ScarJo Gets PC on Porn

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—We're big fans and we realize it must be excruciating to have to answer the same silly questions all the time, but we kind of wish Scarlett Johansson would stop talking about porn altogether, because she's starting to sound a tad squishy on the subject. That said, we'd probably fall into the same trap, because no matter what you say about porn, the headlines are going to nail you, and that's especially true for the smoldering beauty who starred opposite Joseph Gordon Levitt in the porn-themed Don Jon.

As a result of her recent interview with Marie Claire, the headlines are screaming that Johansson is pro-porn, but the truth is actually grayer than that. In fact, the newly engaged actress has somehow found a comfortable politically-correct middle-ground on the subject that touches on all the right talking points, even deftly managing to square the objectification of women with the right of people to watch what they want to watch without being vilified for it—something we can't even achieve!

“I’m sure I should have some very well-developed view on [porn’s] effect on society, the ethics behind it and how it affects the kind of relationship between men and women and how it objectifies women. But I don’t really think about it," fessed-up the media savvy star. "I think porn, like anything else, can be enjoyed. It can be productive for both men and women.”

That last "productive" comment is what the media is focusing on, but ScarJo wasn't finished. "I think there still are a lot of people being objectified, a lot of people involved who don’t want to be," she continued, adding the requisite balancer, "But there’s a lot of porn being made for women, written by women. It’s great, it’s self expression, people should be free to watch it and make it."

As far as Gordon Levitt's porn-addicted character in the movie is concerned, she told the magazine, "If I found out my boyfriend watched that much porn, I would be totally flabbergasted, for sure," but she also mitigated the harshness of that comment with the rational observation, "Sex shouldn’t be depicted as something that’s so terrifying. And the access to it is scary and there are a lot of fetishes, but each to his own. I can’t judge porn.”

Johansson has always exuded intelligence, but we had no idea she could so diplomatically finesse a subject about which other stars react like deer in the headlights.

Image: Scarlett Johansson, courtesy of Marie Claire.