Sideshow: Scarlett's view of 'Cat'

The obvious isn't always the obvious way to go when interpreting a role, movie star and stage sizzler

Scarlett Johansson

says in a chat about her starring role as the lustful Maggie in a Broadway revival of

Tennessee Williams

'

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

.

Scar-Jo, 28, who could be described as ridiculously sexy and stuff, is playing the role Elizabeth Taylor made famous in the '58 movie version costarring Paul Newman as her hub.

She tells USA Today that Maggie, whose husband is an alcoholic wastoid unable to appreciate her as husbands ought, has too often been played as sex-crazed tramp.

"I think it's best to ignore [Maggie's] sexuality, because it's already there in the play," says Scar-Jo, whose hub is played by Benjamin Walker. "I mean, she's in the Mississippi Delta, with all this humidity, and she's young and wearing a slip," as per the play's stage directions.

Maggie isn't defined by lust, says Scar-Jo, so much as by "her determination. She has this drive in her, this life force, that is at times almost biblical," says Scar-Jo. "I don't think about Maggie as coming from her loins. I think of her as coming from her gut."

The play is in previews at the Richard Rodgers for a Jan. 17 opening.

A former vintner and a former co-star, with ex-wife

Michaele

, on

The Real Housewives of D.C.

,

Tareq Salahi

has a most illustrious achievement in his career: In November '09, he and Michaele crashed a White House state dinner in honor of India's Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh

. Salahi has cashed in on his stunt with TV fame.

Now he wants to bleed his 15 minutes for the governor's mansion in Virginia.

TMZ says the Republican hopes to soak in vibes from President Obama's successful campaign by renting Obama's campaign tour bus for the race.

The bus is to bear this campaign slogan, TMZ has learned: "In It to Win It! Let's Crash the Party Lines."

The election will be on Nov. 5.