Sideshow: Brad Pitt's an easy rider

"I've discovered I don't suck at being a dad," Brad Pitt says in a double-negative manner suggesting humility.

Pitt, 50, who won the best- picture Oscar as producer of 12 Years a Slave, tells Details mag that his six kids - Maddox, 13, Pax, 10, Zahara, 9, Shiloh, 8, and 6-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox - played an integral role in his recent wedding to their mom, Angelina Jolie.

Family, Pitt says, is a refuge from the public's ever-present gaze. "My soul was stolen by the camera so long ago, I don't have to think about it anymore," he says of being constantly hounded by the paparazzi. But Pitt also finds refuge from you and me in speedy solitude - riding his motorcycle.

"I try to carve out time for a solo ride in every country I travel to, from the Highlands of Scotland to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco to the belly of India," he said, rather poetically.

It's his calling! Neil Patrick Harris will host the Academy Awards on Feb. 22, sez Variety mag. It's his first time. He did the Tonys last year and has done the Emmys twice. For the EGOT (all four major awards shows), all he needs after the Oscars is the Grammys!

In a shocking revelation sure to rock Hollywood, Alias star Jennifer Garner, 42, says she used to streak - run around naked in public - during her days at Denison University in Ohio, where she belonged to the Pi Beta Phi sorority.

"I didn't drink. I was never a big party girl, but I streaked," Ben Affleck's wife tells Conan O'Brien. "I don't know why. . . . I just was in a naked frame of mind."

The Good Wife continues to hemorrhage actors. Josh Charles has left the show, and now comes word that Archie Panjabi, who plays kick-ya-in-the-face investigator Kalinda, also is leaving. . . . Jason Momoa, 35, will star in the titular role in Warner Bros.' adaptation of the DC Comics strip Aquaman, the studio says. It's due in 2018.

Don't ask Zach Galifianakis dumb questions. Asked if he's lost weight on the red carpet at the premiere of his hit Birdman, the now almost-svelte actor told E!'s Alicia Quarles, "No, I'm just . . . I'm dying."

Jimmy Fallon later asked him about his being asked, to which Zach replied, "I live for the carpet."

Speaking of all things Brad Pitt, ever wonder what it's like for lesser stars to work in the cold shade cast by the mighty megastar?

"We were all vying for his attention," Shia LaBeouf told Jimmy Kimmel about the scene on the set of their new movie Fury. All the young dude actors wanted Pitt's attention. "We all wanted him to like us - it's like having five dudes on a date with one girl. Everyone's really trying to get close, all the time." Turns out Shia's man-crush is, like, totally reciprocated! "Oh, I love this boy," Pitt told GQ of the Transformers star. "He's one of the best actors I've ever seen."

215-854-2736