After Michelle Rodriguez's weekend visit, the folks at the Mayfair Hotel and Spa in Coconut Grove, Fla., may be rethinking those heavy brass knockers they have on every guest-room door.
Fellow guests at the retreat say they were awakened at 9 a.m. Sunday to loud banging and the dulcet tones of Rodriguez, screaming at her roommate.
"I woke up Sunday morning to the sounds of two women yelling, and one of them was smashing the door knocker very loudly," one exhausted guest tells us. "I peeked out and saw it was (Rodriguez). She's screaming, 'Open up, let me in, b----!'"
The loud knocking continued for another five minutes, says the source, until the "Girlfight" star hollered, "If you don't open up, you're not getting your (pleasure toy) back." The door creaked open.
The actress did not respond to requests for comment.
Over the weekend, Rodriguez was spotted hanging out at the pool and a Friday-night party with a "very pretty" ponytailed Latina, guests say.
Rodriguez has been linked in the past with Vin Diesel and Olivier Martinez, and two years ago, "Terminator 3" star Kristanna Loken hinted in the Advocate that she and the tempestuous temptress had become lovers while shooting "BloodRayne" together in Romania. Last April, Rodriguez told Latina mag, "If I wanna (bleep) a girl, a boy, a dog, that's my business."
Raised a Jehovah's Witness along with 10 siblings, Rodriguez plays angry well, in such films as "Girlfight" and "Battle in Seattle." But when her temper erupts in her personal life, the 30-year-old gets in trouble with the law.
She was arrested in 2002 after allegedly assaulting her roommate, who later changed her mind about pressing charges. In 2004, Rodriguez pleaded guilty to hit-and-run and a driving-under-the-influence charge.
While still on probation in 2005, the actress was again busted for DUI while filming "Lost" in Oahu. She spent five days in a Hawaiian jail on the DUI, and infamously, one day in L.A. on the probation violation -- let out because of overcrowding.
Last year, Rodriguez was sentenced to 180 days in the L.A. slammer after admitting she hadn't done her community service and alcohol education program. It must be really crowded in those L.A. jails, because she was again let out, after just eight days.
'CHE!' WILL FIND LATIN VIEWERS SIMPATICO, SAYS SODERBERGH
"Che" lives! Some critics thought they'd sentenced Steven Soderbergh's four-hour film about revolutionary Ernesto Guevara to death in May at the Cannes Film Festival. But Soderbergh believes his two-part epic will survive their firing squad.
"If you make a movie like this and nobody's (upset), you're not doing your job," he told us at a screening of the IFC release. "Che's a very polarizing figure. Everybody's got their own idea about him and about what a biographical film ought to be. The more people arguing about it, the better."
The trimmed movie has gotten better reviews in the U.S. But Soderbergh argued that "it really doesn't matter how it does in America" -- that Spanish-speaking audiences abroad will easily recoup the movie's $60 million budget.
Benicio Del Toro, who brilliantly plays the commandante, also shrugs off Variety critic Todd McCarthy, who lashed the flick like a burro.
"As my grandmother used to say, 'No one is better than what he can do' -- he is who he is," sniffed Del Toro at a Plaza Athenee dinner where he and producer Laura Bickford welcomed Mike Myers, Amy Irving, Candice Bergen, Christine Baranski, Elie Wiesel and James Carville.
Also there was Demian Birchir, who plays Fidel Castro, capturing his voice and cigar-waving perfectly. "I listened to Fidel's speeches for breakfast lunch and dinner for five months," said Birchir, who admitted his girlfriend is relieved the film is over. "Sometimes when I go on and on, she says, 'Stop talking to me like Fidel!'"
SIDE DISH
It may be a tear-jerker, but you wouldn't know it. Will Smith and Queen Latifah laughed it up at the L.A. premiere of "The Secret Life of Bees." . . .
"Tom Cruise in da block!" exclaimed a woman on frenzied Broadway and Spring Street. Monday night, explaining the commotion. "And he's got Suri with him!" Photographers clogged the entrance to a custom tailor shop where Cruise was being measured. Eight NYPD cops soon arrived and let them know they could take their L.A. freedom of the paparazzi and shove it down the block. . . .
Chris "Ludacris" Bridges is ahead of the election curve. "I already voted," the hip-hopper tells us. "I think it's very clear who I voted for," he coyly quipped. Given his recent mix-tape song "Politics (Obama Is Here)," which eviscerates John McCain, Hillary Clinton and President Bush, we're pretty sure it's Obama. Responding to the backlash that the track provoked, Luda simply said, "At the end of the day, I was just trying to get people to care enough to register to vote." . . .
Ryan Seacrest is one heck of a wingman. The "American Idol" host was hanging with pals Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell at Mokai in Miami last Friday night when he decided to help out a male patron chatting with a pretty brunette. "I have never seen (name redacted) happier than when he's with you," Seacrest told the lass, who blushed and giggled. Seacrest's endorsement worked: The couple were liplocked moments afterward. . . .
Madonna may be 50, but her energy Monday night was closer to that of a 21-year-old. The bikini-and-fishnet-clad Material Girl paused during her Madison Square Garden concert to down two small shots from a dancer's hip flask before heading back to jump rope, grind a female dancer and (rightfully so) berate a few sitting gentlemen in the front rows. "Are you (bleeping) bored, sir? Why are you sitting? I'm busting my ass up here," Madge said, before joking to the audience, "Clap for me! My ego is bruised now!" . . .
Hmmm ... "Girls next Door" star Holly Madison, who broke up with Hugh Hefner, nevertheless was looking at nursery furniture at Petit Tresor in L.A.
With Sean Evans and Shallon Lester. Edited by Lance D. Debler.
(Got a hot tip? Send confidential e-mail to rushmolloy@nydailynews.com)
