The daily gossip: Alec Baldwin wanted to kill Tony Soprano, Kate Winslet refused to have her stomach edited, and more

1. Alec Baldwin wanted to kill Tony Soprano

While watching The Sopranos, Alec Baldwin wanted to get himself a gun — and whack Tony. On the podcast Talking Sopranos, the actor recalled pushing to get cast on the HBO show as a character who would kill Tony Soprano. "There is only one man who should whack" Tony, Baldwin remembered declaring, "and I am that man." Obviously, it didn't work out. He wasn't cast, and Baldwin says the response he got was essentially, "Great, we'll add your name to the list of all the Irish actors who think they should be on The Sopranos." Given the series' ambiguous ending, though, the possibility that Baldwin actually did whack Tony and we just didn't see it can't be definitively ruled out.

Vulture The Hollywood Reporter

2. Kate Winslet is unfiltered in Mare of Easttown: 'I think we're starved of that a bit'

Though often the picture of glamour, Kate Winslet went unfiltered for her starring role in Mare of Easttown. The actress told the New York Times her character is "a fully functioning, flawed woman with a body and a face that moves in a way that is synonymous with her age and her life and where she comes from. I think we're starved of that a bit." So when the director proposed cutting "a bulgy bit of belly" from a sex scene, she objected. Winslet also rejected the show's promotion poster twice for being "too retouched." "I know how many lines I have by the side of my eye, please put them all back," she said, making her even more of an icon.

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Entertainment Weekly The New York Times

3. Jay-Z learned to swim so he could save Blue Ivy in an emergency

Jay-Z has proved to be every bit the doting dad to daughter Blue Ivy, from encouraging her to chat with her idols, to making sure she has space to follow her own dreams in a larger-than-life family. He revealed on The Shop: Uninterrupted one of his first acts of fatherly love, which he called a "metaphor for their relationship." After Blue Ivy was born, he decided then, at 42 years old, it was time for him to learn how to swim. "If she ever fell in the water and I couldn't get her, I couldn't even fathom that thought. I gotta learn how to swim. That's it. That was the beginning of our relationship," he said. Though he can swim, the viral photos of him on a jet ski proves he still takes water safety extremely seriously, as he should.

Elle

4. Jeopardy! guest host Mayim Bialik is interested in the permanent gig

What is … bazinga? The Big Bang Theory and Blossom star Mayim Bialik on Monday debuted as the latest guest host of Jeopardy! following Alex Trebek's death, and in a new interview with USA Today, she said she'd be up for taking the gig permanently. "[I] obviously feel very strongly that if people find me tolerable, this is a dream job," she said. The actress and neuroscientist's first episode was warmly received by fans, and now, she's throwing her hat in the ring to be Trebek's permanent successor, competing for the job alongside contenders including Ken Jennings, Aaron Rodgers, Anderson Cooper, and LeVar Burton. Presumably, she's working to adjust her pronunciation of the word "genre" as we speak.

USA Today

5. Dolly Parton sleeps in her makeup just in case

Looking absolutely fabulous isn't just a 9 to 5 job for Dolly Parton. The country music legend told WSJ Magazine that unlike us mere mortals, "I don't wear sweatpants," and she also revealed that she tries to "keep my makeup on at night." After all, she said, "I never know if there's going to be an earthquake or a tornado or a storm and I'm going to have to go out in the middle of the night!" Just keep in mind next time you see a disaster movie where the stars look a bit too beautiful for the circumstances — in Dolly's case, it would actually be quite realistic.

The Wall Street Journal ET Canada