Gawker has declared Michael Pitt, the star of Bernardo Bertolucci's new film "The Dreamers," the "new vacuous 'It' boy."

"Vacuous" appears to be pretty accurate. The Dreamers premiered in New York on Tuesday and before the screening began, Pitt walked in with a hipster entourage, his ripped jeans and long stringy hair more suited to Burning Man than a Manhattan movie premiere. When people tried to talk to him, his eyes glazed over and he stared at some point over their heads and grinned. I remarked to a friend of mine that Pitt seemed either "really mellow or really stoned."

A few minutes later, Pitt and Bertolucci walked to the front of the theater to make a few opening remarks. Bertolucci handed the microphone to Pitt, who leaned over and tried to whisper "what do you say at these things?" Bertolucci quickly retrieved the microphone and made a few remarks, ending with "an orgasm is better than a bomb," which is what he reportedly said when he learned that the film received an NC-17 rating. He started to walk off, but Pitt grabbed the microphone and said, "Wait! There's one thing I want to say!" A startled Bertolucci stopped and waited. "I love you, maaaaaaaan!!" Pitt slurred, giving Bertolucci a big sloppy hug.

After the film, I asked Bertolucci if he thought Middle America had the stomach for an NC-17 film given the massive reaction to Janet Jackson's breast's recent SuperBowl appearance.

"Is that true or it has been magnified by the media?" he asked (possibly accusingly--I identified myself as a reporter) "Millions of middle American people were there watching the SuperBowl and suddenly for half a second they saw a woman's breast and they had a stroke? What is that?! I don't believe it! I think it's been created by the media, this thing! I don't think it's true!

"The ones who are shouting very loudly because they are super-religious or super-puritanical but they've always been, they will always be. who cares about that?," he continued. "I think that this case has been completely pumped by the media--Sorry, I'm talking to a media person!"

[Ed.—That's okay. I take full responsibility for Janet Jackson's nipple. Her career, on the other hand...]

"I just don't believe it. I don't believe that America has sold out. Maybe it was by mistake, who knows, they claim that they didn't want it to happen. So there is even the presumption of innocence. I don't know. Are we going back to the America with the witches over bonfires?"

[No, we're just making a strenuous effort to take all the sexiness out of sex by making it contrived and gaudy. And it's not difficult to do. Hair extensions, vinyl catsuits, and Justin Timberlake are, in aggregate, a pretty effective turn-off.]