Girl Talk with loved ones

THE PENN-ULTIMATE LOVE
 
 There was a lot of girl talk goin' on at the Alliance bash Friday night, where the ROM lawn became a posh barbecue of lamb chops and Cornish hen for diners Robert Lantos, Jennifer Dale and William Hurt.
 
 Inside, surrounded by Ming Dynasty artifacts, Robin Wright Penn examined another age-old topic from the self-help aisles: Women Who Love Too Much.
 
 "Unconditional love is a pure feeling," declared Penn. "It's very rare..."
 
 "...and we live in an age where it is criticized," added Erin Dignam, who directed Penn in the festival flick, Loved.
 
 Also here for She's So Lovely -- another film about emotional love entanglements -- Penn tried to "not explain love, but question it."
 
 Penn -- wife of former bad boy Sean Penn -- knows of what she speaks.
 
 "I hope Loved helps women question their relationships," said the actress.
 
 "But it's so funny," she smiled. "Biological studies say men love once and only once, whereas women can duplicate that love. Maybe it's part of being a mother. I don't know if men can love like a mother loves."
 
 BEAUTIFUL BABIES
 
 Beautiful people who braved the packed Perspective Canada party at CITY-TV included Matthew Modine, Christina Applegate, Alec Baldwin and the princess of pout, Kim Basinger.
 
 But the most beautiful of them all was Vince Vaughn (The Lost World), the Frank Sinatra-like swinger from Swingers.
 
 Standing tall (6-foot-3), and hip (glowing cig dangling loosely from lips), Vaughn obliged fans with his signature Swingers phrases: "Beautiful babies," he cooed to blushing women, "you are so money!"
 
 So is he. What we didn't know was that his gorgeousness was sorta homemade.
 
 "My family is from Brantford, Ontario, originally," Vaughn proudly divulged, "and my parents were married in Hamilton."
 
 Here to shoot A Cool Dry Place, Vaughn spent down-time visiting relatives and seeing the sights.
 
 "I went to the Bata Shoe Museum," he said. "I like to see museums and history."
 
 And that ain't all. This month's Details cover story on Vaughn begins with his search for our famed stripping establishment, The Brass Rail.
 
 "Oh yeah," he winks, "saw that, too."