Brad Pitt thinks he's losing his looks.

You may disagree. You may not have noticed. But, at 43, Pitt has.

"One thing sucks" about hitting 40, he says. "Your face kind of goes. Your body's not quite working the same."

Watching "things fall apart," examining his hideous physique, Pitt is not displeased. He thinks to himself: "You earned it."

Despite his haggard visage, Pitt feels re-charged by his humanitarian crusades.

"[Before,] I carried the standard cynicism" about trying to save the world, he says in October's Details. But "[I felt] I can't sit on my couch anymore. … My life, it's very nice … but it's not doing it for me…

"I see, like, Bono, getting in there, rolling up his sleeves and getting dirty. And taking shots for it. But, man, he's doing something. And I see an old documentary of John Lennon railing about something. At least they're in the ring."

It's no coincidence that his conversion coincided with his falling in love with Angelina Jolie. "It's something that brought Angie and I together," he says.

He's aware that some people find the two of them "self-consciously pious," as interviewer Greg Williams puts it.

"I don't give a s— about that," says Pitt. "People have been saying crap about me for 15 years."

So he's pushing on with his Global Green competition to create energy-efficient homes for the Big Easy.

"The people of New Orleans have been failed on the federal level and the state level and the local level," he says.

Pitt doesn't do much to conceal his low opinion of Paris Hilton. "This Paris Hilton quest for fame … she's blissfully oblivious," he laughs, recalling how he and Jolie had been traveling for a month and turned on the TV. "And on comes Paris Hilton, going to jail. And so we just turned it off again."

He and Jolie are determined to have — or adopt — more children. "We're not done yet," he says.

He also vows to protect their brood from paparazzi.

"I don't want [my children] to be tensing up, and I don't want them to see or feel any kind of threat," he says. "When [photographers] cross the line, you know — if it happened to one of your kids, it's hard not to want to take them down."

In spite of his advanced age, he could probably do it.

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Paul McCartney and Renee Zellweger grow closer still. Having had dinner last week at Sag Harbor's American Hotel, the former Beatle and the Oscar winner looked "very cozy" at the party Jon Bon Jovi threw in East Hampton Saturday, a spy tells us. "They chatted through much of the evening and shared one of the outdoor day beds where people lounged on the lawn after dinner." Zellweger was also front and center when McCartney took the stage for an impromptu set with Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett and Roger Waters. But although Paul did ask the musical question, "Do you want to dance with me?" we're told he and Renee left separately.



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Bill Murray says he was just being a good "bus driver" when he was nailed by Stockholm police for allegedly driving a golf cart while soused. "The police assumed I was drunk, and I explained I was a golfer," Murray says. The actor had about six people in the cart and "dropped them off one at a time, and the last couple wished to be dropped off at a 7-Eleven ... I didn't even know they had 7-Elevens in Stockholm," Murray joked.



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Jerry Lewis had an Isaiah Washington moment on Monday — except his occurred on live national television.

His 42nd annual Labor Day Telethon raised almost $64 million for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

But in the 18th hour, he began some unfortunate banter with a camera operator.

"Your family has come to see you," he said, indicating the other cameras. "You remember Bart, your oldest son. Jesse, the illiterate fag."

Uh-oh.

After a critical response from the gay media watchdog GLAAD, Lewis apologized yesterday for his "bad choice of words."

"I apologize to anyone who was offended," he said, adding that he held "no prejudices in this regard." "I accept responsibility for what I said. There are no excuses."

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The California heat wave almost put a stop to Kate Walsh 's wedding on Saturday.

The "Grey's Anatomy" favorite had her reception at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa. But triple-digit temperatures proved too much for a local power transformer.

"They had so much stuff going on that they blew the power — everything is out," a guest e-mailed on Saturday afternoon. "Twenty-five percent of the town is without power."

Walsh married film executive Alex Young four months after they met. Guests included her "Grey's" co-stars Katherine Heigl, Sara Ramirez and Chandra Wilson, as well as Kate Beckinsale and her hubby, director Len Wiseman.

Adds the guest: "We found out later that the hotel used their emergency generator on the Walsh wedding, and that kept power out for the rest of the hotel, including another, noncelebrity wedding."

A spokeswoman for the hotel said power was restored to the entire hotel at the same time.

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NICOLE Kidman dropped a bombshell in Vanity Fair this month, claiming she was secretly engaged for a short time after her marriage to Tom Cruise and before she wed Keith Urban, to a man she refused to name. But our sources say he was Lenny Kravitz. "They were even house-hunting together for a while," a spy said. A representative for Kravitz said, "I cannot confirm or deny it." A rep for Kidman said, "I don't know."



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TATTOOED rocker Tommy Lee will hook up just about anywhere and with anyone. Lee's raunchy bar behavior grossed out a room full of revelers at Dune in the Hamptons on Sunday night when the Motley Crue drummer and a blond party girl "were flat-out [bleep]ing" on a banquette, according to multiple witnesses. One told us, "When Tommy walked in, he asked, 'Is it cool to have sex in here?' The hostess thought he was kidding, but . . . then he just went to town with this girl. We were trying not to pay attention because it was so disgusting." A rep for Lee told us, "this story is not true."

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DESPITE reports to the contrary, New York Rangers bad boy Sean Avery claims he dumped Elisha Cuthbert, not the other way around. Avery was bragging to pals about his conquests since leaving Cuthbert during the party for Amy Sacco at the LG Beach House in Malibu last weekend while playing beer pong and hitting on other blondes. Also at the party were billionaires Vivi Nevo, Meir Tepper and Russell Simmons.

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THE world's most unlikely womanizer has struck again. Zach Braff - who's locked lips with Drew Barrymore, Mandy Moore, Bonnie Somerville and scores of New York beauties - took "Roswell" star Shiri Appleby to the Four Seasons on Hawaii's Big Island over Labor Day weekend, where they were "making out all over the place." Our spy added, "She even got on top of him at one point. It was the middle of the day." A rep for Braff didn't return e-mails for comment. Also in Hawaii were Leonardo DiCaprio and Lukas Haas, who celebrated Tobey Maguire's marriage to Jen Meyer.

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ILLUSIONIST Criss Angel is a "press whore" who's just "using" Britney Spears to get more attention and fame for himself, friends of his say. Angel - who just signed a 10-year deal with the Luxor in Las Vegas that will net him almost $10 million a year - was "ecstatic" when his manager, Jeff Kwatinetz, asked him to meet with Spears, who was interested in using illusion in her VMA performance this Sunday. The two "hooked up the night they met" and Angel has been "using her to get press ever since," we're told. A Vegas spy said, "He doesn't even really talk to her when they go out. This weekend at [club] LAX, they weren't seated at the same table, but when the paparazzi were around he jumped in all the pictures. . . . The paparazzi all have his number." Meanwhile, some of the stories leaked to the tabloids about how Angel was orchestrating a big VMA number for Spears using mirrors are false. "She is just doing a straight-up performance of her new single, 'Gimme More,' " a spy said. Kwatinetz didn't return calls.

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NOTE to the faux-cialites: Oscar de la Renta doesn't want you at his Sept. 10 show. "None of the girls who just show up to places to get their pictures taken were invited," our insider said. "Oscar thinks they are tacky and is only interested in the women who actually support his work and, you know, buy the clothes." Another source said, "The list was cut in half - the new space for the show is on Park Avenue and there wasn't room to accommodate everyone." De la Renta's rep declined comment. But girls like Tinsley Mortimer and Olivia Palermo can take heart - there are plenty of opportunities to pose. The two, who didn't show up for the Designers for Darfur event last month when each found out the other was coming (a charge they deny), are both expected at W magazine's New York Affair event today. Watch those elbows! Meanwhile, Marc Jacobs has some veteran models in a furor. "Marc hired ['The Hills' star] Lauren Conrad to do his show, so now all the real models have to sign releases for TV if they want to be in his show - which of course they do," said our insider. "They are very put out that Marc succumbed to putting on one of 'those shows' - you know, the publicity shows."