Nicholson ‘can’t hit on a girl in public’ anymore

updated 11:36 a.m. ET Jan. 17, 2008

NEW YORK - Jack Nicholson, the legendary ladies’ man, says he’d like to fall in love again.

“I never minded being a fool for love,” the 70-year-old Oscar winner tells AARP The Magazine. “It’s nice to have a place to be foolish. Ask any old friend of mine, they’ll say, ‘Jack’s pretty smart, but in this area the man is beyond the pale. Don’t ask him anything about love. Or if you ask him, don’t listen to him.”’

Nicholson says getting older has changed the way he woos women.

“I can’t hit on a girl in public like I used to,” he says. “I never thought words like ‘undignified’ would come into my own reflections on myself, but I can’t do it anymore.”

Nicholson, whose past flames include Anjelica Huston and Lara Flynn Boyle, explains: “I feel uncomfortable. I don’t think anybody cares what I do in these areas, but it feels a little bit off to me.”

He says he’d date a woman close to his age — or younger.

Slideshow   Celebrity sightings Ginnifer Goodwin gets serious at the “Single Man” screening, Beyonce wows Berlin at MTV awards, Claire Danes is a BAFTA beauty and more. more photos

“In fact, every year I like to cover a very broad spectrum,” he says. “But you know? I’ve been single for quite a long time. I’ve been invested in my teenage children” with ex-girlfriend Rebecca Broussard. (He was married to Sandra Knight in the 1960s.)

Nicholson says nearly all his contemporaries tell him they want “that one last big romance.”

“I don’t do a lot of original screenwriting anymore, but if I were, I’d find a way to make this the dramatic narrative of a movie, because it’s one of those silent yearnings of my own age group,” he says.

Nicholson co-stars with Morgan Freeman in “The Bucket List,” about two terminally ill patients on a final fling. The film is the winner of “Best Buddy Movie” in AARP The Magazine’s Movies for Grownups awards, which will be presented Feb. 4 in Los Angeles.

Nicholson has received 12 Oscar nominations, winning for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Terms of Endearment” and “As Good as it Gets.”

The March/April issue of the magazine will be available the week of Jan. 24.

MORE FROM CELEBRITIES

Celebrities Section Front

J.Lo’s ex blocked from selling alleged sex tape Joe Jackson accuses estate lawyers of fraud Mutual of Omaha settles suit against Winfrey Lawyer: Woods’ brother did not get proper care Justin Timberlake granted restraining order Mayer chimes in on Britney lip-sync hubbub Tiffani Thiessen expecting first baby in May Mel Gibson on diaper duty with new baby Katt Williams arrested on burglary charge Rachael Ray helps reeling Ohio town Celebrities Section Front   Add Celebrities headlines to your news reader: