To paraphrase Eric Cartman, Gerard Butler is a dirty hippie. I’d never realized this before, and I’m one his most devoted fangirls. So what makes Gerry such a dirty, sexy, rotten hippie? He totally meditates with Deepak Chopra, and talks about his missing “spirituality” and how “the universe” rewards his “energy”. Of course the universe rewarded his energy. If I was the universe, I would spank his energy and nail it to the wall. The universe is horny for Gerry.

Anway, this new dirty hippie information comes to us via Gerry’s new, wide-ranging interview with the Telegraph. If you like him, I’d suggest reading the entire piece, it’s quite good. If not, here are some the highlights: Gerry compares himself to Spencer Tracy, talks about his single status, and how he’s gotten rid of his ego.

‘Gerry is the movie’s secret weapon,’ Karen McCullah Lutz, one of the film’s writers, says. ‘He’s the guy guys want to be and girls want to be with.’ Butler plays Mike Chadway, a handsome, grizzly-voiced chauvinist who becomes a guest commentator on a morning television show produced by the romantically challenged Abby (Heigl), sending its ratings through the roof.

When he takes it upon himself to help Abby find love, it has some very funny – and fairly predictable – consequences. Butler’s performance is witty and heart-warming. It’s Mel Gibson meets Cary Grant, where twink­ling masculinity and wry sensitivity collide.

‘I like to see myself more as a Spencer Tracy type,’ Butler says. ‘As an actor, I think I can tick several different genre boxes. At the moment, I just happen to be finding comedies kind of irresistible.’

‘When I started out, I’m not sure I was actually in it for the right reasons,’ Butler says. ‘I wanted very much to be famous. I did expect to succeed and I did have faith that I would. In reality, though, it has turned out to be something very different to what I wanted. It’s the work and not the adulation that has proved to be the most fulfilling.’

An inevitable by-product of his celebrity is romantic speculation: Butler has been linked to Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz and Naomi Campbell – all denied by him. He is currently single.

When he isn’t working, Butler struggles with himself. ‘The space in between the jobs is the hard part. I don’t know how to live a normal life and make it so full-on, so exciting. That’s what I want to learn to do.’

In true Hollywood style, Butler has devoted a great deal of time and energy to working on himself in recent years. ‘A couple of years ago, I realised that my career was going brilliantly and yet I wasn’t happy at all,’ he says. ‘I went into extreme analysis and I realised that what I was missing was a certain spirituality. I have spent so much of my life thinking, how am I doing? How am I being perceived? What’s my success level? And I needed to rid myself of that ego.’

He has received one-on-one meditation training from Deepak Chopra, spiritual guru to the stars, and been very influenced by the self-help phenomenon The Secret, a film and subsequent book whose central tenet is that there is a universal intelligence that responds to our desires. ‘Things began to turn around for me when I naturally started seeing myself in jobs,’ Butler says. ‘The universe rewarded that energy by matching it.’

[From Telegraph]

Dude, I believe in the power of visualization and positive thinking, and God knows I have deep breathing “meditatation” techiniques that I employ when I want to rip someone’s head off, but it’s a bit rich for Gerry to claim he owes his career to positive thinking or whatever. He’s a hard worker, he’s a professional, he’s a good actor, and he doesn’t take himself too seriously – that’s why he’s a success. But I do think it’s kind of cool that Gerry is concerned with his own spirituality. He’s not just concerned with nailing every woman he meets. Although there was this little tidbit in Pop Tarts’ “Seen & Heard” this morning: “Gerard Butler asking his manager to get the number of a hot redhead reporter in the lunch break of his press day for “The Ugly Truth” at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills on Friday.” Damn it! I wish I were a redheaded hippie reporter, spanking Gerard Butler’s “universe”. Must. Visualize.

Here’s Gerald Butler filming a parade scene in Brooklyn for his new film “The Bounty” on Friday. Images thanks to Mavrix.