NEW YORK -- If you hold with the adage that wit is a sign of intellect, Jennifer Love Hewitt is one smart little girl.

The petite actress, known to the wide world for her role in TV's Party Of Five, is currently on the big screen as the star of Heartbreakers, a romantic comedy co-starring Sigourney Weaver. The two women play a mother/daughter team of con artists, with Ray Liotta and Gene Hackman as two of the nefarious men they fool. Jason Lee also stars as the man with whom Hewitt falls in love. Love? That's a definite no-no in the grifter game.

Sporting red hair for another role she's doing (The Devil And Daniel Webster -- "I get to seduce people, smash their souls," she chirps) -- Hewitt is about as animated as a person can be without actual lift-off.

Bright and cheerful, she talks first about Heartbreakers, saying that it was a bit intimidating to share the screen with an actress as experienced as Weaver.

"She could kick my butt," says Hewitt, her voice full of appreciation. "But it was such a chance to learn. She mommed me! Every day she told wardrobe to put more stuff on me."

Hewitt does wear teeny outfits in the movie, the better to seduce bad guys and then extort their money.

What about nudity -- would she do that for a film?

"No," says the actress. "I've been asked before. I don't really even like to look at myself naked. I'd shower in a bathing suit if I could," she says, laughing. "So I don't really want to share." Noting she'd never say never, Hewitt adds that maybe if the subject was someone ill, or maybe if it was a love scene, beautifully shot.

"With Johnny Depp. I'd be buck naked in two minutes. Just kidding, just kidding," she says, laughing again.

"Or Brad Pitt."

Hewitt, who is 22, has been acting and singing since childhood. She still lives at home with her mom. Lately, she has been working in New York, and confesses she has fallen in love with the city. She does say, however, that she wishes the tabloids had not made her the poster girl for dating during her time in Manhattan.

"Since I got here, I'm dating 45 guys," she drawls. "I try to brush it off. I think it's funny. After a while, you just have to stop defending yourself. You just have to live your life."

She gets recognized in New York, yes, but there's a catch:

"They think I'm J-Lo!" she says, with mock outrage. "People think I am Jennifer Lopez. I got into a cab the other day and the driver says to me, all serious, 'So how's the trial going?' I think what it is, they need to see her right now."

Hewitt is currently writing songs and working on a new album, but confesses she does not use a computer. She also says she's Internet challenged. She's aware there are sites about her, however. "My favourite is the boob site, JLHboobs," she says, deadpan. "People take pictures of me, and then they judge how 'they' look. So I try to make them look as nice as possible. It's sooo ridiculous."

For The Devil And Daniel Webster, which is being directed by Alec Baldwin, Hewitt stars opposite Anthony Hopkins.

"I cried the first time I had to work with him. I was like, 'I can't do it!' I told him, 'I'm terrified I'm gonna suck next to you,' and he said, 'You'll be great.' Later, someone told me he had said he'd learned a lot from me."

Switching quickly back into self-deprecating humour, she adds, "He probably learned the things not to do from me. Let's not talk about it!"