1990 flick "Dick Tracy," would "drag" the then-53-year-old out to gay clubs, where she would attempt to goad him into cutting a rug. "We would taunt him, say things to make him uncomfortable. In a loving way," remembers the Big M's onetime galpal, Sandra Bernhard. "He was a perfect target, because he played the befuddled old man with her: 'Wha?' 'Huh?' 'What's all this craziness?' The whole relationship was a performance."

How he supposedly maintained an active social life during his long-term relationship with Julie Christie:

While shooting 1974's "The Parallax View," Warren allegedly entertained a variety of young ladies off-camera. "Some of the girls outside Beatty's trailer who got past the door were not particularly attractive," an intern who worked on the film maintains to Biskind, "especially since Julie Christie, who was doing 'Uncle Vanya' on Broadway, was flying in to spend every weekend with him. Some were chubby, some had hints of mustaches on their upper lips. Some had the errant pimple or mole or other blemishes."

How he bowled over Diane Keaton:

"I wasn't the Warren Beatty type, but there I was. He was just so ... overwhelming in every way," Keaton is quoted as telling Biskind. "I remember looking at his face and going, 'How am I here with this?' The brilliance and the talent, you get caught up in it."

How he reacted the first time he met Annette Bening during her audition for "Bugsy":

"He let out this growl," recollects writer-director James Toback, "a primordial yelp of love, lust, desire, enthusiasm, a sound that one would expect a starving man to make at the prospect of finally being able to devour a huge and delicious meal."

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