At last night’s (oct. 1st) Soho House party for the launch of the movie tie-in edition of the book How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Kirsten Dunst cannily demonstrated the title of the film adaptation in which she co-stars. It started out amiably enough when we asked the obvious question: What’s the best way to lose friends and alienate people? “Be yourself and if people don’t like you, they lose, right?” she said, sounding every bit like the spunky cheerleader of Bring It On. Feeling emboldened, we brought it on and asked how she felt about her teeth being Photoshopped on this month’s cover of Harper’s Bazaar. “I haven’t heard about it,” she said. Holding up her blonde locks and preening for us close-mouthed, she asked, “What do you think? Photoshopped?” We admitted that we would have to see the cover again to jar our memory. “Well, you can’t speak before you have knowledge, darling. You’re a journalist. Are you just reading enough blogs to get you by?” She called us darling!

“I’ve had my teeth changed [on a magazine cover] before,” she continued. “I wasn’t a big fan of that.” But she didn’t call a publicist to complain. “I’m not that stressed out about that stuff.” We were getting pretty stressed out ourselves but had to ask the former child star what she thought of Dakota Fanning’s controversial role in Hounddog. Brilliant, Dunst said. But would she have gone to such a dark place (i.e., a rape scene) at such a young age? “Oh, I was in Interview With a Vampire. Did you ever see that one?” she asked, giggling. Well, yes, but — “Oh, so weird. I think this conversation is” — and then Dunst pinched her dainty hand into a shush signal, as when Dr. Evil quiets his minions. And with that we had newfound appreciation for the depths of her thespian skills. This was Method acting at its finest!