Celebrity exists beyond time and space limits

Brad Pitt, Jesse James in his latest film, is sure that being a celebrity in America today is not that much different than in the days of the legendary outlaw.

Photo: Celebrity exists beyond time and space limits

Pitt was at the Venice Film Festival to promote "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."

"People have asked me today about the celebrity angle," Pitt told Associated Press Television in an interview Monday in the lagoon city, "and certainly that's one aspect of the film, that's not the main focus of the film."

"But he (James) was one of America's biggest celebrities at that time, and the funny thing to me is that it doesn't seem that different today as it was then, in the sense that a lot of it was manufactured, a lot of it was sensationalized, very little of it was based on truth and even after his death, like we just saw with Anna Nicole Smith, the melee that ensues from it," Pitt mused.

Smith, a model and former Playboy Playmate, died in Florida in February at the age of 39, setting off a frenzy of media coverage.

Being a celebrity is "really quite similar, there's just more of it today," Pitt said.

Another top star, Charlize Theron also reflected on life as a celebrity while in Venice to promote "In the Valley of Elah," a film by Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis in which she co-stars with Tommy Lee Jones.

"We've gotten so used to seeing celebrities airbrushed on magazine covers, and we believe that's reality, and it really isn't," Theron told APTV. "It's not reality."

Asked how she deals with all those walks down the red carpets as paparazzi snap away, Theron recommended having a drink.

A "glass of champagne is always good right before" joining the celebrity parade, she said. "I don't know. I think my whole philosophy on all of that stuff is really to enjoy it, and I do that by traveling with people who I consider family and friends."