ROBERT DOWNEY JR. SHOWS OFF AT ‘THE BRAVE ONE’ PREMIERE

As flashbulbs pop, , , and step out for The Brave One premiere held at NYC’s Frederick P. Rose Hall.

“Big smile,” photogs taunt, looking for their next great shot. “To the right, to the right!”

Naveen Andrews cuddles with 21-years-his-senior sweetheart Barbara Hershey, who brings a few pals to the thriller about a woman’s quest for revenge after a violent attack.

Robert, who is supporting his movie producer wife Susan, captures the big moments from her festivities with his video camera, including his interviews. Why? He’s playing a journalist in Tropicana with . He’s excited about his upcoming film Iron Man, which might explain the pat-on-the-back he gives his co-star Terrence. (He tells me they’re like brothers!)

“We’ve got our new t-shirts online and there’s a lot of great reaction to it,” he says. “One of them said ‘Robert looks like he’s wearing more makeup than .’ I thought it was great because all I did was I got on a tanning bed once a week. There’s always gotta be one guy who goes ‘what’s wrong with this joker? Why’s he trying to jerk me off? He can’t play Iron Man!’”

Now that he’s taking on the comic book character, how does he feel about the comic book types approaching him? “I’m such a geek myself that it cancels each other out,” he says. “I have actually had nergasms – that’s when I’m like ‘dude, I can’t believe the artwork on this!’”

Robert Downey Jr. is awesome. Check us out in the .

Now, back to the movie at hand – Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard’s The Brave One, which opens September 14. Even though the movie publicist calls in advance to say Jodie and Terrence won’t do print interviews, The Brave One director Neil Jordan is happy to tell me about the big guns. “Jodie is tireless,” he tells me. “She can work for eighteen hours without a break and still give an amazing performance.”

What about Terrence? “I found it deeply refreshing working with Terrence,” Neil tells me. “He’s such a deeply emotional actor. Most men don’t allow themselves to be that – they have defenses. They want to portray strength. Terrence has an immediate emotional connection with any part he plays.”

Zoe Kravitz, the daughter of and Lisa Bonet, plays a teenage prostitute saved by Jodie’s chracter in the film. She also appeared with in No Reservations this summer. “It was amazing,” she says. “They’re such talented actors. I was really nervous, but they’re really sweet people and made me feel comfortable.”