He’s said to be dating Jennifer Aniston — his co-star on “The Bounty Hunter” — but on the set of the movie in New York, Gerard Butler gave another “actress” plenty of attention.
Erica, who works at Midtown’s upscale strip joint Rick’s Cabaret, was paid $2,000 with three other women to play exotic dancers during a scene shot at a Bronx jiggle joint. The Kazakhstan-born blonde says that most of the female extras on the set were all over Butler during the three-day shoot, trying to strike up a conversation with the actor or take a photo. And although Erica says she found Butler irresistible — “I love his eyes and his beard” — and that she often caught the actor staring at her, she kept her distance.
“We didn’t really talk in the beginning,” she says.
But on the second day, when, perhaps not coincidentally, Aniston was not on-set, Butler sprang into action. He followed Erica outside during a break and asked, “How come everybody is talking to me but you?”
“I guess I was playing hard to get when all the other girls were trying to talk to him,” she says.
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Erica resisted his advances, and says, “I really think he was going to ask me out if I didn’t run away.”
Erica, asked to be referred to by her stage name, is counting on seeing the hunk again. Several girls who worked on the film claim Butler promised to come visit them at work once “The Bounty Hunter” hits theaters this week.
If that meeting happens, it will be just another day’s work for Butler. Ever since he shot to fame in the movie “300” in 2007, the 40-year-old Scot has been going through the ladies at such a clip, he’s become better known for his flirtatious ways than that other thing he does, which, according to his bio found on the Internet, is acting.
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The 6-foot-2 hunk splits his time between Scotland, LA and New York, where he owns a $2.6 million penthouse on West 19th Street and was recently spotted checking out the digs at 45 Bond St.
When he’s not sweet-talking women on set, Butler likes to hit the town. On March 1, he attended Cosmopolitan’s “Fun Fearless Men of 2010” party, where he was spotted chatting up magazine staffers. He then rolled to downtown hot spot Butter, accompanied by his wingman, “Twilight” hottie Kellan Lutz, who is 16 years his junior.
According to one major Manhattan night-life operator, Butler plays it fairly low-key. He doesn’t drink, and he “comes in by himself, usually with a buddy. He’s not an entourage guy.”
But, the source continues, “He loves women.” Chasing women, in fact, is “probably his favorite past-time.”
The actor often leaves parties alone, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be alone for long. A former employee at the Meatpacking District’s debauched (and now defunct) Jane Ballroom says that, after hitting on a lovely young thing all night, the Scot suggested an exit strategy, saying: “Hey, I’m feeling you. Can you meet me on the corner, cause I can’t be seen leaving here with you.”
Other times, the star — whose favorite pickup line is, reportedly, “Have you seen ‘300?’ ” — is more upfront. In addition to extras and co-stars, he also loves flirting with journalists.
Five years ago, a 20-something reporter interviewing Butler for Scotland’s Daily Record met up with the Scot at Hampstead Heath — a hilly London parkland locale of his choosing. She found him lying on the grass with his hands behind his head, she told The Post.
“Do you want to get jiggy with it now or shall we leave it till later?” Butler asked tongue-in-cheek. (His tongue in his own cheek, for a change.)
He was “incorrigibly flirtatious,” the journalist says.
Another UK showbiz reporter recalls being asked by Butler during a 2007 interview if she “mixed business with pleasure?”
“He did it in a deliberately cheesy way, with an arch of the eyebrows, so that I could take it as a joke — or not,” says the reporter, who did not want to be named because she still covers movies and celebrities.
“I have a very vivid image of looking back at him as I left the room, and he was staring at my bum. When he saw I’d clocked him, he just winked and shrugged.”
“There’s something about fame, when you get it late in life, you have fun with it,” says Noel Ashman, owner of the now-shuttered West Village club The Plumm, where Butler occasionally hung out.
Butler was a ripe 36 when he first achieved massive international fame as the ripped Spartan King Leonidas in “300.” (Recent paparazzi photos suggest that a spare tire has replaced his old washboard.)
He and his brother and sister were raised by his mother in Paisley, Scotland. His father left the family when Butler was 2, and the actor did not have contact with him again until 14 years later. The never-married Butler has blamed his commitment issues with women on his father’s abandonment.
As a young man, Butler studied law at Glasgow University. He later joined a firm in Edinburgh. But after seeing a stage performance of “Trainspotting,” Butler decided he wanted to pursue acting. He gave up practicing law and shortly began winning British stage and screen roles, including 1997’s “Mrs. Brown” opposite Judi Dench.
He spent a year in America during the mid-90s and has said he doesn’t exactly have fond memories of the time — or any memories, for that matter. He was drinking heavily.
“I actually can’t remember those times so well,” Butler said. “Sometimes I would leave LA and wake up in Florida and think, ‘How did this happen?’ “
He claims to have quit drinking for good shortly thereafter — just as his workload was picking up. He played the title character in “Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000,” and later landed a role as another monster: the phantom in 2004’s cinematic adaptation of “The Phantom of the Opera.”
These days, Butler, who once screamed, “Prepare for glory!” in “300,” does seem to be enjoying himself. Last year during an MTV interview with Alexa Chung, the actor told the journalist she had “amazing eyes” and legs. When she asked if he’d had a threesome in the previous year, he replied, “The Butler did it,” followed by, “The Butler pretty much always does it.”
The actor also admitted to Australia’s Sunday Herald Sun last December, “I have a lot of things I like to do in my spare time, the same as everyone else. Working out, seeing my mates. But if I’m honest, my free time is for girls. And what a great way to spend your day!”
A partial accounting of Butler’s conquests includes Naomi Campbell (she sneaked into his LA mansion late at night wearing disguises in April 2007); Cameron Diaz (got close over dinner at Chateau Marmont in early April 2008); Cheryl Burke of “Dancing With the Stars” (took her to eat at LA’s Beso in April 2008); Shanna Moakler (spotted kissing at an LA Korean restaurant Oct. 13, 2008); Jessica Simpson (dined with her at New York’s Soho House on October 20, 2009); Lindsay Lohan (dirty danced with her at a party in Morocco last Halloween); and now, of course, Aniston. (On Thursday, Aniston denied she and Butler were an item. “They think that if you do a movie together and you get on really well you must be dating,” she told British TV show GMTV. “It has nothing backing it at all.”)
Butler, in the meantime, claims he’s slowing down — less out of willingness than caution.
“I think I get laid less now than I used to, because I’m way more paranoid now,” he says in the April issue of Men’s Journal. “Look at f – – – ing Tiger Woods. I mean, I’m nowhere near as naughty as I used to be, partly because I did a lot of that when I was drinking.”
But potential conquests shouldn’t completely lose hope. The Butler vows to keep doing it for years.
“I give myself another 25 to 30 years. Then I think it will be time to settle down,” he told TV’s Extra.
And by settling down, we’re guessing he mean 300 women a year, tops.
— Additional reporting by Emily Smith, Kathryn Knight and Alisa Wolfson