You've got to feel sorry for Robert Pattinson right about now. Not so much 'cause his girlfriend, Kristen Stewart, was steppin' out on him, though that can't be fun, but because the poor guy is in the middle of a media tour for his new movie Cosmopolis, and, of course, all anyone wants to know about is how he feeeeeeels. Jon Stewart commiserated with over him some soupy Ben & Jerry's. George Stephanopoulos tried to interest him in a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Seriously? Does everyone want RPattz to get fat or sumpthin'? But finally Rob had a chance to talk about his movie. With the New York Times! The Gray Lady is a smarty pants publication. Surely David Carr, its venerated media reporter, wouldn't bring up Rob's, uh, issues, would he? Errr. Well, he did. And he brought it one step further.

It all started during a TimesTalk interview with Rob and his director, David Cronenberg. These interviews are pretty highbrow, y'all. They're more likely to discuss the social ramifications of the mediafication of the obfuscation of the public's obsessification with celebritification than, say, whether or not Kristen and Rupert used tongue.

In fact, that's where the convo was -- into all that brainy 'fucation kinda stuff. For like, evvvverrrrrrr. I bet RPattz was relieved. He was all, Yay, no one's gonna ask me about that skank. But a discussion about the national obsession with celebrity elicited this remark from Rob:

I think it's because America really wants to have a royal family.

Interviewer David Carr saw the opportunity for a little jibe, so he said:

So if you and Kristen have trouble it's like Charles and Di having trouble?

Ooooh. Ouch. But no worries. The audience had Rob's back. They began booing and calling out, "Next question!" After a looooong and painful pause, Rob was like, "I wouldn't go that far." Then Carr was like, "I wasn't gonna go there." Oh, you men. If this was women we woulda gone there!

Anyway, David Carr was just doing what a reporter does. Askin'. Not to mention this was a more interesting topic than Cosmopolis. But isn't it sweet how the audience got all protective? They just wanted to hear about his movie and treat him like an artiste.

Now if only Rob hadn't worn that backwards white baseball cap.

Do you think reporters have a right to ask Rob about his private life? Here's the interview. The exchange comes in at 53:00.


Image via New York Times/Livestream