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Scarlett Johansson offers a measured response to Hollywood's gender pay gap

Also in Tattle: Charlize Theron, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Lady Gaga, Ice Cube, Anne Hathaway

WHEN ANSWERING questions about race,

religion or gender, a

little perspective is always a good thing.

In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Scarlett Johansson talked about why she doesn't like to discuss the gender pay gap in Hollywood.

"There's something icky about me having that conversation unless it applies to a greater whole," Johansson said. "I am very fortunate, I make a really good living, and I'm proud to be an actress who's making as much as many of my male peers at this stage . . . I think every woman has [been underpaid], but unless I'm addressing it as a larger problem, for me to talk about my own personal experience with it feels a little obnoxious. It's part of a larger conversation about feminism in general."

When you're an actress making a few million per movie, it's probably annoying when the actor performing with you makes a few million more, but at that level of compensation the pay gap is a philosophical argument.

The gender gap hits hardest in low-wage and middle-management jobs, where a difference of a few hundred dollars or few thousand dollars can mean an actual change in one's standard of living.

It's nice Scarlett realizes that.

* Then there's the kind of gender issue Charlize Theron has to deal with: She's too darn tall and too damn beautiful.

Tattle can relate.

In an interview with GQ magazine, Theron says: "We live in a society where women wilt and men age like fine wine. And, for a long time, women accepted it. We were waiting for society to change, but now we're taking leadership."

As for her own path in Hollywood, the actress says, "Jobs with real gravitas go to people that are physically right for them, and that's the end of the story. How many roles are out there for the gorgeous f---ing gown-wearing, 8-foot model? When meaty roles come through, I've been in the room, and pretty people get turned away first," she said.

The good news for Theron is that when there is a meaty role for a f---ing gown-wearing 8-foot model, she's the actress likely to get it. And when there's a less-meaty, high-paying role for a pretty person in a big popcorn movie, she's likely to get that one, too - if Scarlett Johansson doesn't.

Theron has signed on for a role in Fast & Furious 8.

Miranda writes

Composer and playwright and MacArthur Award winner

Lin-Manuel Miranda

has accepted one of the largest prizes given for the stage by celebrating immigrants, saying that his creation of the Broadway smash

Hamilton

was sparked by learning about Alexander Hamilton's overseas roots.

Miranda, who on Thursday was awarded the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, told of reading a biography of the first U.S. Treasury secretary by Ron Chernow and learning that he was born and raised in what was then the West Indies.

"I grew up in an immigrant neighborhood. We just knew the rule was you're going to have to work twice as hard," Miranda, whose family came from Puerto Rico to New York, said in his acceptance speech.

"When I found that out about Hamilton, I said, 'I know this guy. I know this guy and he's not going to let me go.' And he didn't let me go for seven years."

The prize, bestowed by Columbia University, was created to honor a new play or musical that explores the United States' past and deals with "great issues of our day." It comes with $100,000.

"We are all in awe," Edward M. Kennedy Jr., the son of the late senator, told Miranda. "You've made history come alive. And 'Hamilton' makes us all want to learn more about history."

Miranda said he hoped his work would inspire more: "History is so subjective. The teller of it determines it. I'm excited to see what stories come out of this and what comes next."

TATTBITS

*

Lady Gaga

was only 5 years old when she wrote her first song on an upright piano that her grandparents bought. Now the instrument that inspired the pop music sensation is going on the auction block at a pre-sale estimate of $100,000 to $200,000.

The piano is being offered at Julien's Auctions' "Music Icons" memorabilia sale at the Hard Rock Cafe New York on May 21. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the piano will benefit the Born This Way Foundation, launched by Gaga in 2012 to address issues of bullying, poor body image, and acceptance and tolerance.

Gaga's paternal grandparents purchased the piano for $780 in 1966 and later gave it to her parents. Little Stefani Germanotta began taking piano lessons when she was 4 and wrote her first composition, "Dollar Bills," a year later, a song inspired by Pink Floyd's "Money."

The auction also includes more than 85 Elvis Presley items, including a custom-made 1969 Gibson Dove guitar that Presley's father made for him.It's estimated to bring $200,000 to $300,000.

Memorabilia from singer-guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, Kurt Cobain, the Beatles, Johnny Cash, Michael Jackson and others also are part of the sale.

* According to an Ice Cube interview in the New York Times, N.W.A. will not perform at its induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. All surviving members are expected to attend the event.

* E! News reported "exclusively" that Anne Hathaway has given birth to a baby boy.

Anne and husband Adam Shulman welcomed Jonathan Rosebanks Shulman early on March 24 in L.A.

Tattle has no idea how the couple kept this secret for nearly two weeks, the National Enquirer's maternity-ward tipsters must be on strike, but congrats to them.

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

gensleh@phillynews.com

215-854-5678 @DNTattle