HE'S A REAL

September 12, 2006 -- 'I'M SURE happy about this award and the praise the movie has received, but I'm not now going to 'claw my way' back up to some position that people think I was at, or think I want to return to."
That's Ben Affleck, reflecting on his best actor win at the Venice Film Festival last week, for his performance as George Reeves, the tragic TV Superman in "Hollywoodland." Ben called from Los Angeles, fresh from Italy's ravishing city on the sea, and with sounds of his baby, Violet, and his wife, Jennifer Garner, in the background. Both were needing his attention for real things.

Much has been made of the irony of Affleck's role as the unhappy Reeves. Ben has had his share of trouble and media over-attention, but mostly - I think - he has struggled against Hollywood typecasting. He is more a "character" leading man than a spiffed-up action hero. So now he has played Reeves, who became a star for all the wrong reasons, or so he thought. Ben says, "If people want to read a lot into my choice, or call it a 'comeback,' that's OK with me. Now I try not to care so much about what 'they' think, or want to rail against assumptions, which are sometimes almost right, often very wrong. But it's easier for the press and the public to have one idea about a person. It's human nature to be interested in 'what the king is doing tonight.' The ancient Greeks gossiped! I get it.

"Aside from the script and the director, Allen Coulter, and the people I worked with, I was attracted to Reeves' story because it was, in a lot of ways, about being an actor, wanting to act, not having the opportunity. The terrible thing was that when he achieved the fame he'd dreamed of, he was not young anymore, and he found - surprise! - fame isn't enough. And he was ambitious back when people didn't conceal ambition. It was the American way, the Horatio Alger legend, fame was hard-earned. Today, nobody seems to want to admit to ambition, they just want to be famous.

"The movie itself is really about dissatisfaction with what one has. 'I know I'd be happier if I was this or that, had this or that.' So, everything about 'Hollywoodland' resonated with me in some way." (Adrien Brody plays the dissatisfied detective. Diane Lane appears as the dissatisfied wife of MGM's scandal-manager Eddie Mannix.)

Ben, whom I have never found less than charming, upfront, smart and cooperative, talked about how he has changed over the past couple years - a result of the films that didn't work, the relationship with Jennifer Lopez that the world presumptuously disapproved of, and now, marriage and parenting.

"I try to appreciate what a privileged life I have, and the great things about being in a business that doesn't encourage self-control, I'm more humble, less callous about certain things, but also not given to beating myself up so much. It took me a long time to grow up, find my center, evolve."

I stopped Ben, "How old are you?"

"Thirty-four."

"Ben, do you honestly think you could have been really centered in your 20s, with an Oscar in one hand and the world at your feet? You've actually gotten it together sooner than most."

He laughed, "You know, you're right, I guess. See, I still beat myself up a lot!"

Affleck is now editing "Gone, Baby Gone," his first feature film directorial effort. "I loved it! It was wonderful and terrible. One day I was sure I was a complete failure, the next I was thinking, 'OK, maybe this is pretty good.' It was the perfect bipolar professional experience."

Many people thought Ben - who can speak passionately on world issues - might even give up showbiz and go into politics. "Oh, it's not that I haven't thought about it. Not now, for sure, but you never know. But if I do, be prepared, I'm going to ask you to be on my team!"

Ben, I cast my ballot the first time we met.

'BRIAN HAS a lot more film of my backside somewhere, but he's not giving it up!"

That was Josh Hartnett, commenting at last week's L.A. premiere of "The Black Dahlia." Apparently, the Brian De Palma film is fairly discreet when it comes to Josh's love scenes with his "Dahlia" co-stars Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank. Well, we can always wait for the DVD director's cut, which usually features more of everything.

Those who have seen the film, based on one of the most infamous, and still unsolved crimes ever, say the violence - including shots of the dismembered body of aspiring actress Elizabeth Short - is disturbing. (Some would have preferred more gratuitous sex.) Both Scarlett and Hilary are reported as knockouts in their 1940s period clothes and makeup - Scarlett is a gangster's moll, Swank a rich nymphomaniac. And, like "Hollywoodland," the décor and atmosphere are drenched in despair and mystery.

At the premiere, it was noted that Scarlett and Josh - linked off-screen - seemed to keep their distance from each other. Has romance cooled? Or did they simply choose to avoid the red-carpet crawl, peppered with probing questions and requests for "just one more, holding hands!"

"The Black Dahlia" has a special screening this week in N.Y.C., a swanky affair hosted by the Cinema Society and Guerlain, at the Tribeca Grand Screening Room. Hilary Swank will preside.